Fairness, Not Stigma, for Transgender Athletes

President Trump’s campaign and allies spent $21 million of campaign spending on attack ads against transgender people. With that level of spending, I was shocked to find out it was not a top concern for voters of either party, but it continued to prevail as a campaign priority.

Opponents of transgender participation in sports continue to voice their opinions, three months into the Trump presidency. Just last month, the Trump administration suspended $175 million in federal funding to Penn State over a transgender swimmer. $175 million is a bit dramatic over one swimmer, or in the case of the entire NCAA, fewer than 10 athletes. Even Governor Gavin Newsom was recently under fire for sharing his views on his podcast. Others, like Rep. Nancy Mace, have also caught on to the mediagenic nature of transphobia right now. “You want penises in women's bathrooms, and I'm not going to have it,” she said in a U.S. House hearing last month. I had no clue who Nancy Mace was prior to her notorious views on LGBTQ+ rights. Frankly, her flip from being a supporter of LGBTQ+ rights to shouting “Tr**ny” in a hearing seems less like a change of opinion and more of a cry for attention.

Just this week, Representative Zooey Zephyr spoke to her colleagues in the State Legislature about a bill that would ban drag performances and pride parades in Montana. Her simple cry for humanity flipped 29 Republicans, ultimately killing the bill. To me, this proves that even the most polarizing topics are not that polarizing when you tune out the noise and look at what is right in front of you for what it is.

Recently, at my cousin’s 12-and-under flag football game, it became clear which team was going to win. Their bigger, bulkier builds gave them a clear advantage. “That kid is huge, he looks fourteen,” I heard a parent say to the person next to her.

Besides the off-handed comment, it seemed that the parents took no issue with the size difference. I even turned to my aunt and asked her about it. Her response, “This league is based on age, not size,” warranted a head tilt.

I was confused that there wasn’t more outrage among the parents about the size discrepancy. This response contradicts the sentiment I see online each morning when reading the news. Whether a public figure, politician, or journalist, people seem to be getting worked up about “fairness” in sports, citing a variety of physical characteristics.

In professional sports, there are strict eligibility guidelines set forth by each sport’s governing body. Some sports, often less physically consequential, use simple means like an athlete’s passport. In other sports, like swimming, eligibility is based on testosterone levels. Setting the morality of these types of tests aside, there are a myriad of ways to keep sports fair for all competitive athletes that are already in place.

Hormone panels, drug testing, and weight classes are all within the norm of competitive sports at the professional and Olympic levels. So, I sit here wondering why the media and politicians are so obsessed with an outright ban on transgender athletes when there are all sorts of other ways to ensure fairness.

So, next time you hear people complain about fairness when discussing transgender inclusion in sports, remind them that sports associations already have measures in place to ensure credible competition. And if they are truly concerned with fairness, they should be advocating for stronger protections for all athletes, not the outright banning of an entire group of people.

There is a day in the future when the transgender identity won’t be used as a mask to disguise people’s ignorance and hate. There is a better future where the small subset of people who overtly hate transgender people are not given a platform to keep ruining the lives of kids everywhere who are just trying to play sports with their friends.

Lennon Torres is a Public Voices Fellow on Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse with The OpEd Project. She is an LGBTQ+ advocate who grew up in the public eye, gaining national recognition as a young dancer on television shows. With a deep passion for storytelling, advocacy, and politics, Lennon now works to center the lived experience of herself and others as she crafts her professional career in online child safety at Heat Initiative.