Lecture
Watch time: 35 minutes
Summary
Dr. Celeste Pang (Mount Royal University, QriTical research hub lead) and Kayde DePestel (recent Mount Royal University graduate and QriTical researcher) examine Alberta's Fairness and Safety in Sport Act, passed as Bill 29. Drawing on interviews with 18 trans, nonbinary, and gender-diverse athletes and one caregiver, they share how the law has chilled participation and raised fear, and why visible allyship matters.
Why This Matters
Bill 29 is already changing how trans, nonbinary, and gender-diverse athletes experience sport in Alberta.
- It reaches schools, universities, and sport groups, including youth 12 and older.
- Fear and surveillance are pushing athletes out of sport, even in recreational leagues.
Bill 29 rests on the myth that trans women have a biological advantage, and it continues a long racist and misogynistic history of policing women's bodies in sport.
Based on the TransAthletics findings, clear and visible support from leagues, coaches, and teammates makes sport safer for trans, nonbinary, and gender-diverse athletes.
Anyone can help by learning the facts and countering misinformation, so trans athletes do not have to carry the work of educating others.
Key Concepts
Fairness and Safety in Sport Act: Alberta's law (Bill 29, in force September 2025) that limits girls' and women's divisions and makes schools and sport groups write and enforce their own eligibility rules.
Eligibility challenge: A complaint that an athlete should not play on a girls' or women's team. Who can file one depends on each organization's policy.
Visible allyship: Open, explicit support for trans athletes, like a league email or a "support trans kids" shirt. Participants said following the law does not have to mean accepting it.
References
The Sports Issue: An Introduction (TSQ, 2023)
Jones and Travers introduce TSQ's special issue on trans people in sport. Pang recommends every article in the issue.
Tested (podcast)
CBC and NPR podcast on the history of sex testing in women's sports, which Pang calls an accessible place to start.
Transgender Women Athletes and Elite Sport: A Scientific Review (CCES, 2022)
Canadian review finding the evidence does not support bans on trans women athletes.
The Other Olympians (Waters, 2024)
History of trans and intersex athletes and how sport came to police sex categories.
QriTical: queer + trans research hub
Pang's research hub at Mount Royal University. Its newsletter shares the team's publications.
Celeste Pang
Speaker's website.
About the Speakers
Kayde DePestel is a recent graduate of Mount Royal University and is a Research Assistant on the TransAthletics study.
Celeste Pang is a 2S/LGBTQ+ Health Hub co-investigator and mentor.