Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Why don't Renee Richards' tennis wins have an asterisk after them?

Renee Richards was a tennis star in the late 70s and early 80s who was born a man (Richard Raskind), but had gender reassignment to become a woman. After the surgery, Renee was allowed to compete against women, and she had several victories over women. However, there is no asterisk next to her wins against women despite the obvious unfair advantage Renee had having the genetics of an athletic man. When male athletes use steroids, they get an asterisk next to their names, but a man who gets a gender reassignment surgery is given credit for defeating women as though he were actually born a woman? What gives?

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