My 12-year-old daughter loves soccer. She’s not an exceptional athlete. She will never compete at a high level or get a college scholarship. She plays sports for the reasons most kids play sports—it’s fun and her friends are doing it. Does she sound a lot like your kid? She is.
She’s also transgender. She has a puberty blocker that will keep her from producing testosterone and she will start taking estrogen in about a year.
Nevertheless, my daughter’s ability to play sports like any other kid is being threatened not only from the usual suspects, but even from prominent Democrats like Gavin Newsom.
These efforts are allegedly in the name of fairness, but the real purpose is to push trans people out of the public eye by taking away their basic civil rights.
Trans Bans Are Not Fair, Scientific, or Logical
All humans have inherent biological differences that can create advantages in sports. World record-breaking swimmer, Michael Phelps, has an abnormally wide wing span. Twenty-nine NBA players have been over 7′. Riley Gains—darling of the anti-trans movement—is significantly taller than the average woman, giving her an advantage in swimming.
These differences are celebrated in cis athletes, while trans women athletes are maligned regardless of their actual physicality or talent.
Trans women make up an infinitesimal percentage of competitive athletes. It is cis and white men who pose the real threat to women’s progress in sports. They dominate all major athletic associations, protect each other when they sexually abuse athletes, enjoy disparities in pay and attention, and often perpetuate stereotypes that damage female athletes.
Some people pretend to believe, and transphobes argue, that trans women are really men masquerading as women to win. There has never been a single documented case of this happening anywhere.
First, transitioning involves the risk of ostracization, violence, political attacks, and many other hardships. As the mother of a trans girl, I promise you that the road to transition is long, painful, and lonely. It is something people undertake when they see no other way.
Second, before its most recent ban, the NCAA had a strict requirement that trans women undergo at least a year of testosterone suppression, a treatment that can cause erectile dysfunction. Faking a gender transition is a highly implausible path to athletic success.
The data also disproves that men will win against women where they failed as men. Yes, Lia Thomas won an NCAA Division 1 championship in the freestyle event in 2022. She also lost to and was outperformed by cis women many times. In the race that sparked her anti-trans advocacy, Riley Gaines tied for 5th place with Lia Thomas yet four cis women beat both of them in that race. Studies have shown that elite trans women athletes who have suppressed their testosterone have no clear biological advantage over cis women.
Those who loudly aim to eradicate the tiny number of trans women in sports are not simultaneously introducing bills and policies to rectify actual inequities that keep large numbers of women, particularly Black and Hispanic women, from playing sports such as lack of access to adequate facilities, coaches, and equipment.
But the most compelling evidence that excluding trans girls and women from sports is not about fairness is that advocates want these bans to apply to kindergarteners.
Trans Bans Hurt All Girls and Women, and are Meant to Divide Us, Not Protect Us
Forcing my daughter off her teams and away from her friends will not only cause her immeasurable pain, but it will also harm her cis gender teammates. Witnessing discrimination can lead to anxiety, depression, and feelings of hopelessness and helplessness.
These bans also empower vigilantes to go after children they merely suspect are trans, creating the kind of fear and suspicion that is reminiscent of American McCarthyism if not 1930s Germany. It also raises concerns about sexual abuse when children are forced to prove their sex.
Playing sports is undeniably a great thing for children. Bans are intended to harm trans children and teens through isolation and exclusion. The issue of trans girls in sports is being used as a cudgel to divide us and to intensify hatred of a tiny, marginalized, and vulnerable population.
It has never been about protecting us.
As a mother who loves my child as much as any mother and wants to protect her from these unprecedented attacks on her right to be a normal, happy kid, I ask you to agree that children should not be used as political pawns. Please join me in fighting back against these unconscionable bans.