Graduate Works in Progress: t4t Trust: Lessons in Trans Rage and Joy

This chapter provides an auto-ethnographic account of the All Trans Match at the 2024 International Gay Rugby (IGR) Bingham Cup in Rome, Italy where 60+ athletes representing eight countries competed. Utilizing a t4t (trans-4-trans) ethic of care as a framework and methodology, I argue that trans knowledge production within sports is not made in theory, policy, or institutional recognition or lack thereof; rather it is produced in and through the body, in the ephemeral contacts of sport.

Proceeding in four parts, I first situate the match within the homonationalist legacy of Mark Bingham, a gay rugby player and 9/11 victim after whom the tournament is named, to argue his heroization shapes the conditions which make trans inclusion possible at the games. Second, I trace the material struggles trans players encountered before, during, and after the matches revealing a pattern of conditional welcome. Third, drawing on affect theory and queer utopian performativity I read the All Trans Match itself as a site of joy and contact that momentarily exceeded these institutional constraints without dissolving them. Finally, I theorize what a t4t praxis of love offers trans athletes as a survival strategy.

Ultimately, this chapter contends the All Trans Match’s transient, embodied joy constitutes meaningful evidence of trans care and belonging, even if it cannot substitute structural change.

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The Graduate Colloquium Works In Progress Speaker Series pairs a 30-minute graduate-student work-in-progress or conference-style talk with 30 minutes of questions, discussion, and feedback. All pre-candidacy graduate students will present during the 2026–27 academic year.