\n When Harrison Browne was on the ice, there was only speed, instinct and the familiar rhythm of skates cutting across frozen ground.\n <\/p>\n
\n Long before he became the first openly transgender professional hockey player and before he wrote a book, created a short film or had a supporting role in the Canadian TV series \u201cHeated Rivalry,\u201d Browne was simply \u201cBrownie\u201d in the locker room. It was a nickname that, for a time, gave him cover.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cHockey was the one place where I could turn my brain off,\u201d said Browne, who coauthored \u201cLet Us Play:<\/a> Winning the Battle for Gender Diverse Athletes.\u201d (The paperback edition will be released on May 26.) \u201cThe one space where my body wasn\u2019t the enemy. All that mattered was how fast my feet moved.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI could just say, \u2018Hey, I\u2019m the same Brownie \u2014 can you use he\/him pronouns?\u2019\u201d he recalled. \u201cAnd my teammates were like, \u2018Yes, absolutely.\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n On the women\u2019s hockey team at the University of Maine, that acceptance arrived years before Browne publicly came out. \u201cI was living a double life,\u201d he said. \u201cI was Harrison in the locker room. But when I stepped out in public \u2014 my name on the roster wasn\u2019t Harrison. I was announced with she\/her pronouns. It became a bigger disconnect.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The tension grew harder to ignore. Having experienced what it felt like to be seen \u2014 even in a limited space \u2014 he eventually found he could no longer go back into the closet every time he played.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI had that taste of being myself in the locker room,\u201d Browne said. \u201cAnd I just knew: This is what I need.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n When Browne came out as a man publicly in 2016 while playing for the now-defunct professional women\u2019s hockey team Buffalo Beauts, he became the first openly transgender athlete in professional team sports.\n <\/p>\n \n In the decade since, transgender athletes have become the focus of an escalating global debate over fairness, biology and the meaning of sports itself. The politics around athletics for kids, adults and professional leagues have shifted and then shifted again. But at the heart of all the intensity are a small number of athletes who just want to play the sports they love.\n <\/p>\n \n Researchers and athletes both say that the public conversation has outpaced \u2014 and frequently misrepresented \u2014 the science, leaving athletes such as Browne to carry the weight of a question far more complex than a hot take.\n <\/p>\n \n By the time Browne began writing \u201cLet Us Play\u201d with his sister, journalist Rachel Browne, the public debates about trans athletes were ramping up. \u201cWe were seeing this wave of anti-trans legislation really take off,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n \n Such a ferocious reaction to a small group of people doing something perceived as negative has all the signs of a moral panic, Browne said. After the first wave of bathroom bills failed (since then, more have passed), politicians and others used this rhetoric to \u201cget people whipped up over trans people \u2014 which distracts from broader issues that are more complicated to deal with \u2014 healthcare, poverty, human rights,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n \n The antipathy to trans people in sports has centered on a single idea: that hormones \u2014 particularly testosterone \u2014 determine athletic destiny.\n <\/p>\n \n From an athlete\u2019s point of view, Browne sees that focus as both reductive and misleading. \u201cWhen we focus so solely on one hormone,\u201d he said, \u201cwe\u2019re overlooking the real barriers to fairness in sport.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Training, access to coaching, nutrition, socioeconomic status \u2014 these factors shape athletic outcomes far more consistently than any single biological variable, he argued.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cSports have never been fair,\u201d Browne said. \u201cIf they were, everyone would be the same height and have the same access to resources, but that\u2019s just not reality.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n More than that, he worries that reducing athletes to physiology \u201cdehumanizes people,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re just talking about their bodies \u2014 not their lives.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n A growing body of research shows, as Browne said, that the relationship between biology and performance is far more complex than one hormone creating a performance advantage or disadvantage.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe single biggest misconception is that testosterone is some kind of permanent performance-enhancing drug, and once you\u2019ve been exposed to it, the advantages are locked in forever,\u201d Ada Cheung, an endocrinologist and trans health expert at Australia\u2019s University of Melbourne, wrote in an email.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cPeople hear \u2018male puberty\u2019 and assume it creates an irreversible athletic superpower,\u201d Cheung said. \u201cBut that\u2019s not what the science shows.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Gender-affirming hormone therapy, she explained, does reshape the body in measurable ways. In trans women, testosterone suppression and estrogen therapy lead to increases in fat mass and decreases in lean muscle.\n <\/p>\n \n In trans men like Browne, testosterone produces the opposite effect \u2014 increases in lean muscle and decreases in fat mass \u2014 though not to the same extent seen in cisgender men; they end up somewhere in-between. The effects on performance aren\u2019t clear and vary by individual.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe reality is far more nuanced than the \u2018once male, always advantaged\u2019 narrative that dominates public discussion,\u201d Cheung said.\n <\/p>\n \n A February meta-analysis<\/a> published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine \u2014 spanning 52 studies and more than 6,400 participants \u2014 found that after one to three years of hormone therapy, trans women showed no significant differences from cisgender women in upper- or lower-body strength or aerobic fitness. While some differences in absolute lean mass remained, they did not translate into measurable performance advantages.\n <\/p>\n \n The latest research reflects the nuance that Cheung described.\n <\/p>\n \n Earlier work, including Cheung\u2019s review<\/a> in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, reached similar conclusions: Over time, key indicators of trans women\u2019s performance shift toward those of cisgender women following hormone therapy.\n <\/p>\n \n Even at the molecular level, the body appears to respond dynamically to hormonal change. A 2025 study in Nature Medicine<\/a> found that feminizing hormone therapy altered hundreds of circulating proteins in transgender women, reshaping their biological profile toward that of cisgender women across systems tied to metabolism, immunity and cardiovascular health. Similar findings have been shown in trans men<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n This research repeatedly suggests that the physiological effects of hormone therapy are ongoing and affect a variety of the body\u2019s systems. Over time, both trans men such as Browne and trans women who are athletes perform more like cisgender men and women.