Is he (or is it they) really Non Binary?

He is as much non-binary as anyone is.

Whit Blair is male, having previously competed in races in the male category, including in a 1/2 marathon race in March 2025 which Blair won. The Boston Marathon 2025 was in April.

Are you being funny?

This level of stupidity is really something to behold. "As participation in the non-binary division increases, the B.A.A. will soon have enough data to establish time standards that reflect the actual performance range of non-binary entrants, rather than borrowing from an existing gender category.
That process may take several years" - so non-binary people are obviously different types of humans from everyone else, and who knows how fast those types of humans run? We need to observe them running for several years to find out. As this is a selective race - only good runners can qualify for the male and female categories - presumably the fastest runners who don't think they have a shot at doing well in the male race will top the non-binary race. This will demonstrate that non-binary people are slower runners than males. So a boy who is bad at sport is more likely to be non-binary than a boy who is good at sport. I wonder whether anyone will notice that non-binary people who happen to have penises tend to do better at sport than non-binary people who happen to have vaginas? That's presumably just a coincidence.

Interesting... the times are quite a range. Assuming there's a limit for the number of participants in each category, and Non Binary (until the idea catches on) seems to be pretty small, you could get someone from any age group in there or potentially someone who had a disability too as long as they were running.

Also it looks like the first woman finisher was 35th and only 13 minutes behind the race winner. Whit Blair, the first NB runner was 69th so could technically have been female.

Overall you're going to get the bimodal distribution, but perhaps since a marathon is such a long race, it's not going to be as spread as a shorter race or a pure strength based sport like weight lifting would be.

Looking at the qualifying times it seems like they've done the very scientific thing of adding 30 minutes to the men's qualifying time in each age group to give the women's (and NB) qualifying time. Presumably the time limits for men and women reflect the performance of the number of people likely to enter in a given category such that they can easily fill the category with the best runners they can find.

Um, he's probably gender fluid and just happens to identify as nonbinary whenever he's filling out certain race forms. It's a real thing people, really it is.

Yeah. It sounds suss but non binary is kinda suss in general so I say he's not really done anything wrong.

The full results for the non-binary category at the 2025 event are here - all 72 finishers.
https://www.baa.org/races/boston-marathon/results/

@Chersfrozenface well, the bimodal distribution will exist in the data, assuming they have sufficient data points, regardless of whether they have asked for the sex of the participants. I assume they have not. Then they will face the tricky task of identifying the two groups that have caused this bimodal distribution without reference to the participant’s sex….

'Non-binary' is such an imprecise category -
e.g this online definition
denoting, having, or relating to a gender identity that does not conform to traditional binary beliefs about gender, which indicate that all individuals are exclusively either male or female.
which doesn't make sense because it conflates 'gender' with the observable fact of being male or female, i.e. sex.

Except for the outliers who believe that sex is a spectrum, most people know and accept that they are either male, or female. So nobody is 'non-binary' as far as their biological sex is concerned [pace the tiny number of people who possibly have both sex characteristics who keep getting mentioned, but I don't know if there is medical evidence?].

You can declare yourself NB, but that does not change your biological status as exclusively male, or exclusively female.

Not 'conforming to traditional binary beliefs about gender' is something else altogether.

By definition GCers firmly reject the 'traditional binary beliefs about gender' - that's the 'C' in 'GC' - so I guess we could all justifiably call ourselves non-binar, if we wanted to.

Perhaps that's a good response to somebody who is making a bit too much of a fuss about being non-binary - a cheery 'Really? That's a coincidence, so am I!'

If the Boston Marathon analyse the times of the non-binary category runners, they will find a distinct bimodal distribution of the times...

Only if they differentiate between the male and female "non-binary" runners. How are they going to do that?

I suppose they could ask an additional question below the "non-binary" check box. I'm sure that would go down well.

Thank you, that’s the thing I was trying to remember!

I thought the point was that they identified as male for all the other marathons they entered (both before and after this one), but said they were non binary for this particular marathon - and a cynic might think that this was purely because they wouldn’t have qualified if they had ticked the male box. Maybe they are non binary but don’t like to announce that usually, but chose to do they would qualify this time. Maybe they chose to take advantage of the fact they could tick a different box and automatically qualify. Only one person knows that answer.

There's a MN thread from 2022 that's relevant here.
www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4667370-some-light-relief-in-sport

Yes, the performance range will be interesting SilenceInside

If the Boston Marathon analyse the times of the non-binary category runners, they will find a distinct bimodal distribution of the times.... how will they then use that information to set a qualifying standard?? It's a puzzle!

You can comment on the article if you're willing to give them your email. Don't know if comments are vetted.

So he can't identify as NB because he looks like a regular bloke?! I don't think that's the rules for it. It's not like trans where they might say you need to be on hormones, 'live as' your opposite sex persona for X years etc...

So it's fine. I guess it means they basically are competing in a group where there is an unknown number of males or females. Presumably a 'NB' who was female would be at a disadvantage in this case against this bloke but that's the whole thing isn't it. NB can be a man or a woman.

I imagine the idea looked good on paper

Entry into the Boston Marathon is so competitive that it was absolutely obvious that some men would use the non-binary category to gain entry, as the qualifying time is set to the women's category time standard. Which it has to be, otherwise pretty much no women who say they are non-binary could enter the non-binary category as they wouldn't be able to make the time standard.

So, now men have two categories to choose from, one which they qualify for by sex and one which the only qualification is how you feel. No one with any kind of ability to think their way out of a paper bag should complain about this situation, it is the intended effect!

They looks as non-binary as anyone else I've seen who says they is non-binary.

Etc not non-binary enough

Yup, what they said 😁

So the BM introduced a non-binary category without defining eligibility for that category? I'm just asking, I don't know much about it.

"In the long run [haha! we see what you did there], this may prove to be a useful test case"

• oh it will, for sure

Who is to say zir's not non-binary? As far as I know, it adds up to a feeling in zir head. There is no objective or observable measurement. The entrant applied under the rules fair and square.

As a philosophical concept, NB is a cool one and it's been exploited by sci-fi since the 1960s. Trying to apply it in practice when you run up against the reality of sexed bodies is more difficult.

"For now, Kwayu’s entry is legitimate under the rules as written. There’s no suggestion of cheating or misrepresentation, only that Boston’s temporary standards created a situation where a runner could qualify through one category while failing in another."

There is no way to square this stupid circle...because of the differing athletic abilities of men and women. Any standard will be immediately unfair for either men or women.

As pp said, so close to getting it....