Semenya: the price of looking different

If you don't fit the narrow idealised male or female image, the world hits back, as non-gender conforming people know too well

CL Minou
Friday 21 August 2009 15.45 BST
       
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/21/semenya-gender-discrimination

She wore trousers to school – not a skirt. She played football. Her former headmaster thought she was a boy when she was his student. Yet even as allegations swirl around her and International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) conducts a sex test, Caster Semenya's family and friends have all been quick to point out that she was born a girl.

And while a sex test sounds benign enough, it won't be anything as simple as a DNA test – as Meloncye McAfee points out, there are a variety of conditions that can lead to a man having two X chromosomes, or a woman having a Y chromosome. No: Semenya will not only have her DNA checked, her urine and blood sampled and her genitals examined, but will even be required to have an interview with a psychologist – hopefully to help her get over the trauma of having all these tests done in a media fishbowl.