All transgender hockey teams take the ice in Wisconsin

Two years after 16 hockey players joined forces in Boston to become the first fully transgender sports team in the United States, Team Trans a growing number of beginners to advanced players gathered last weekend at the Capitol Ice Arena in Middleton, Wisconsin to host Madison Gay Hockey Association in the weekend friendship series.

After the success of its first friendship against the series Boston Pride hockey, The LGBTQ hockey team that was established in 1989, Team Trans became interested in other trans and non-binary hockey players around the world. And while the Covid-19 pandemic knocked out previous meeting plans, both players and organizers wanted to bring the event to the Madison area, where there are already a lot of LGBTQ hockey players. In a lively two-day tournament, Team Trans, divided into three teams based on skill level, advanced unbeaten in six games against Madison’s team.

When the first Team Trans stepped out of the ice into the locker room two years ago, players said they could notice that something was different. Although many of them had played in the LGBTQ leagues, they were often the only transplayers on their team and they struggled to find a community of trans athletes to talk to. But for one weekend, these players were able to combine a shared love for the sport and an understanding of their personal struggles with gender identity.

I constantly meet people I have barely spoken to or haven’t spoken to directly, and I feel like I already know them in some way, due to the shared experiences we have on the hockey fields. Mason LeFebvre, Team Trans’s goalkeeper and outside transmies, told NBC News. It’s just casual and comfortable from the start. They weren’t going to ask each other embarrassing questions that other people could ask if they knew they were trans. Then we talk about other things that would be completely off the table in conversations, mostly with cis[gender] people.

Avery Cordingley, who plays downtown and uses gender – neutral pronouns, shared a similar view.

It feels like you don’t have to overcome awkward obstacles before you can just be in one state, they said. Last night I picked up a player from the airport at 11am and chatted right away. We both have experience like: Will we be able to continue playing hockey if we decide to move on? And we didn’t even have to go into it. It was just that yeah, I’ve been playing hockey here and here.

LeFebvre and Cordingley, who both played hockey as they grew up before moving on and now compete as teammates on Team Trans, always had an innate need to prove themselves consistently in a male-dominated sport.

But it has an extra layer when you’re also a trans, especially if you know it at that age, LeFebvre said. It’s especially uncomfortable because you belong in the boys ’locker room, but they don’t see it.

Cordingley said it’s even more inconvenient if you don’t have the language to express what you’re going through.

Because you don’t know why you’re hurt, you don’t know why it hurts that you won’t be let in, they explained. To me, it’s like getting off the ice and your teammates going in one direction, and you’re just alone in the room alone the other way around. Its alienation, the difference makes you feel like you don’t belong there, even if you love sports and just want to play.

By Movement promotion project, a non-profit incubator, 10 states have recently passed laws banning transgender youth from participating in school sports based on their gender identity, and supporters argue that this legislation is designed to keep all athletes equal. LeFebvre and Cordingley have weighed the consequences of moving to their own future in hockey, saying that getting to know a trans- or non-binary athlete is the first step in understanding the disadvantages of these policies.

We should look at them as someone with the same desires and needs as their own children and friends, Cordingley said. It doesn’t matter what your gender identity is. Everyone wants that team, everyone wants to feel part of it, everyone wants to play a game that brings them joy. did not blow the competition away; were very average. They should only understand that trans-athletes are ordinary athletes and that trans-athletes can be very good in their sport, but so can cisgender athletes.

LeFebvre said proponents of a ban on trans-sports just need to look at the performance of trans-athletes and understand that they are just athletes who happen to be trans.

It really has nothing to do with trance, it has to do with dedication. Some of it is natural talent, but much of it is hard work and dedication, just like anyone else, he said.

Last month, the Premier Hockey Federation, formerly known as the National Womens Hockey League, released a new one inclusion policy which has been developed in collaboration Athlete ally, the non-profit LGBTQ Sports Promotion Group and Chris Mosier, a transgender triathlete. The policy itself provides a conduit for both trans and non-binary athletes to participate in the alliance.

Although they both think the union has taken a step in the right direction, LeFebvre and Cordingley agreed that measuring the effectiveness of a policy is difficult before it is put into practice and updated in less ambiguous language.

You could get a hormone release so someone like me or Avery could theoretically play in the league, but what does the release require? LeFebvre said. Maybe it makes perfect sense, maybe not. We don’t know because it’s not accurate, and it can only be due in part to the fact that you can’t be very accurate on an individual basis. But also, if they just use its vagueness to not write exceptions, that’s obviously not great.

But so far, LeFebvre and Cordingley have turned their attention to the future of Team Trans, which has attracted hockey players from all over the United States, Canada and Japan. As a group, they hope to host a series of friendships each year and travel to some LGBTQ tournaments that show transgender athletes of all ages, but especially the younger generations, that their dreams are not only valid but also possible.

We weren’t going anywhere, and we love the game like everyone else, Cordingley said. We all have a place in the game, and the game is stronger because of the differences.

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