Transgender beach volleyball player Carol Lissarassa made headlines in 2017 when she partnered up with Olympic Bronze medalist Juliana Silva in an exhibition tournament. Since then, the continued playing in female tournaments, until this weekend, when she was prevented from taking part in a stage of Brazil’s Sesc Summer tournament among the women, and had to play with the men instead. This is the same tournament where Carol, playing alongside the women, was a silver medalist last season.
Globoesporte.com contacted the Brazilian Volleyball Federation (CBV) on the matter. CBV stated that the tournament in question is not organized by the institution, but that if it was, it would have to follow current IOC headlines regarding transgender athlete participation in the sport, and thus Carol would have to be allowed to play. Sesc was also questioned by the website, and replied that Carol’s documents were not thoroughly examined in the stages she participated, thus her participation was a mistake.
Here is Carol’s reaction to what happened:
“I was outraged by the competition’s organization, because last year I played a stage of the Sesc Circuit and I was a runner-up. The document that I presented is the same one I used in all the women’s competitions I have competed in to date, which is my provisional ID, as Carolinna Lissarassa, linked to the same ID number of my baptism name. I always played with this document and I never had any resistance. For me, it was an act of discrimination. Last year I played and went to the podium. This year, after all the stories that came out, I think I’m being persecuted (NOTE: Carol is probably referring to Tifanny Abreu, the first transgender woman to play in Brazil’s female Superliga).
The argument that Sesc’s staff gave was that my civil registry, that is, my birth certificate, is still computed as male. I’m in the process of changing my name and sex in court, but I already have my provisional ID with the name Carolina Lissarassa, linked to my ID with my birth name. My question is: why last year, when it was the same situation, I was able to play? In fact, I was runner-up. This year I was banned. It is an act of discrimination and prejudice.
The day before the competition they contacted to say that my documentation was not valid to play with the females. My partner and I were banned out of nowhere. My partner was also harmed because she could not play any other stage. She’s out of the state champioship now, so it was not just me that lost with this clownery.
I decided to play this edition with the men to combat discrimination and to show that, regardless of male or female, I have talent and I will not stop. If the act of forbidding me to play with women was was intended in making me not play at all, they failed. We lost two games only. In the semis, we lost to the runner ups in the tie-break.”
Likewise, here is what SESC’s press office had to say on the matter:
“Our regulation of the summer circuit provides for the presentation of specific documents. It is from this documentation that we will assess a category to the athletes. In Carol’s case, she still does not have the female documentation, as all her IDs are connected to the male gender. She is in the process of transition, and thus could only participate in the event in the men’s category, which she chose to do.”
We will wait on further developments of the story to bring our reader updates on the matter.
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