\n <\/p>\n \n That\u2019s why it wasn\u2019t a big surprise to researchers that a nonbinary and trans man team came in third in the men\u2019s category at a recent Ironman competition<\/a> in Oceanside, California.\n <\/p>\n \n Important questions remain. Much of the existing research is observational, with relatively small sample sizes, few longitudinal studies and only limited data on elite athletes or sport-specific outcomes.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe direction of the evidence is consistent,\u201d Cheung said. \u201cBut we do need better-designed studies, particularly in athletic populations.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Importantly, Cheung wrote, body composition alone does not determine performance.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cPeople see that trans women may retain somewhat higher lean mass and jump straight to \u2018unfair advantage,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cBut absolute lean mass alone doesn\u2019t dictate what your body can actually do.\u201d Just like a bigger woman doesn\u2019t necessarily outperform a smaller one.\n <\/p>\n \n Fat mass, endurance, hemoglobin levels, cardiovascular fitness, training, skill and access to resources all play roles in determining athletic performance and possible advantage or disadvantage, Cheung said. \u201cThe relationship between muscle and performance is much more complex than a simple more-muscle-equals-more-power equation,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n \n Transgender athletes are underrepresented in elite sports \u2014 a fact that challenges the ideas of easy, widespread dominance. While more research is done and the issues are debated, nonbinary, intersex and trans athletes will continue to exist and play the sports they love.\n <\/p>\n \n Representation matters: For younger athletes coming up behind him, Browne\u2019s visibility offered something many had never seen before: a path.\n <\/p>\n \n Carly \u201cCJ\u201d Jackson<\/a>, a nonbinary professional hockey player for the Seattle Torrent who appears in Browne\u2019s film \u201cPink Light<\/a>,\u201d first encountered his story from afar. \u201cSeeing him come out \u2014 it gave me space to accept myself for who I am,\u201d Jackson said.\n <\/p>\n \n Years later, their lives would intersect in unexpected ways. Browne and Jackson had both played for the same teams \u2014 at the University of Maine and later professionally \u2014 just years apart, their careers running in parallel before finally meeting on set.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI think about the impact Harrison had on my life,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m just one person. There are so many people he\u2019ll never meet.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n For many transgender athletes, the debate over fairness is inseparable from a more basic question: Who gets to belong in sports at all?\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cSports are where people build friendships, learn teamwork, and become healthier,\u201d said Alex Schmider, senior director of entertainment at GLAAD, an LGBTQ advocacy and media-monitoring organization, in an email. \u201cTrans people play sports for the same reasons as everyone else \u2014 and denying those benefits is unnecessary and cruel.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Schmider argues that the current wave of restrictions does more than limit participation.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cPolitically motivated bans on trans athletes not only hurt them,\u201d he said, \u201cbut also send inaccurate and harmful messages about who belongs.\u201d\n <\/p>\n Changing hearts and minds<\/p>\n \n In recent years, Browne has turned to storytelling \u2014 appearing in the breakout series \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d and writing and producing his short film, \u201cPink Light<\/a>\u201d \u2014 as a way to reshape how transgender lives are understood. (\u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d streams in the United States on HBO Max, which is owned by CNN\u2019s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.)\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cMost people say they don\u2019t know someone who is transgender in their personal life,\u201d Schmider said. \u201cSo often their first introduction is through characters on television or in films.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Stories such \u201cHeated Rivalry,\u201d he added, succeed in part because they depict athletes not as symbols but as teammates \u2014 bonded by a shared love of sport.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWhen every player and fan can be themselves,\u201d Schmider said, \u201ceveryone wins.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Policy seems to be going in the opposite direction as that vision.\n <\/p>\n \n The International Olympic Committee\u2019s 2021 framework moved toward a more evidence-based, sport-specific approach to transgender inclusion. But the most recent guidelines in March 2026<\/a> have instead installed a blanket testing regime \u2014 but only for women\u2019s sports<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n Over more than two decades in which trans women have been eligible to compete at the Olympic level, only one has participated: New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard<\/a>, who did not finish her event.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cHow is that grounds for a blanket ban?\u201d Browne said. \u201cThere\u2019s absolutely zero proof \u2014 and yet we\u2019re seeing policies move in that direction.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Rachel Browne, Harrison\u2019s sister and coauthor of \u201cLet Us Play,\u201d said she worries about the secondary effects.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cSo many sports try to align themselves with Olympic policy,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd that trickles down to amateur and youth levels \u2014 spaces where people should be freer to just play.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Many athletes say that the thrill of the win isn\u2019t as important to them as the camaraderie and relationships with their team members. Sports are a human experience and expression.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt\u2019s where you build friendships. It\u2019s where you learn who you are,\u201d Harrison Browne said. \u201cEverybody deserves that escape.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Maybe instead of being rigid and binary, athletics could be something more expansive, and more human, both Browne and Jackson mentioned when thinking about the future.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cSports are art. They\u2019re self-expression,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cAnd to deny that is to diminish what\u2019s possible.\u201d\n <\/p>\n ![\"After](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/browne-cover.jpg\")
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