Author: Balian Buschbaum
_Balian Buschbaum_
Reading time: 20 minutes
Synopsis
In his book Why Diversity Concerns Us All (2022), you will read about Balian Buschbaum’s journey. He was once a top athlete. Now, he speaks up for diversity and how important it is for everyone. After his gender transition, he talks openly about courage, identity, and the real meaning of tolerance. He shows why diversity is much more than just a popular word.
What you will find inside: An inspiring life story that shows what you can achieve with courage and by being different.
It was a cool morning on a training ground in Stuttgart. Fog hung over the track. The pole hit the ground, and Yvonne Buschbaum launched herself high into the air. It was a perfect jump. In the late 90s, Buschbaum was seen as a big hope for German pole vaulting. But she not only struggled with jumping high. She also struggled with feeling like a woman. Years later, Buschbaum is now Balian. He talks openly about what it was like to live in the wrong body. He also speaks about finally finding himself after his gender transition. In Why Diversity Concerns Us All, he uses his own story to show why diversity not only makes life richer. He explains why it is essential for us to live together. This is true in sports, in companies, and in all human relationships.
Blink 1 – Diversity is everywhere, but why is it so hard for us to accept?
At the supermarket, it’s hard to choose. Do you want hazelnut, marzipan, chili, or salted caramel? There, diversity is normal and attractive. Nobody would think that everyone should eat only one type of chocolate. But when it comes to people, the desire for differentness seems to disappear. Why do we find diversity so hard in daily life when we love it when we shop?
Balian Buschbaum knows how narrow and plain the world can sometimes be. He was a top athlete and is now a coach. He does not just talk about diversity as a theory. He speaks from his own experience. He knows how it feels to be different and not fit in. And he also knows how freeing it is to finally live as your true self.
For him, diversity is not just a nice public relations idea. It’s not a rainbow flag in June. It is a real way of life. It starts when people listen to each other. They see differences not as problems, but as strengths. This is very clear in companies. Teams with different backgrounds think more broadly. They act faster and find more creative solutions. When someone from another culture, age group, or life experience is at the table, new ideas appear. You would never have thought of them alone. So, diversity is not a luxury. It’s an investment in being ready for the future.
And it includes much more than just gender or background. Diversity also includes religion, age, sexual orientation, physical and mental abilities, or social origins. It’s about knowing that every person brings their own unique experiences. These differences make our shared life richer. If we ignore them, we lose not only our humanity but also new ideas.
Nature shows us every day that diversity helps us survive. A rainforest is stronger than a single type of crop. In just one square meter of forest floor, there are more living things than people in some tall buildings. Some plants only bloom if a specific bee pollinates them. In coral reefs, different types of species help them survive. If one species disappears, the balance breaks. Evolution is simply a big experiment of diversity. It creates new combinations and new solutions all the time.
For society, this means: Without diversity, there is no development, no new ideas, no learning. We need people with different experiences, opinions, bodies, and stories. This helps us grow. Making everyone the same might seem easy, but it makes us slow. Being different, however, keeps us alive.
Diversity means seeing the world with open eyes. It means expanding what we know and making new connections. It is respect in action. It might even be our best way to survive. When you live with diversity, you don’t become smaller. You become bigger. And if you allow it, you will find that real life begins where labels end.
Blink 2 – Free your mind – Acceptance starts in your head
Diversity starts in our minds. And often, that’s where it fails first. We say all people are equally valuable. But in daily life, many people still put others into boxes. The colleague with a headscarf is seen as “very religious.” The young boss is “too inexperienced.” Someone in a wheelchair is pushed without being asked. True inclusion does not mean making everyone the same. It means making differences normal. Integration helps people take part. Inclusion changes systems so that no one can be excluded anymore.
Many parts of our identity overlap. A Black woman with Down syndrome experiences different unfair treatment than an older man with a walking problem. Or a young trans man with a migrant background. This overlap of different disadvantages is called intersectionality.
One of the most visible, but also most misunderstood, parts of diversity is gender. Even during an ultrasound, people want to know: Boy or girl? Most times, the visible gender matches the person’s identity later. But not always. About one in 5,000 children are born with unclear sexual organs. These people are called intersex. There are also trans people. Their inner feeling of gender does not match their body they were born with.
Along with gender diversity comes sexual orientation. Some people fall in love no matter what gender someone is. They call themselves pansexual or omnisexual. Others do not feel sexual attraction and call themselves asexual. Studies show about eight percent of Germans are part of the LGBTQI+ community. Many experience different kinds of unfair treatment. This can range from small comments to open attacks.
