Hockey player comes out as the first transgender athlete in U.S. team sports.

The first player in U.S. team sport to come out as transgender.

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HockeyFeed
Published 7 years ago
Hockey player comes out as the first transgender athlete in U.S. team sports.
Image courtesy ESPN.

According to an ESPN report a biologically female athlete has come out as the first transgender athlete in U.S. team sport, stating that she now identifies as a man.

Hailey Browne, who now prefers to be called Harrison Browne and would like to be refereed to as "he" privately confided to his coaches last season that he was transgender, and now has for the first time spoken publicly about the decision.

"I identify as a man," Browne said in an interview with ESPN's Michele Steele. "My family is starting to come to grips with it, now it's my time to be known as who I am, to be authentic and to hear my name said right when I get a point, or see my name on a website."

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This decision doesn't come without some unique problems however, as Browne is currently a member of he National Women's Hockey League, a league that is, as one would expect, exclusive to women, which raises some obvious questions. Should Browne be asked to transition to the men's side of the sport? It's a difficult question without a clear answer, and a question that can come with serious consequences if not addressed. One can easily see how a man claiming to be a woman to play in a woman's league could have dangerous consequences going forward.

NWHL commissioner Dani Rylan has stated that the league is currently working on a policy that will include transgender athletes, so hopefully they have a plan going forward that will help answer some of these tough questions.

This likely was not an easy decision for Browne to make, and there's no doubt that he will face a great deal of backlash for coming out as transgender, but at the very least his decision will pave the way for others moving forward, and for that salute him.

"I'm still the same player, I'm still playing in the body that I did last year, I'm still the same exact person. I'm just a different name and different pronouns, that's it. I'm still Brownie."

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