the power of ironman & idaho's true colors
As a quick bring everyone up to speed, if you didn’t know, I’ve been dedicating my season racing in cities and states that are either not trans friendly or have implemented laws banning female trans kids from competing in sports.
Also, I’ve rewritten this post about a dozen times trying to adequately express what has been swirling in my head on this post’s topic. It’ll probably be a difficult read … a brief glimpse of the chaos of what a traumatic brain injury can truly have on someone’s cognitive ability. It’s really frustrating at times, but I don’t want to keep sitting on this topic until my brain can get over the chaos.
Idaho is one of the leading states to enact anti-trans (women) legislation. Banning female trans kids from competing in women’s sports, denying trans people access to trans healthcare like hormone replacement therapy and surgeries, just to list a few.
Now that I’ve raced both an Ironman and a locally organized triathlon in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, I can see how the spectacle Ironman has over the host cities and not necessarily in a positive way. Ironman draws people from all over the world, bringing different cultures, ideals, etc… to the host locations that quickly overshadows and hides the true colors of this host cities/states culture, ideals, and political stance. I experienced it firsthand.
Again, Idaho is a very anti-trans state, and I’m an openly proud trans woman. When I went to Ironman CDA, I went with a purpose to send a message and protest the states attacks on trans kids and trans women, but with the mass influx of outsiders Ironman brings to the area made sending that message more difficult. At least in CDA, locals tend to flee the city during the event, be that to capitalize on Airbnb-ing their house, dealing with road closures, or just not wanting to deal with outsiders. It’s pretty well known that the majority of CDA’s population absolutely hates outsiders coming to their town, like with a passion. So, my message was really only being delivered to visitors; not necessarily the target audience I’m looking for. But these visitors don’t see the actual issues like discrimination and hate, even though I still encountered hate but was outside of the core Ironman location.
Fast forward to the stark contract at a locally run triathlon I competed in. The might of Ironman and the outsider influence was gone. This was when the true colors came out. I was not liked or welcomed leading up to and after the finish line while holding my trans pride flag. I could feel it in the air, I could see it in people’s faces and body language. I could see the stares of disgust. At the end of that race and the time I spent in town directly afterwards I was very nervous and scared. Barely getting out of the downtown park where the race ended, still holding my flag and just walking by a group of very open and proud Trump supports became incredibly aggressive towards me, spewing hate, expletives, giving me the middle finger. Even walking into a local restaurant, I could feel how unwelcome I was from the person taking our food order, not even acknowledging my presence and really only engaging with my partner. It impacted me enough that I just told my partner what I wanted and went to sit at a table.
Gone was the subtle, under the breath show of support I received at Ironman. After this second race in CDA I actually felt lied to because of the power Ironman can have over a city, even though the organization itself doesn’t have the best track record of equality or inclusion. People don’t see the locals’ true colors and I ultimately think that’s a big problem that I’m not sure Ironman has any desire to tackle. Obviously, this isn’t just an Ironman problem, all major sporting events - Olympics, the World Cup, etc… - hide the true issues in their host cities. I believe Ironman is still not bloated enough like the Olympics as an example that it can make more of an effort in promoting diversity, inclusion, anti-hate/discrimination in their marketing, signage, local coverage, and announcements. All things that can easily be implemented and communicated. But they don’t, at least at this specific Ironman event and that’s really disappointing.
What is clear is the trans community has a lot of work to do in the state of Idaho and sadly a lot of that work needs to come from the people living in the state. Sure, I can travel over there and represent the community via visibility and conversation and hope to change people’s minds and potentially spark change. But, I’m unable to speak with a vote. The only way to truly change things in Idaho is to vote out the people who are creating these anti-trans bills and laws and vote in people who support our community and the LGBTQ+ community in general to reverse the current anti-trans laws. The power of voting can and will spark change.
Even this will be a difficult challenge. While I was there, I decided to join a known mobile app that is heavily used by trans women and CIS men to connect to gauge the number of trans women in CDA and kind of poll the men you happened to like/connect/message me and ask who they voted for governor during the last election since they are showing legitimate interest in trans women. I just wanted to get a general vibe and I was kind of shocked at the results. Yes, I’m aware that it’s a small sample size and very quick and dirty, so you’re welcome to take what I found with a grain of salt.
I filtered the list of profiles to only show trans women and I was shocked that there wasn’t any in the CDA area and a less than a handful in Idaho in general. Part of me was surprised but part of me wasn’t either, I know a lot of trans women in Idaho are stealth (stealth meaning a trans woman doesn’t share that they are trans). Pretty much the majority were located in eastern Washington and Oregon. But really, we kind of know the trans community is very small in this state and I’m sure got even smaller when all the anti-trans bills went into effect, like blocking access to trans healthcare.
Now with regards to my interaction with local CIS men. I received hundreds of messages from CIS men expressing interest in wanting to have some level of connection with me. Of course, I asked all of them if they wanted to participate in my little study and surprisingly all of them agreed, so I asked who they voted for in the last governor election. Every response I received said they didn’t vote. I’m not sure to be surprised by this or not, but it was alarming. This makes me wonder how many people there are that have a higher chance of people allies that aren’t voting! What would have happened if these people had voted in that last election, it could have gone the other way! I even had people say they didn’t vote and that they dislike the current governor and disagree with what he’s been doing to the trans community. The only thing I could think of doing was to encourage them to vote in the next election, reach out to the governor’s office and voice their concerns and opinions, and to just do something about it. I honestly believe that message fell on deaf ears, but maybe some of the guys took that message and will take action, I don’t know.
The whole experience only solidifies the fact that our community has a long battle in the state of Idaho and I hope the allies in Idaho vote.