Trans-Identified Male Qualifies To Race In Female Division For 2025 Boston Marathon
A trans-identified male who goes by the name Riya Young Suising has qualified and been accepted to compete in the female division of the 2025 Boston Marathon set for April.
The 57-year-old Suising, who was born with the name Robert Chien Hwa Young, celebrated acceptance into the historic race with a post on Facebook by writing: "Yay! 15th Boston next April, and I barely made it in this time."
Suising's claim of "barely" making it into the race is accurate. In fact, the only reason Suising qualified is due to the ridiculous gender qualification regulations.
The Boston Marathon has gender qualification categories of male, female, and non-binary. Female and non-binary qualifiers have identical qualifying times of four hours and five minutes while male qualifiers must demonstrate a time of three hours and 35 minutes.
Suising would not have come close to qualifying in the male category, but snuck into the female category with a qualifying time of just over four hours and one minute.
In the two years since the non-binary category was introduced to the Boston Marathon, a biological male has taken the top spot on the podium on both occasions. With trans-identified males being allowed to compete in the female category, it means all three categories could be won by biological males on the same race day.
According to Reduxx, Suising has been competing in women’s running since at least 2010. On top of being a flight attendant, Suising works as a part-time massage therapist and Zumba instructor. Suising ran in the female category of the 2024 California International Marathon in early December and has won at least two women's running prizes in years past.
READ: Transgender Runner Who Won NCAA Title Vows To 'Take All The Records' In Women's Competition
In not-so-surprising development, this is not the first time Suising has made headlines.
Back in 2013, the California native visited a Spa World in the Washington D.C. area while on a business trip. Suising told the Washington Blade that while in a female bathing pool, a manager "said she was a man" and asked Suising to leave.
"Suising said the manager showed her a letter "written and signed" by five other customers who were in the spa at the same time she was there," the outlet reported. "She added she put her clothes on and went into her office where she showed her identification that contained a female gender marker."
Spa World owner Sang Lee confirmed that management "asked the customer to leave the facility, for the safety and the comfort of the other customers, and also to promote a healthy reputation for our business."
Suising clearly did not care and attempted to file a complaint with the Virginia Human Rights Council that December, but was unable to do so because the commonwealth’s non-discrimination law does not include gender identity and expression. In January, Suising filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.