Editor’s note: frankie de la cletas I am an independent journalist who writes at the intersection of sports and gender. They are co-authors of “.Hail Mary: The rise and fall of the National Women’s Football League” and their work has been featured in publications such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Sports Illustrated. The opinions expressed in this article are their own.read more opinions On CNN.
CNN
—
A teenage girl in Utah had to seek police protection after a member of the Utah State Board of Education suggested she might be transgender (she is not). In a now-deleted Facebook post, board member Natalie Klein incorrectly suggested the teenager’s gender identity. After the incident, the girl’s parents described their daughter as a muscular, short-haired, tomboyish girl who liked baggy clothes, and said she was now experiencing severe cyberbullying and harassment. she announced.
Delia M. Harrington
frankie de la cletas
The Utah State Board of Education said in a statement that leadership is “deeply concerned” by Klein’s Facebook post and the “harm it has caused to Utah students and families.”Issued by Governor Spencer Cox and Lieutenant Governor Deirdre Henderson. Joint statement He called her actions “unconscionable” and urged the school district to hold her accountable. The district called for Klein’s resignation. Klein cited her right to free speech in a Facebook post that read, “I deeply apologize for the negative attention my post has brought to an innocent student and her family. It also included a public apology.
But while Klein’s post was extremely harmful, it didn’t happen in a vacuum. The reality here, that implying the presence of a transgender girl on a school’s basketball team could pose a risk of harm, is that the reality of trans women in this country, particularly when it comes to girls’ and women’s sports, It is a product of an environment of growing panic. team.
Anyone who has been paying attention to the legal attacks on transgender Americans knows that the fear-mongering rhetoric and xenophobic policies targeting trans women and girls ultimately harm cisgender girls as well. You could have predicted it would be. It was always going to be that way.
Currently, 24 states have passed laws banning transgender children from playing sports consistent with their gender identity, but this bill primarily affects girls’ sports and transgender girls who want to participate in women’s sports. It gives In addition, a flurry of bills have been passed that would ban transgender people from accessing gender-affirming care and using gender-appropriate bathrooms and locker rooms. So far in 2024, an astonishing 455 anti-trans bills have been introduced in 41 different states, effectively amounting to an all-out assault on the right of transgender people to exist in public life.
In 2022, the Utah Legislature banned transgender girls from high school girls sports. Cox vetoed the bill, citing high suicide rates among transgender youth and the bill’s targeting of vulnerable and marginalized groups, but Republican officials said the governor’s veto A bill was passed to revoke the right and prohibit the act. In August 2022, after the parents of two transgender girls filed a lawsuit, a Utah judge granted a preliminary injunction allowing the girls to compete on girls’ teams. The case, like several other challenges to sports bans in other states, is still pending judicial review.
These lawsuits are not just about whether transgender girls have equal rights and freedom from discrimination, but also what it means to be a girl. It is precisely how we define that right. That’s what the powerful politicians who are introducing these bills want. A similar movement is occurring at the elite level of sports, where a number of policies have been implemented in recent years that ban or limit the ability of trans women to compete alongside cis women.
The main argument for passing these regulations was made by Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, a co-sponsor of a Republican House bill humorously titled “Protecting Women and Girls in Sports Law.” , depends on the characterization of transgender girls. “A direct threat to women’s sports” and all female athletes across our country. ”
But trans athletes and their allies say that these kinds of restrictive policies that regulate the gender of transgender girls are the exact opposite of protecting women and girls, including cisgender women. It has long argued that it puts all women and girls at risk. “It’s especially frustrating when women’s sports are weaponized,” said Megan Rapinoe, a soccer star and former member of the U.S. women’s national team. “Oh, now we care about equity? Now we care about women’s sports? That’s total bullshit. And being transgender in sports is atrocious. Show me all the trans people who are being exploited in a nefarious way. It’s just not happening.” Rapinoe is not the only cisgender female athlete to highlight this sentiment. In fact, the first trans sports ban contested in Idaho included concerns that if the policy allowed the questioning of the gender of female athletes who do not conform to certain constructs of femininity, their own safety could be at risk. It involves a cisgender plaintiff who identifies as such. .
