The transgender athlete who hopes to play in the women’s NBL1 competition has spoken out for the first time, revealing that she dreams of playing for Australia.
Lexi Rodgers, she lifted the lid on her application to play for Victorian club Kilsyth and called for kindness from her critics.
Speaking on the Under the Surface podcast hosted by WNBL MVP Anneli Maley, Rodgers explained that her decision to speak publicly was motivated by a desire to raise awareness.
“It’s good to have a little bit of a voice now because if it’s this hypothetical person and people are making a picture of what a transgender athlete looks like in their head, 1: I don’t think it’s me, and, 2: I think it’s a bit harsh and people forget that there really is a person,” she said.
“If you don’t get it and you don’t know 1: don’t shout things about it on the internet because it’s probably wrong, and 2: go learn more about it.”
Lexi Rodgers revealed that she is the trans player hoping to play in the women’s NBL1 league
Rodgers called for kindness and understanding from her critics
Andrew Bogut has been a staunch opponent of allowing biological males to participate in women’s sports, claiming that doing so would be harmful
Former NBA star Andrew Bogut has strongly criticized the prospect of the semi-professional women’s league NBL1 South, which will include teams from Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, allowing a biological male to play.
He warned that the NBL1 would threaten the “inviolability of women’s sport” if it allowed a biological male to compete.
But Rodgers urged her critics to remember that the debate affected “real people” and called for their understanding.
“Please be nice,” she continued.
“It’s been a tough week, so try to remember that there are real people who are touched by these discussions and debates.”
Rodgers revealed that she had first felt feminine tendencies before she was a teenager, but suppressed the feelings.
However, she said she made the decision to transition during Covid-19, when her mother was diagnosed with a terminal illness and was going through a breakup.
‘It was overwhelming.
“It was such a quick transition from, ‘Oh, I’m becoming a more feminine man’ to ‘I’m trans, there’s no question about that,'” she said.
After giving up basketball in her youth, Rodgers revealed that she now dreams of playing at the top level in the WNBL and with the Opals.
“It was pretty cool to get into women’s basketball because unfortunately I didn’t know a lot of you guys before,” she told Maley.
“But now, looking at you [Maley] playing and watching people like Cayla [George] play, Mon Conti […] that’s where I want to go, that’s where I want to be.’
Maley, along with fellow WNBL stars Chloe Bibby, Saraid Taylor and Marena Whittle, was furious that Bogut spoke up for them when they advocated for a transgender female player to compete in the league.
Her decision to speak out comes on the same day a Basketball Australia panel met to decide the fate of her application.
While the decision would normally be left to Basketball Victoria, the national body intervened earlier this month convened a team of experts to decide on what it described as a “complex and challenging issue.”
Under the Surface host and WNBL star Anneli Maley has backed the call for trans players to be allowed on all-female teams
Fellow WNBL star Chloe Bibby has labeled Bogut’s comments as transphobic
The panel consists of the Chief Medical Officer of Basketball Australia and Medical Adviser to the Commonwealth Games Dr. Peter Harcourt, three-time Olympic and Basketball Australia board member Suzy Batkovic and Diana Robinson, associate professor of sports and exercise medicine at Notre Dame University.
“While Basketball Victoria determines the eligibility of athletes playing in their leagues, in the interest of the sport and all athletes, the BA panel will now review this application,” a BA spokesperson said in a statement.
Last week, World Athletics banned transgender women who had gone through male puberty from competing in elite women’s competitions.
It came after the world’s swimming governing body FINA last year banned transgender women who transition after the age of 12 from competing in women’s competitions.