If you think this diversity is a new thing, you are wrong. In North America, the “Two Spirits” of native peoples are seen as sacred helpers between genders. In India, the Hijras have been part of the culture for hundreds of years. And in Indonesia, there are even five genders. The fifth gender is seen as especially wise. Nature also shows how endless diversity is. Clownfish can change their gender. Male seahorses give birth to babies. Snails have both male and female parts. Diversity is not a trend. It is a law of nature.
And yet, many people find it hard to accept this reality. Being trans is often still seen as “different.” But it is simply a normal way of being human. Balian Buschbaum wants to show this. That is why he suggests the term trans*normal. It means that being trans is not a deviation. It is a natural part of diversity. For Buschbaum, his journey was not just a medical process. It was a journey of his whole being. From just surviving to truly living. From feeling pressure to fit in, to being his true self. He talks openly and honestly about this journey. He tells about his childhood as Yvonne. He talks about his years in sports. And he shares his decision to live as a man.
Blink 3 – Higher, further, different – between achievement and self-image
Even as a child, Yvonne Buschbaum was always moving. She was a quiet but very aware child. She preferred climbing to painting, and running to talking. Dolls did not interest her. Instead, she liked football, technology, and anything that promised speed. She wanted to be like the boys, and they saw her that way too. Only adults reminded her that she was a girl.
Sport became a way out early on. She started athletics training at seven. Soon, she showed an amazing talent. Sport gave her structure. It allowed her body to feel free. It also channeled her energy, which might have otherwise become destructive. Buschbaum later said that sport saved his life. It allowed Yvonne to feel strong. In training, everything felt right: her body, her will, her performance.
At sixteen, she moved into her own apartment to train professionally. In pole vaulting, she found the perfect sport. It was powerful, precise, and risky. In 1998, she won bronze at the European Championships. In 1999, she became German Champion and set a new German record of 4.42 meters. The dream of the Olympics seemed close.
But behind her success, inner tension grew. Her body developed as female, but her own self-image fought against it. She hid her growing chest under tight sports tops, which made breathing hard. She liked herself less and less in the mirror. Her anger about her body pushed her to work even harder. She trained more than anyone else and found a kind of control in the pain.
Yvonne also looked for acceptance in love. She felt attracted to women early on. But she never felt like one of them. She would never have called herself lesbian. In her relationships, she wanted to be the protector, not the gentle partner. The women who loved her saw her as a young, strong man. But living in the wrong body made every tender moment difficult. It made her feel limited again and again.
Sport remained her last safe place. But in 2004, her Achilles tendon tore. The pain came suddenly, as if life itself was breaking apart. Several operations followed. Then months of recovery and setbacks. The Achilles tendon, which connects muscle and bone, became a symbol of a body that could no longer carry what was inside it.
What started as a sports setback became a deep personal crisis. The injury showed what had been building up for a long time. It was an unsolvable conflict between the body the world saw and the person trapped inside. No decision had been made yet. But the feeling grew that something fundamental had to change. Not in training, but in life itself.
Blink 4 – The big step – Balian becomes Balian
The decision to change his life did not happen in one big moment. It slowly came over him. After years of pushing feelings away, training, and just getting by, one day a question changed everything. It came from his partner at the time, Violetta. She asked him kindly but directly: “Why don’t you just have surgery?” For the first time, the thought was spoken aloud. The forbidden topic was now open. This simple-seeming question opened a door that could not be closed again.
Balian – who was Yvonne at the time – started to research, read, and understand. For the first time, the feeling of living in the wrong body had a name: trans identity. It was a relief. It was not a flaw or a whim. It was a recognized reality. And there were ways to change this mismatch.
The first step was a talk with a psychologist. There, Buschbaum explained that this was not just a phase. It was a clear feeling he had had since childhood. After only a few sessions, he was given the OK for hormone therapy. Taking testosterone also meant the end of his sports career. This is because testosterone is seen as a banned substance in sports. But leaving professional sports felt like freedom for Balian.
The day of his first hormone shot was like a second birthday. First, the body changes came slowly. His skin itched, he had a constant hunger, and he wanted meat and exercise. Then, after some months, his voice changed. It became rough, broken, and new. Balian was going through voice change. Soon, visible changes followed. Muscles grew stronger, his face became more defined, and he grew a beard and chest hair.
At the same time, the paperwork began: new IDs, name change, endless forms. The name “Balian” was a careful choice. It was inspired by the real person Balian of Ibelin from the movie Kingdom of Heaven. This character loses everything to find himself. The name stands for a new start, courage, honor, and self-determination.
