Caster Semenya - She is a black intersex lesbian woman who is a world olympic champion and has two Olympic gold medals, three World Championships in the women's 800 metres and a bronze medal in the women’s 1500 metres. She is black empowerment. She is black excellence. She is a role model to many individuals around her. She is an athlete - she is our superhero.
Caster Semenya is an Intersex woman - so what does this mean? According to Medical News Today an intersex person is someone who may have both male and female sex characteristics. These characteristics include hormones, genitalia, chromosomes, and reproductive organs. It is important to note that being intersex is not a disease. It is a naturally occurring variation in humans that does not affect an infant’s physical health. There are many ways that a person can be intersex - there are at least 40 different intersex variations.
Some intersex traits may be visible at birth, while others may not appear until the person reaches puberty. In some cases, a person may never know that they are intersex. According to some estimates, up to 1.7% of the population has intersex traits. This is comparable with the number of people who have red hair.
Despite Caster being our superhero - she hasn't been treated well - she has been banned from participating in the olympics because she is an intersex woman. In 2019 the international athletics’ highest court ruled against Semenya to run in the olympics as they believed that due to her being intersex she has higher testostorone levels. Per their controversial decision — which the court openly acknowledged as discriminatory — This decision now pertains to all female athletes with higher testosterone levels in which female athletes must take hormone suppressants to compete in certain women’s races. This means Semenya has been forced to take the suppressants, or she’ll be barred from competing in 800-meter races at the Olympics and other major international competitions. This decision is both racist and sexist, as well as contradictory as other male athletes such as Micheal Phelps (olympic swimmer) produces an exceptionally low amount of fatigue-inducing lactic acid when compared with those of his competitors.
Semenya has refused to abide by the court’s testosterone regulations. Caster then took the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, however the Swiss supreme court dismissed her appeal. In February 2021, Caster filed an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, for the right to run in the 800 meter at the Tokyo Olympics. Semenya's latest appeal against World Athletics banning her from competing probably won't be heard in time for the Tokyo Olympics - which means she most likely won’t compete. The court has stated that “such discrimination is a necessary, reasonable and proportionate means of achieving the IAAF’s aim of preserving the integrity of female athletics in the Restricted Events.”
From a recent interview with Caster, the interviewer asks: Why is your case a human-rights case?
Caster replies, “I’m a woman; you’re telling me that I’m not a woman. You want to stop me from being me. You want to change me. It’s wrong. I was born the way I am. I cannot change. It just must get into their head that I’m never going to change for them.”
This is a human rights violation and #IstandwithCaster
All information has been sourced from the following articles:
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