Renee

ESPN has been airing documentaries every Tuesday night at 8 PM and last week's documentary was on Steve Bartman's infamous fan interference in the Chicago Cubs playoff run which I blogged about last week, but this past documentary on October 4th was very interesting. It was about this man named Richard Raskind, who had felt trapped inside his body. Raskind was a very good amateur tennis player and a highly respected ophthalmologist (eye doctor), but having this was not enough for him. Raskind was a woman trapped in a man's body. Richard was not pleased with his appearance and started to under go hormone treatment and become a female. After the transformation was complete Richard, who changed his name to Renee Richards, up and left his family in New York and moved to live in seclusion in California.

Renee could not stay away from the tennis court after moving to California. With lack of better judgement she started to compete in amateur tennis matches in California. Word quickly spread around the country saying that Renee used to be a man. Tennis players began to drop out of tennis matches Renee competed in because they did not what to play against a transsexual. In 1976 Renee was banned access to the US Open that year by the United States Tennis Association. She took her ban to the US Supreme Court and it was overturned in 1976. This was the stepping stone for transsexual rights in any way. When Renee started to compete nationally she was in her 40's and did not win any titles, not because of her play but of her age.

Witnessing this emotional documentary made me realize that if one changes their sexuality and competes in a sport they should not be banned from that sport. The individual who goes through this transformation should be considered by their new sex not old. Everyone can learn from this documentary and become a better person from it. 

*http://espn.go.com/new-york/story/_/id/7057906/30-30-renee-richards-new-york-original