Transsexual puts
canoe paddling on hold
until ruling on bias case

By Christine Donnelly
Star-Bulletin

A transsexual woman has dropped out of outrigger canoe paddling until her sex discrimination case is decided by the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission.

"She kind of felt that she should pull out because she did not want to put a crew in jeopardy (of disqualification) and she felt some people were uncomfortable about that," said Joe Kim Jr., head coach of the Koa Kai Canoe Club.

LiAnne W. Taft, 46, confirmed Tuesday night she was not participating in the current long-distance season, which culminates each fall with a race from Molokai-to-Oahu.

"I just want to wait for my case to be decided and then I hope I can return with less controversy," she said.

The Civil Rights Commission is investigating Taft's complaint that a rule passed by the Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association last December discriminates against transsexuals.

Under the rule, a paddler whose gender is challenged must produce a birth certificate or risk disqualification.

Taft has had 4 years of hormone treatments that promote feminine characteristics and suppress male ones and she carries a letter from her doctor saying she should be regarded as female. But she has not had the genital reconstructive surgery required to amend her birth certificate from male to female.

Taft had paddled for Koa Kai since 1996. The club belongs to the Na Ohana Hui Waa association, which allows driver's licenses to verify gender; Taft's lists her as a woman. The association's stricter rule applies within its own association and also at statewide events open to Hui Waa, including the state regatta championships and the Molokai-to-Oahu race.

Taft said she hopes to resume the sport by next spring's regatta season, if she wins the case. The commission has given no indication on how or when it might rule on the complaint, filed in January.

Commission officials refuse to comment on Taft's case specifically but have said Hawaii state law does not define gender. Taft's advocates point to growing scientific evidence that a person's gender identity is assigned primarily by the brain. But HCRA officials, who contend Taft has an unfair competitive advantage over other women, want to stick with birth certificates, which rely on genitalia to confirm gender.