On April 21 at 7:30 p.m., Smith students gathered in Weinstein Auditorium to attend “Trans Inclusion in Sport,” a conversation with speaker Cal Calamia, who uses they/he pronouns. Cal Calamia is a highly successful transmasculine marathoner, activist, writer and educator who joined the discussion through Zoom. The event was moderated by Smith’s Sports Committee for Inclusion and Diversity (SCID) board member Pria Parker ’25, who uses they/them pronouns.
Calamia, well-known in the running community for their success in the nonbinary divisions of high profile marathons like the New York marathon, the Tokyo marathon and the San Francisco marathon, bonded with Parker over their shared experience as queer runners. Neither athlete had the opportunity to participate in a nonbinary division as collegiate runners.
Parker spoke from their experience as a three-time captain of the Smith Track and Field team, while Calamia ran on the women’s team at St. Louis University before quitting collegiate running to connect with their gender identity and pursue their transition.
Calamia now makes a living as an elite nonbinary marathoner and activist, founding the Nonbinary Run Club as well as 2 Hot 4 Hoodies, a nonprofit organization that provides gender affirming resources and education for trans and nonbinary people.
In his opening remarks, Calamia immediately mentioned the recent landmark United Kingdom Supreme Court decision. This judgment defines womanhood by biological sex, a legal ruling that has grave consequences for trans women in the UK and denies them protection from gender-based discrimination as women.
Calamia said, “Obviously, we are gathering at a time that is painful and scary, but it is also beautiful because it demonstrates the strength we [queer people] have as a community.” He recognized the impact of the current presidential administration’s surveillance and censorship, but insisted that marginalized people have been gathering underground for a long time and will continue to survive and resist discriminatory policies.
After the recent National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) ban against trans women competing in women’s collegiate sports, Calamia empathized with the Smith community’s outrage and encouraged students to advocate for change.
They said many people either don’t recognize the trans people around them or have never been around trans people, making it easy to dehumanize them, take away their rights and strip them of their opportunities. Calamia argued the best way to counteract that opposition is through visibility, storytelling and small acts of resistance.
Calamia shared their story with the audience, explaining how they had to choose between their queerness and being their true self or preserving their relationship with their family. He ultimately chose his relationship with himself.
“What we know about ourselves is actually some of the most sacred information we will ever have,” Calamia said. “It is a violence for someone else to deny what we know about ourselves.”
Calamia’s relationship with running has been a major influence in their career and identity. In their childhood, running was a safe place. Running provided a vehicle to grow and get space from their family. It was proof of their strength, independence and ability to endure hardship, both physically and mentally.
In college, Calamia began to understand that they were not cisgender, which made competing in a women’s team feel binary and dysphoric. They felt isolated and alone, lost their love for the sport and ultimately quit the team.
After college, Calamia founded the Nonbinary Run Club in San Francisco. They explained how amazing it feels to pursue sports in a community of people with a shared identity. He said that being surrounded by those of the same gender is a gender euphoric experience for anyone, not just trans people. Parker emphasized that at Smith, many nonbinary athletes feel a sense of safety and community within their athletic teams because of the strong queer population at the school and within athletics.
Calamia expressed great interest in Smith’s response to current anti-trans legislation. They said, “Trans individuals have more a right to feel fear and act out of that fear than the organizations that have the power to protect those individuals.” This conflicts with some of the recent rhetoric from Smith’s athletic administration, citing the need to keep a low profile in order to protect the Smith community.
He said he believes that organizations like Smith College should use their power to stand up for trans women. They cited the Boston Athletic Association’s decision to hold strong for trans women’s participation as women in the Boston Marathon as an excellent example of public resistance to Trump’s executive order.
Calamia argued that pulling out of the NCAA doesn’t actually resolve the exclusion of trans athletes from competition. In fact, it only levels the playing field by denying everyone the joyous experience of sport.
He suggested that the administration pursue “little acts of disobedience” from within the system instead, like allowing transfeminine athletes to compete. However, the recent public attack on a trans woman who competed for Ithaca in a race against Smith Rowing suggests that disobedience can come with a price.
As for the future, Calamia argued that sports can become more genderqueer, and athletes need to free themselves from binary assumptions about how athletics “should” be. They supported the idea of mixed-gender sports and gender expansive teams, and explained that marathon running is setting a standard for other sports to follow.
In the Q-and-A section of the event, one Smithie asked Calamia how they can be a better ally for trans people during this time.
“To be an ally means that we have to ensure that trans and nonbinary people are seen and can see themselves,” Calamia said. His running coach, a cisgender woman, only races in events that have a nonbinary category and advocates for the introduction of one when there is not. She intentionally chooses races that makes space for nonbinary athletes to participate in sport as their full selves.
Calamia encouraged nonbinary athletes experiencing imposter syndrome to stop competing within the constraints of gender binary. “Cis men and women are not at all thinking about this, so why should nonbinary people?”
They rejected the assumption that trans and nonbinary people should try to fly under the radar in sport, instead advocating for trans and nonbinary excellence. “Trans people have had to endure a lot on a day to day basis, and that earns them the right to show up and do the best they can, and to be the best if they can,” Calamia said.
The conversation ended on a positive note, emphasizing the importance of “leading with love in the spaces that you are in.” Calamia encouraged Smith students to continue to listen to and amplify trans voices and advocate for their transgender teammates when possible.
He explained that trans people cannot combat their oppression alone, and that it is the work of those that are not marginalized to uplift those that are. Calamia said that community and belonging are not a scarcity to be protected, but a resource that can be cultivated in abundance.
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