The Philly Marathon has a nonbinary category, but athletes and advocates say efforts fall short

In 2021, when Winter Parts entered their first Philly Marathon, the nonbinary athlete had to register in the male category to compete. In 2022, they were able to register for the first time as nonbinary — only to find they were classified in the male category after crossing the finish line.

“I was really disappointed, really upset,” Parts, a grad student at Penn State said. “For one thing, it had been a tough race so I was already not feeling great. And then I looked at the results and saw that they had just listed me as male. I thought ‘well, this is unfortunate.’”

The Philly Marathon told the Inquirer it was an error that has since been resolved, and the marathon director reached out personally to all nonbinary athletes who had been misgendered.

What remains unresolved going into Sunday’s 2023 marathon is the lack of prize money available for elite nonbinary runners like Parts. The marathon said 123 athletes registered as nonbinary across all four of this weekend’s races — full marathon on Sunday and the half-marathon, 8k and children’s run on Saturday. Seven are elites.

Organizers of the Philly Marathon announced in September that it would offer cash prizes to nonbinary runners in nonelite categories, but elite runners would still have to compete in the men’s or women’s division to be eligible.

Elite runners are at the top of their field, and receive free registration, prime space on the starting line, and may be eligible for free travel and hotel rooms and larger prize purses. Runners qualify as elite by meeting standard times set for their division in previous races. The marathon says they are following the guidelines of their national governing body, USA Track and Field (USATF), which does not recognize a separate division for elite nonbinary runners.

“You’re always going to be a nonbinary individual, but you’re going to be racing in the men’s category or the women’s category,” said Amanda Gamble, chief of staff of general services, arts and events for the city. “It’s not that we’re asking you to say that your gender is different, it’s just that’s the group that you’re choosing to compete against.”

Local advocates and queer-focused running groups say it’s not enough.

“While they have taken some steps to be more inclusive, it’s just really confusing to just see them stop short of doing the full inclusion and making sure that nonbinary elite runners have the ability to be financially paid for as well, just like the female and male divisions,” says C.C. Tellez, founder of Philadelphia-based LGBTQ+ running club Lez Run. “If [nonelite runners] can participate and be fully recognized, then why can’t the elite nonbinary runners.”

Prize money for elite runners can be several thousand dollars.

Lez Run, along with groups like Queer Run (a group dedicated to creating safe athletic spaces for LGBTQIA+ and allies) and local athletes have raised concerns with the marathon team over email, Zoom, and in-person meetings, said Tellez, who has gone on runs with the marathon director Kathleen Titus to discuss the issue.

“We’ve had a lot of conversations behind the scenes and they want to continue these conversations into 2024,” says Tellez. “Do the right thing, we’ve waited long enough.”

Gamble and Titus agree there’s room for improvement, and say they are working with the city’s office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and the office of LGBT Affairs, while having continuous talks with advocates.

“It is a nuanced situation and this is part of the reason why we really want to have an intentional stakeholder engagement process around this, because it is more complex than just making a quick change,” Gamble said.

The marathon team said they brought in a consultant recommended by the community in the spring, implemented gender neutral changing stations and bathrooms, inclusive security measures, nonbinary registration, and gender neutral merchandise for purchase.

Titus, the marathon director, says that her primary focus is on making the race more equitable for all 35,000 runners, not just the elite tier.

“That doesn’t help anybody who is coming to compete as a first-time runner that wants to identify as nonbinary to not to have a safe space,” she said. “I think if you take a look at some of these races, you’re gonna see prize money but you’re not going to see the equitability and inclusion on websites in the registration process all the way to when you get to the expo.”

But advocates arguing that part of creating that safe space is by treating all runners equally.

“[Elite nonbinary runners] want to show up as their most authentic selves and be prized in a division that elevates them fully,” says Tellez, who has spoken to runners across the country as part of her advocacy.

Other races locally and regionally already have already implemented change.

This year, Broad Street Run changed its policy and awarded cash prizes to all nonbinary runners. Race organizers were able to offer awards “relatively easily,” former Philadelphia Parks and Recreation Commissioner Kathryn Ott Lovell told the Inquirer back in March, following the example set by organizers of 2021 Philadelphia Distance Run.

According to Runner’s World, PDR was the first U.S. road race to offer a nonbinary category for runners and equal prizes among all categories.

At the 2023 Jersey City Marathon & Half Marathon, nonbinary elite athletes participated in their own division, with eligibility to take home equal winnings as their male and female counterparts.

Before signing up for this year’s race, Parts reached out to Titus with their concerns about the marathon’s nonbinary inclusion. In an email, a representative for the marathon told Parts that the inclusion initiative would “allow elite nonbinary athletes to qualify for prize money and awards, according to USATF rules” leading Parts to believe the prize would be distributed for all three gender categories, instead of the carve-out cited by Philly Marathon.

Despite their disappointment, Parts decided to run this year’s race and use it as an opportunity to talk more with the race director about a solution.

“[USATF is] not trying to make progress if no one pushes against them,” Parts said. “The more races that push back on these organizations will pressure world athletics to stop being so [bigoted].”