It’s after hours at the Stone Age Gym in Albuquerque and a rock climber maneuvers an arched course that gradually forces them to hang upside down with their back facing the floor. They grunt and their muscles flex as they do their best to hold on to the wall that’s nearly parallel to the ground below as their friend shouts encouragement.
“Woah, hold up. Pause video. You’re kinda cracked at this. Girl!”
They’re part of a group called Trans Senders, gender-diverse rock climbers who gather every month to hang out, climb, and create a welcoming environment for trans climbers, or trans people wanting to try something new.
For trans and nonbinary people, it can be hard to stay active when joining a sport is surrounded by politics. Trans Senders is trying to change that.
The group's name combines the word sender, meaning someone who likes to climb, and transgender. The group was founded in 2021 when some gender-diverse members of the larger queer climbing group, Rainbow Senders, still felt a little uncomfortable.
“They can show up and be themselves, dress however they want, and not worry about people staring or judging,” said Trans Senders founder, Shane Baron-Deutsch.
They’re wearing a shirt designed by local artist Vee Hernandez and featuring the side-blotched lizard. It’s native to Albuquerque and the males have several forms of color variation.
“One of them looks identical to the female lizard,” Baron Deutsch said. “I think that's kind of a trans lizard right there.”
Baron-Deutsch has made sure that everyone can enjoy themselves in some way. When people wanted more outside climbing time or stickers for laptops or waterbottles, Baron-Deutsch made it happen. They also made sure to provide the group with pizza and snacks, because those are cornerstones of a good time.
Cypress Kappeyne occasionally climbs with the group.
“ [It’s] particularly sweet to find a bunch of folks who are excited to use their bodies -- use their marginalized bodies – in fun ways,” Kappeyne said.
For them and others, Trans Senders has opened up the larger world of the queer rock climbing community. Both Kappeyne and Baron-Deutsch have repped Trans Senders beyond New Mexico and the two attended Flash Foxy events, a group of queer climbers that holds various climbing expeditions across the country.
In Albuquerque, Trans Senders offers one of the few events that is specifically made to be inclusive for trans and non-binary people that isn’t located at a bar or club. This means a wider population can participate, and Baron-Deutsch said they have welcomed families with trans parents or children.
The group has also insulated trans people from challenges they can face when going to the gym.
“There’s the stereotype of a climbing bro culture that I think can be present in the gym during regular hours,” Baron-Deutsch said.
The current political focus of trans people in sports adds additional pressure.
Adrien Lawyer is the co-director of the Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico. He said the possibility of being policed or humiliated discourages gender-diverse people from wanting to go to the gym or try a sport.
“Trans folks know these stories so a lot of times we're preemptively discouraged from even trying to participate for fear of having that type of treatment directed at us,” Lawyer said.
Lawyer said that sports often has a parasocial aspect. People bond with teammates or fellow athletes and build skills like communication and cooperation. So if trans people are excluded, they miss out on these benefits.
Beyond the social aspects, studies have shown that even the simple act of exercise can boost mental health, like reducing the risk of depression or anxiety, two things that affect trans people disproportionately.
“So when trans people are discriminated against in sports, it's just one more weight on the scale that presses down on trans people's ability to just live safe lives with access to all of the same things that everybody else has access to,” Lawyer said.
The issues and stigma facing trans people are complex and deep-rooted, said Lawyer.
“But we do have to try to survive it,” Lawyer said. “This can be one of the tools in our toolbox, is to help ourselves survive the way this world can try to treat us, to try to not let it get the better of us in our mental health.”
Lawyer said trans people and physical activity have a historically close relationship, especially before medical transition became widely available.
“Folks have been using exercise, weight lifting, physical body modification, for a long, long, long time, to try to create bodies that better fit their self image and their gender image,” Lawyer said.
Those benefits continue today in Trans Senders. Rock climbing is an intense strain on the mind and body, forcing climbers to be present and aware of both. Baron-Deutsch said that they and other climbers have found that their relationship with their bodies have improved due to climbing.
“Climbing was the first place I felt at home in my body or present or connected to my body before I started transitioning,” Baron-Deutsch said. “It’s been a really pivotal place for me to find that connection and build community around it.”
Physical activities and sports can help trans folks process and release anxieties and frustrations from everyday life, and be surrounded by community.
“I mean rock climbing is inherently kind of vulnerable, dangling from a rope from a rock,” Baron-Deutsch said. “I think when you mix in that inherent trust and feeling seen and feeling supported, it can really do wonders for people.”
Lawyer said trans people don’t have to accept stigma in sports or gyms. If any gyms or sports groups want to become more trans-inclusive, Lawyer and the Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico are happy to talk.