This is exactly what happened to a teenage girl in Utah. The girl’s mother told local news outlets that she “doesn’t think it’s appropriate to look at someone’s appearance and make assumptions about whether or not they’re playing in the right arena based on their appearance.” She said: “It really hurt my heart to have to have this conversation with her daughter.”
And this isn’t the first time Utah has investigated the gender of its female student-athletes. In 2022, authorities investigated the girl’s gender identity after she won a competition and the parents of the second- and third-place finishers filed a complaint. The complaint questions the winner’s gender identity. Last year, adults in California suspended a track and field meet to question the gender of a 9-year-old girl. Both of these girls are cisgender.
It’s worth noting that in all of these cases, it’s the adults who make the children question their gender. In many cases, it is the women, the mothers, who claim to be “protecting” their daughters from the outsider “threat” of transgender girls, as they did during school segregation under Jim Crow. It highlights how white mothers targeted black students. . This comparison is no coincidence. Republican strategist Sarah Longwell told Time magazine that trans sports bans are “gaining traction for the same reasons election audits are.” [critical race theory] “Ban is popular,” he said, calling it “a PR campaign disguised as a bill aimed at putting the culture wars at the center of the conversation,” preying on the fears of voters who fear losing institutional power. He explained that he was doing so.
As The New Republic’s Melissa Gira Grant writes, “Cisgender mothers of cisgender girls are enlisting themselves in the fight for transgender rights,” and describe them as “following in the footsteps of a cadre of sometimes successful mothers in the history of American civil rights.” They repackaged discriminatory policies as necessary to protect children – their children and the children of others like them. (No consideration is given to the mothers of transgender girls, perhaps because they want to protect their children.)
But as long as transgender girls’ gender identities are policed, cisgender girls will continue to be policed as well. The history of gender policing and gender testing in sports shows that to be true. During the Victorian era, women were not allowed to play most sports for fear of becoming “too masculine”. Over the next century, these fears evolved to include chromosomal and hormonal testing, dating back to Nazi Germany’s Berlin Olympics, and involving black and brown athletes and even intersex athletes. had a disproportionate impact.
When we impose arbitrary standards of gender markers on women and girls—markers that rely on white and Western ideals of femininity and hold oppressive ideas about their bodies—all girls suffer. It should come as no surprise to anyone that trans panic and restrictive laws that rely on policing girls’ gender conformity are dangerous. We risk our children being subjected to unnecessary genital examinations (which amount to sexual abuse) and harassment just for being who they are.
All of this also has lasting effects. According to a 2021 study by The Trevor Project, many LGBTQ+ youth have never participated in organized sports, and many cited fear of bullying and discrimination as the main reason for refraining from playing. “I avoided sports activities out of fear, not indifference,” said one participant. (A new study published last month also found that transgender girls mainly avoid sports out of fear of harassment.) did).
Get our free weekly newsletter
Sports have been shown to positively impact the mental health of young people of all genders who participate, with the Trevor Project’s 2022 National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ Youth finding that more than half are transgender. Given what has turned out to be the case, these fears come at a sobering price. Additionally, non-binary youth have seriously considered suicide in the past year, with nearly 1 in 5 actually attempting suicide. Making sport a place where their identities are monitored, and denying children the opportunity to seek a constructive outlet through sport, deprives already vulnerable children of that benefit. If cisgender girls avoid sports due to these fears, they will be similarly negatively impacted.
Anti-trans groups have created a false argument that pits cis girls and trans girls against each other to further their own agenda. This is an effective tactic that leads to infighting with virtual enemies rather than fostering the kind of solidarity that is possible for marginalized groups. It targets the real enemy: a patriarchal system that puts everyone at a disadvantage from birth, just like women. Even what many perceive to be legitimate issues of “equity” are being weaponized to reinforce an anti-trans agenda that ultimately hurts all women. This effort is further enabled by public ignorance regarding the perceived (and greatly exaggerated) physical differences between women and women. Trans and cis athletes.
These anti-trans policies are cruel to transgender children and should be enough to make an argument against transgender children. But for those who only seem to care about how their children will be affected, and for those who claim to care about the safety of girls, there is no way to “protect” girls from their transgender partners. We now have concrete evidence that these policies designed to protect girls are actually putting girls at risk.
If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or mental health issues, call the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988 to be connected to a trained counselor or call the 988 Lifeline Please visit our website.