South African runner Caster Semenya has been making headlines after embarrassingly being forced to prove her gender by taking a test. Well, the test results are in, and they've shown that Semenya has internal testes with no uterus or ovaries. In other words, the star athlete is actually intersex.
The International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) is allegedly considering taking back her 800m world championships gold medal. Apparently, they're also expected to "advise her to have surgery to fix the potentially deadly condition". I know I'm echoing Pam Spaulding's commentary, but since when was being born a certain way considered fatal?
I personally think it's ridiculous that an intersex individual could be banned from competing solely because they don't fall into traditional gender identities. Semenya appears to identify as female, and even if she chose not to identify with either gender… there's absolutely no denying that she's an outstanding athlete. She deserves the right to compete!
When asked about the controversy in YOU magazine, Semenya elegantly stated, "God made me the way I am and I accept myself. I am who I am and I'm proud of myself. I don't want to talk about the tests. I'm not even thinking about them." Honestly, she shouldn't have to talk about the tests, because they really shouldn't have happened in the first place.
UPDATE: There has been some denial regarding the truth of these reports. More details as soon as we have them.
- Dewitt








