RegattaCentral

2024 Gender Policy

The event list for Stonewall XXX is being redesigned to reflect DC Strokes Gender Inclusion Policy. Ensuring that our programs and regatta are welcoming to all individuals is a core value of our organization, and DC Strokes Rowing is proud to serve, encourage, and promote the accomplishments of all athletes! We welcome entries from and/or inclusive of athletes of all gender identities and gender expression.  

First, Stonewall Regatta will offer a new non-binary rower racing category for 1x, 2x/2-, and 4+/4- boats.  Second, mixed gender category masters races will operate under a policy specific to Stonewall Regatta that takes USRowing's gender policy and expands it to make it more inclusive, as described below. 

Stonewall Regatta Policy for Mixed Gender Race Category Eligibility:  USRowing's policy is that for a master's mixed event, "boat entries in this category must consist of 50% athletes of any gender and 50% athletes assigned as female at birth."  Stonewall Regatta's policy is "boat entries in this category can contain EITHER 50% athletes of any gender and 50% athletes assigned female at birth OR 100% athletes of any gender, as long as (1) they are not all the same gender, and (2) each athlete is competing consistent with their other events at Stonewall XXX, whether that be as their USRowing-identified gender or the gender category that aligns with their sex assigned at birth. Heats will be grouped according to similar entries. This regatta is still a US Rowing sanctioned regatta, and we have worked with US Rowing to pilot this more inclusive approach to events. It may not be perfect, but it is a first step toward increased inclusivity and affirmation.

Why do we have this policy? 

The spirit of this policy is to ensure the inclusion of trans and nonbinary rowers at Stonewall 30 without any ambiguity or scrutiny on their part. We recognize there are a number of factors that contribute to an athlete's ability, stamina, and skill that go beyond gender, particularly in the masters rowing community.  We recognize someone's self-stated identity is not dependent on whether they have taken any medical steps to align their bodies and hormonal milieus with their identity. Stonewall Regatta was founded first and foremost to make a space for rowers to be able to compete as their authentic selves, at a time when being openly queer still frequently risked personal safety, employment, family ties, and societal acceptance. In that vein, DC Strokes'  gender inclusion policy is focused on maximal inclusiveness and affirmation for our trans and nonbinary siblings. Since DC Strokes' founding in 1991 and Stonewall Regatta's founding in 1994, huge strides have been made for lesbian, gay, and bisexual people to be able to openly compete in sports. It is now our job to ensure that we work to extend that same freedom to trans and nonbinary athletes. 

If you have questions or concerns about this policy or how it is being implemented; or you are uncertain how to apply the policy to your planned entries or if you have correctly done so; etc., please feel free to contact Stonewall Regatta Director Christina Dragon at [email protected] for assistance.  

Here is a short primer on common terms related to sex and gender, if you are not familiar:

Cisgender - A person whose gender identity aligns with the social, cultural, and biological attributes typically assigned to their sex assigned at birth. 

Gender - Links gender identity, which is a core element of a person’s individual identity; gender expression, which is how a person signals their gender to others through their behavior and appearance (such as hair style and clothing); and cultural expectations about social status, characteristics, and behavior that are associated with sex traits.

Gender identity - A person's internal sense of their gender. This might be in alignment along the woman to man binary, or may reject the binary categories, or may reject the notion of gender all together.

Genderqueer -  An identity term that encompasses a gender that is not within the traditional gender binary but also not necessarily rejecting the binary. Other similar terms might include gender fluid or nonbinary. 

Nonbinary -  An identity term used by those who do not identify as a woman or a man, or whose gender identity may be somewhere on a spectrum. A nonbinary person may choose to use third gender pronouns like they/them, and may think of themselves as living between or outside of binary genders or as neither male or female. 

Sex assigned at birth - The, typically binary, assignment of male or female to a baby based on observable external anatomy, chromosomes, and gonads. 

Transgender - An umbrella term for those who do not identify with the gender that traditionally corresponds to their sex assigned at birth. 

Source: https://www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/measuring-sex-gender-identity-and-sexual-orientation-for-the-national-institutes-of-health#sectionPublications