Understanding how voice impacts on trans women’s participation in sport

The aim of this chapter is to provide research evidence on the role of the human voice in sport settings and for trans women’s participation in sport. The first section outlines the importance of sport persons’ voices in sport settings and the vocal challenges inherent in sport environments. The core finding is that voice is important to the cohesiveness of team sport and that sports people often experience a heavy vocal load. The second section of this chapter provides evidence on the links between voice, gender identity and trans women’s engagement in sport. Sport is a highly gendered social environment and trans women often have difficulty integrating into a sport team if their voice is not congruent with their female physical appearance. The third and final section considers the implications of this evidence for development of sport policy and the potential role of voice training for these women. Voice feminisation training for trans women may mitigate some of the challenges that these women experience in sport settings when appropriate support is in place for their engagement in sport.