A man who identifies as “transgender” has qualified to race in the female division for the 2025 Boston Marathon.
According to Outkick, a trans-identified male who goes by the name Riya Young Suising will compete in the women’s division this April. Suising was reportedly Robert Chien Hwa Young and is 57 years old.
Reportedly, Suising announced his acceptance into the race with a Facebook post, where he wrote, "Yay! 15th Boston next April, and I barely made it in this time."
The Boston Marathon does offer a “non-binary” category for runners who think they are transgender, the outlet noted (via Outkick):
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.
According to Reduxx, Suising previously sued a spa for not allowing him to bathe with women. Additionally, he has been competing against women since at least 2010, as well as participating in women’s dance classes at the San Jose Dance Theatre. He’s reportedly worked as a flight attendant with United Airlines and works part-time as a massage therapist and a Zumba instructor.
In the 2024 San Francisco Marathon, Suising reportedly competed in a “sexy” bumble bee costume, “complete with black nylons and a mini skirt,” Reduxx noted. And, 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 previous years.
In 2015, the outlet noted, the Palo Alto Run Club announced that Suising was seen taking second place in the women’s category of the Brazen Racing half marathon, seizing a $500 prize. Reportedly, he took women’s prizes on two other occasions, second place at the 2015 Jed Smith 50K, and third place at the 2013 Ruth Anderson Memorial Endurance Run.
In November, women’s rights advocate Beth Bourne recognized Suising as one of her attendants on a United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Mexico. Reportedly, Bourne previously competed against Suising at multiple races in Northern California, including the 2014 Golden Gate Park cross-country women’s race.
“I first saw this man in our local racing scene here in the San Francisco/Sacramento area in 2013. It made me so uncomfortable seeing him dressed up as a woman—but I didn’t know what was happening. So I said nothing… [It’s] awful that the race directors let him compete in the women’s category, as it impacted individual and team scoring,” Bourne reportedly said.
“I find it misogynistic and degrading to see men pretending to be women, so I was upset to see a male trans-identified United Airlines flight attendant on my recent flight. As a paying customer, I don’t believe my speech should not be compelled when talking to other passengers, including my boyfriend who was seated next to me, about this flight attendant,” she added.
In 2013, Suising was at the center of controversy when he visited a spa in Washington D.C. area while on a business trip. Reportedly, 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 attempted to file a complaint with the Virginia Human Rights Council that December but did not succeed.