In 2008, he finally had gender-affirming surgery. Buschbaum was 27 years old when he had surgery in Munich. This was a time when the topic was hardly discussed publicly. Trans people were mostly not seen in Germany. So, how his friends and family reacted was even more amazing. They showed openness, understanding, and surprisingly, a lot of normality. His mother mainly wanted her child to be happy. His sister also supported him without any doubt.
Even Balian’s coach was moved. He lost “his athlete” but found the person behind her in a new way. For many who knew him, this step did not make him strange. It finally made him real. What he did did not seem like a sudden change. It seemed like the natural outcome of a long journey.
The surgery Buschbaum chose in 2008 was a turning point. It was physical, emotional, and medical. He chose the “all-in-one method.” He did not want to split the long process into several operations. In a nine-hour surgery marathon, doctors removed his breasts, uterus, ovaries, and vagina. At the same time, they formed his new penis. For this, they took skin, blood vessels, and nerves from his forearm. They rolled the tissue using a clever “tube-in-tube” method. This created the urethra inside and the shaft outside. The micro-surgeons connected tiny vessels in the groin area. They also connected nerves to allow for feeling later. The place on his forearm where tissue was taken was covered with skin from his hip. This left a visible scar. Buschbaum later wore it with pride as part of his story.
After the surgery, Balian was in bed for weeks. Drains, catheters, and lying still prevented the sensitive nerve connections from breaking. Healing took months. It came with pain, dizziness, and tiredness. But also with a new kind of hope. Later, an erectile implant was put in. This is a small hydraulic system completely inside the body. With a small pump in the scrotum, an erection can be created with the push of a button and held for as long as desired. It was a great technical achievement. Despite all the difficulties and risks – infections, fistulas, and numb skin areas – Buschbaum felt this process was a release. Finally, his outside body matched his inner feelings.
Blink 5 – Living true diversity – Balian Buschbaum today
When you meet Balian Buschbaum today, his clear manner stands out first. He seems grounded, funny, and direct. He is like someone who knows himself and no longer needs to prove anything. After years of professional sports, public attention, and inner struggles, he has found a life. This life is not driven by what others expect. It is guided by his own beliefs.
Today, Buschbaum works as a coach, speaker, and author. He helps people through changes. He also supports teams and leaders to not just promote diversity, but to truly understand it. His talks about courage, self-acceptance, and diversity are popular. They don’t offer textbook knowledge. They share real-life experience. When you listen to him, you don’t hear an activist. You hear a person who knows what it means to remake himself physically, professionally, and emotionally.
Balian talks about diversity as a strength, not as something you just have to do. A diverse team, he says, is like a good orchestra. Its strength comes not from everyone playing the same note. It comes from everyone bringing their own voice. Diversity creates new ideas, empathy, and the ability to adapt. These are things that companies and society as a whole really need today.
Buschbaum knows how hard it is to accept yourself when you are different from the norm. That’s why he values how openly society talks about gender and identity today. This is much more open than 15 years ago when he started his transition. Back then, he was one of the first German top athletes to speak publicly about being trans. This step took a lot of courage. It also gave courage to many others.
Despite public attention, Balian has never let himself be seen only as “the example trans man.” “I am not someone who constantly talks about gender,” he says. “I talk about being human.” This is exactly where his strength lies. When he talks about diversity, he talks about it as a universal idea. He wants people to see others in their differences. This applies to gender, background, religion, age, or social origin.
His own openness has opened many doors for him. As a participant in Let’s Dance in 2013, he showed millions of viewers that being trans is neither strange nor hard to understand. He danced, laughed, failed, and shined, simply as a human being. This normalness was his biggest statement.
His beloved grandmother, “Omili,” deeply shaped his views. She never spoke of diversity. She simply lived it. Once, when they watched a TV show about the topic, Omili simply said: “Everyone should just live how they want.” This sentence remains a motto for Buschbaum’s life to this day.
Conclusion
Balian Buschbaum today represents real diversity and true strength. His journey from a top athlete to a voice for diversity shows how courage and self-acceptance can change entire lives. For him, diversity is not a trend. It is the basis for growth, humanity, and success. Those who live with diversity create spaces where people can grow. They can do this regardless of gender, background, or identity. Buschbaum’s story reminds us that true freedom begins when we stop hiding ourselves.
We hope you can take away a lot from this summary. Thank you for being with us!
Source: https://www.blinkist.com/https://www.blinkist.com/de/books/warum-diversity-uns-alle-angeht-de