Silent No More

I’ve always loved the Olympics. I love the competition, the emotion, the memes, the people who become viral sensations overnight. But as a writer, I love the stories most. Simone Biles, I mean, c’mon, who doesn’t love her story? Or Noah Lyles? Or a hundred others?

Everyone has a story. I do, you do, your neighbor, your friend, the person you bump into at the grocery store. Yet I still get so frustrated by the way certain people can be portrayed. 

Imane Khelif is sure to be a name remembered for a long time. She’s an Algerian boxer who hit the internet waves when Italian boxer Angela Carini tapped out on their match after less than a minute. Shortly after, a maelstrom of speculations and accusations were hurled at Khelif, claiming she was a man, and therefore shouldn’t have been competing against a woman. 

Khelif is a woman. She was born a woman, labeled a woman, has a vagina (I can’t even believe that this has to be proven) and also happens to have a disorder called DSD, or “Differences in Sex Development.” Sometimes referred to as being intersex, this rare medical condition can mean one of several things. Usually, it involves people who are born with external genitalia not matching internal organs (for example, having a penis but also a uterus), and involves complicated hormonal imbalances. Khelif was disqualified from the 2023 World Championship by the International Boxing Association for having testosterone levels that were supposedly “too high”. An Association that has been found to have very, very dubious ties and, shall we say, unspecified ways of testing eligibility. 

Khelif is not the only female athlete to come under scrutiny for either looking too much like a man, or acting too much like a man, or, you know, not being feminine enough (whatever that means). Brittany Griner, among others, has faced similar backlash. It’s so unfair, that these women are so, so masculine. It gives them an unfair advantage! They are too tall! Too strong! Too… insert whatever typically-masculine trait you want. 

This controversy has hit me from several different angles. I’m a woman (shocker). I love sports and have coached, played, or reffed basketball for the past thirty years. I’m a nurse. I’m a Christian. And it has broken my heart to see how a woman who has worked most of her life to become the athlete she is today be slaughtered on the sacrificial altar of conservative Christianity. 

First, as a woman, every part of me wants to defend her. Our culture already makes being a woman difficult. We already have so many battles to fight. I’ve seen her called disgusting, an aberration, and have seen people refer to her as a “he” and called transgender. Using the wrong pronoun or being misgendered might not seem like a big deal to some people, but I can imagine how exhausting it would be to say “Hi, I’m a female athlete” and then purposefully called a man and referred to as “him” because I don’t look enough like a woman. 

Second, I love sports. I’m an avid basketball fan and keep up with the NBA and the WNBA like some sort of crazy person. I will love the San Antonia Spurs until the day I die – I absolutely love Pop with all my heart and will cry when he retires. I know what it’s like to be a female athlete, the amount of work that it requires to excel at a sport. I briefly considered trying to get a college basketball scholarship to pay for nursing school – until I realized that A) I just wasn’t good enough and 2) all the work I would have to put in to be good enough, and stay good enough. It wasn’t conducive to a nursing degree. And I’m glad I chose nursing, because I make more money now than most women in the WNBA. Watching Khelif’s sexuality and gender be mocked or argued, instead of her incredible athletic accomplishments as an Algerian woman be praised and lauded, is horrendous. If she is too tall, or too strong, and that gives her an unfair advantage, then why do we let any outstanding athletes compete? Victor Wembanyama is over seven feet tall, so that gives him an advantage in basketball. So why is he allowed to compete? Why isn’t Michael Phelps disqualified for having ridiculously long arms and torso, and feet so large they act like natural flippers? But no. Both those men are, rightly so, lauded for their hard work and dedication. Nick Bosa has the body of a greek god, shouldn’t that disqualify him from playing football? 

Third, I’m a nurse. When this controversy hit the internet, I immediately thought of one of my patients. When I first called to set up an appointment to see him for the first time, I mistook him for a woman. Only later did I realize he has congenital hypopituitarism, which, in short, means he has an hormonal imbalance that makes him look and sound like a woman. This got me thinking. I could, like an asshole, call him “her” and refer to him as a woman, no matter what his external genitalia says. His hormones, after all, more closely match that of a woman. But that would make me insensitive at best, and a horrible human being at worst. Khelif might look and sound like a man. But does that mean she should be referred to as a man? Blasted by people who have no idea what they are talking about for being, what, too strong? She lives and resides in Algeria, known for killing transgendered people, where it is illegal to identify as anything but what is on your birth certificate. Where you can be publicly killed for engaging in homosexual activity. 

Last, and most importantly, I’m a Christian. Nothing makes me angrier, and I mean nothing, than people calling themselves Christians and then defiling the name of the one they claim to believe in. And the most hatred I’ve seen directed at Khelif, by far, is by Christians. Friends, the people who should be the kindest to her are Christians. The people who should stand up for her are Christians. She should find the most welcoming community, the most loving friends, the people willing to stand up for her the loudest, in Christian churches. Yet the opposite is true. So let me say this as clearly as I can – shame on you, if you claim the name of Christ, and yet pronounce damnation and criticism on Imane Khelif. She is made in the image of God. That alone should be enough. But if it’s not, let me remind you about the man you claim to follow. 

Jesus was also criticized. He was called names. He wasn’t bold enough, smart enough, strong enough for the religious leaders of his time, either. He was found cavorting with prostitutes, tax collecters, sinners. His friends were few, and they weren’t influential enough, wealthy enough, smart enough. Jesus went out of his way to speak up for the weak and underprivileged. He defended those the world despised. In fact, I’m pretty sure he would be called a radical feminist and flaming liberal if he were alive today, because those terms most closely matched his politics in ancient Israel. And, perhaps most shocking, he spoke alone with a woman at a well – a woman who had seven husbands and was ethnically unclean. He should never have been seen in her company, let alone seeking her out, sending his disciples away, and having a private conversation with her. This would be the equivalent of a male pastor entering a strip club and asking for a private dance from a gay dancer after sending his friends to go grab dinner from a nearby restaurant. 

What unfolded with Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well is nothing short of breathtaking. All Christians know this passage. He speaks to her of living water. And he tells her what true worship of God is like – not in temples, not in specific geographical locations, but in spirit and truth. And, most stunning of all, reveals Himself as the promised Messiah. To an “unclean” woman. 

Did you catch that? An unclean woman. Now, I am by no means calling Khelif unclean. But many, many, many Christians have. They have labeled her as a monster, have damned her to hell, told her she shouldn’t compete in female sports, shamed her, mocked her… the list goes on. 

I can say with 100% certainty that the man these Christians claim to worship and follow would never, ever do such a thing. Let me leave you with this – if Jesus were alive today, you would see him with Khelif, eating with her, laughing with her, defending her, befriending her, and ultimately, showing Himself true and everyone else a liar. Because He showed us how to love, and it’s not by casting stones and beating people down with shame and guilt, especially on people who were born a certain way or look a certain way. 

So here I am – a woman, an athlete, a nurse, a Christian – inviting everyone to a better way. And maybe, just maybe, try offering a loving hand and not a hateful rant. Educate yourself before you speak on something you know nothing about. And maybe re-read John 4.