Maga King
Sofa King
Someone can surely do better than me…
San Francisco's Bay to Breakers, known for its zany inclusivity, refuses to give awards to nonbinary runners
San Francisco’s famed Bay to Breakers footrace is perhaps best known for its zany, welcoming energy. Participants making the 7.5-mile trek are dressed in elaborate costumes or in the buff, power-walkers and stragglers are encouraged to join in and even inebriated runners (though not officially encouraged) can partake in the festivities.
So Bay to Breakers’ decision not to offer awards for nonbinary runners for the competition on Sunday felt a bit odd, even antithetical to the spirit of the 110-year-old event, said Cal Calamia, a nonbinary San Francisco high school teacher registered for the race.
“It’s just really, really sad that something that’s so fun and so exciting — so San Francisco,” they told SFGATE in an interview, “that the love and the inclusivity and the joy could be stifled or taken away from a specific type of person and people like me. It’s really a shame.”
They’re just one of the nonbinary runners who are eligible to compete in a nonbinary category — but ineligible to receive awards, a decision that they say feels like a halfhearted campaign of “performative inclusivity.”
Charlie Mercer, the CEO of the Raleigh, North Carolina-based Capstone Event Group — the organization that holds Bay to Breakers — confirmed to SFGATE that Bay to Breakers will not be offering awards to nonbinary people for this race. On its website, the 110-year-old footrace states that both overall awards and the age group awards will only be presented to the top three male and female runners of each group.
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Bay-to-Breakers-no-nonbinary-awards-17169366.php?IPID=SFGate-HP-CP-Spotlight