Kye Allums (born October 23, 1989) is an American former

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

player for the

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...

women's team who in 2010 came out as a

trans man A trans man or transgender man is a man who was assigned female at birth. Trans men have a male gender identity, and many trans men undergo medical and social transition to alter their appearance in a way that aligns with their gender identi ...

, becoming the first openly transgender

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athlet ...

college athlete. Allums is a

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

advocate, public speaker, artist, and mentor to

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

youth.

Personal life

Allums graduated from Centennial High School in Circle Pines, Minnesota, United States. He played three seasons as a guard on the women's basketball team at George Washington University, the

George Washington Colonials The George Washington Revolutionaries are the athletic teams of George Washington University of Washington, D.C. The Revolutionaries compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as members of the Atlantic 10 Conf ...

. Allums's teammates called him "Kay-Kay". Allums began telling people to call him "Kye". He came out as a trans man in 2010. He told sports website ''

Outsports ''Outsports'' is a sports news website concerned with LGBTQ issues and personalities in amateur and professional sports. The company was founded in 1999 by Cyd Zeigler, Jr. and Jim Buzinski. ''The Outsports Revolution'' ( Alyson Publications), ...

'', "my biological sex is female, which makes me a transgender male." In May 2011, GWU announced that Allums had decided to leave the GWU basketball team. He graduated from George Washington University in 2011 with a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

in Fine Arts. In 2014, in an interview with

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

, Allums said that he had attempted suicide.

George Washington statistics

Advocacy

Allums began traveling around the country to talk about life as a transgender person. He visits high schools, colleges and universities to discuss the transgender community and how it is possible to be transgender and play on a team. He gives advice on confronting bullies when being trans. He starred in

Laverne Cox Laverne Cox (born May 29, 1972) is an American actress and LGBTQ advocate. She rose to prominence with her role as Sophia Burset on the Netflix series '' Orange Is the New Black'', becoming the first transgender person to be nominated for a ...

's documentary ''The T Word.'' The film follows young transgender individuals and explains what they go through. Allums produced a project called "I Am Enough", which encourages other LGBTQ individuals to come out and talk about their experiences. The project allows individuals to submit their stories, thereby showing people who share the same issues that they are not alone. In 2015, he was inducted into the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame.

Published work

Allums published a book called ''Who Am I?'', which features poems and letters he wrote about his parents and himself.

References

External links

GW Transgender Player Deals With Wave of Publicity
AP * * (archived) 1989 births Living people George Washington Revolutionaries women's basketball players African-American LGBTQ people American transgender sportspeople Sex segregation Transgender sportsmen LGBTQ basketball players LGBTQ people from Minnesota Basketball players from Minnesota People from Circle Pines, Minnesota Sportspeople from Anoka County, Minnesota Inductees of the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame American transgender men {{1980s-US-basketball-bio-stub