Lesbian Swimmer Diana Nyad Reverses Stance on Trans Athletes

Diana Nyad, famous lesbian long-distance swimmer and subject of a recent Netflix biopic, previously wrote an article speaking against trans women in sports. Now she’s had a change of heart.

Nyad, who is a lesbian, is a long-distance swimmer who gained fame for her record-setting feats of endurance. Most famously, in 2013, she successfully crossed the Florida Straits from Cuba to Florida—a distance of over 110 miles—without the use of a shark cage. This feat was commemorated earlier this year in Netflix’s biopic Nyad starring Annette Bening and Jodie Foster.

Back in February of 2022, Nyad published a controversial opinion piece in the Washington Post on the subject of transgender athletes. In the article, titled “Celebrate trans athletes. But give cisgender women a fair shot at victory,” she says that while she considers trans women to truly be women, the “male puberty” they experienced created “too great (a disparity) for true equal performance potential.” This belief, which is fairly common among protestors against trans athletes, holds no scientific basis. In fact, studies indicate that trans women undergoing hormone therapy have zero athletic or physical advantage as compared to cis women.

At the time of her op-ed, Nyad was an active member of an anti-trans sports lobbyist group—just one out of dozens of adversaries to trans inclusivity which have cropped up in recent years. In just the past year alone, countless policies across the globe have attempted to prevent trans athletes, and especially trans women, from competing at the same level as their peers. Some organizations and governments have outright banned transgender people from competing, while others have opted to create “open categories” specifically to segregate transgender and intersex athletes.

Just recently, however, it seems that Nyad has changed her mind. She was included in this year’s Out 100 honors, a list of Out magazine’s top 100 most influential LGBTQ+ people. In a statement to the magazine, she acknowledged the complexity of the science behind trans athletics and sports, saying, “I regret weighing in on that conversation and any harm I may have caused.” She continues, “Trans women athletes deserve our utmost respect. I stand with them in the world of sports and in the fight for full equality for all trans people. We are all sisters and siblings under the blue sky, and we should all have equal opportunities to play the sports we choose, the sports we love.”

Photo courtesy of Artem Verbo