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transgender athletes
The Spreaders of the Trans Athlete Moral Panic Live in a Fact-Free Fantasyland
As political mayhem continues to unfold across the country and wider world, it is vital to remember that trans rights are human rights. Full stop.
Mar 21, 2025
During his recent speech to U.S. Congress, President Donald Trump turbocharged his manufactured moral panic targeting the trans community. “I signed an order making it the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female,” he gloated. “I also signed an executive order to ban men from playing in women’s sports.” Banishing trans people from public life was just “common sense,” he declared.
Trump’s bilious spectacle was to be expected, but California Gov. Gavin Newsom only made things worse when, days later, he claimed during conversation with neofascist MAGA cretin Charlie Kirk that the participation of transgender athletes in women’s sports was “deeply unfair.” Newsom added that “the issue of fairness is completely legit. So, I completely align with you.” He concluded, “That’s easy to call out: the unfairness.”
As with so many things that gush from Trump’s gullet, his remarks were brutish bunk. But Newsom, who often tries to shield himself with the fact that he supported marriage equality as far back as 2004, also stood on shaky factual ground. Moreover, in his cringey conversation with Kirk, Gov. Newsom let slip the reason why both he and Trump are so willing to sacrifice the human rights of trans people: electoral politics. In public polling, Newsom said of Democrats, “We’re getting crushed on it.”
Political messaging should be based on shared values, not the short-term political whims of the opportunistic.
In this political environment, so much that passes for “common sense” argument is just evidence-free, anti-science vibes. But facts still matter, or at least they should. “To abandon facts is to abandon freedom,” writes historian Timothy Snyder in his pithy bookOn Tyranny.
When it comes to any supposed advantages that trans women athletes may have, the actual facts are quite different from the “common-sense” hype. The scientific evidence has repeatedly shown that trans women who have undergone hormone replacement therapy for more than a year actually do not have an advantage. One in-depth review of existing scientific literature on transgender athlete participation in competitive sport published between 2011 and 2021 found that “trans women who have undergone testosterone suppression have no clear biological advantages over cis women in elite sport.”
Another study found that transgender women athletes could actually be disadvantaged: “Compared with cisgender women,” the study found, “transgender women have decreased lung function, increasing their work in breathing.” Douglas Oberlin, an exercise physiologist who reviewed the scientific evidence related to transgender athletes’ performance, notes that “the limited information available does not suggest that trans men and trans women have much, if any, athletic advantage post-transition.” Oberlin also highlights that sport federations focus on average differences between cis and trans athletes but overlook performance variations within cis athletes.
Clearly, more research is needed before creating exclusionary policies. But given the small number of transgender athletes, Oberlin cautions that excluding them from sports solely due to concerns about inequality or injury risk “may be a solution in search of a problem.”
Back in the terfy, moral-panic fantasyland, such rational caution is nowhere to be found. In their own ways, Trump and Newsom treat trans people as if they were mere political chits to be swapped and bartered. This despite the fact that experts from the United Nations have asserted, “Categoric exclusions of trans and intersex women from women’s sports is a prima facie violation of human rights.” As sports writer Frankie de la Cretaz toldThe Nation, “Denying a group of people their basic human rights is morally reprehensible and illegal, regardless of the size of that community.”
Forming political values based on polling numbers is bereft of ethics. After all, interracial marriage didn’t surpass 50% approval in the United States until the mid-1990s. In 2005, 68% of those polled thought same-sex marriage should not be recognized as valid whereas today the very opposite is the case. Political messaging should be based on shared values, not the short-term political whims of the opportunistic.
Let’s be absolutely clear: The stakes are sky-high. The endgame of this bipartisan, anti-trans witch hunt is twofold. On the practical side, it enables the bracing possibility of raving randos demanding genital checks from the sidelines of youth sports events for kids who don’t conform to their strict versions of gender. (In West Virginia, Republicans have already voted through legislation green-lighting healthcare providers’ ability to perform genital checks on children without parental consent). But more broadly, the endgame is trans banishment. As journalist Dave Zirin put it, “The ‘pro-trans in everything but sports’ position can metastasize into… a broader anti-trans stance, the forcible erasure of transgender people from society.”
The push to expel trans women from elite sport, aided and abetted by Democrats like Gavin Newsom, is stoked by what Judith Butler calls “fascist passions.” As M. Gessen recently wrote, “The message, consistent and unrelenting, is that trans people are a threat to the nation. The subtext is that we are not of this nation.”
Fortunately, despite Trump and Newsom’s craven political opportunism, not all elected officials are singing from their grim hymnal. Democrats in the U.S. Senate recently scuppered a Republican bill that would have banned transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports. In Montana, elected officials went further, with more than two dozen Republicans flipping the Trumpain script and voting against a slew of anti-trans bills.
As political mayhem continues to unfold across the country and wider world, it is vital to remember that trans rights are human rights. Full stop. One day a thriving trans community will be as normalized as interracial or same-sex marriage. But this won’t happen automatically. It’s time to stand up. This battle is far from over.
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'Bigoted Folks' Love Trans Sports Ban, Says AOC—And So Do CEOs for the Diversion It Creates
"Los Angeles is on fire right now, and this is the number one priority this majority has," said the congresswoman.
Jan 14, 2025
While Republicans claimed a bill restricting transgender girls' participation in school sports was aimed at protecting "our culture and civilization" on Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said the legislation benefits the corporate class as it distracts from true life-threatening emergencies faced by communities across the country.
"Thank you for your concern about women for the first time that I've seen," said the New York Democrat on the House floor, noting that Republicans have consistently voted against the Violence Against Women Act and backed abortion bans that have stripped women of the ability to control their own bodies proven deadly.
But contrary to the GOP's claims that barring transgender girls and women from playing on sports teams that align with their gender will protect girls from assault, Ocasio-Cortez suggested, the biggest beneficiaries of the legislation include corporate executives whose companies do far more harm to American families than transgender athletes.
"I know who loves this bill," said the congresswoman. "Yes, bigoted folks love this bill. Assaulters love this bill. But also, CEOs love this bill. Because Los Angeles is on fire right now, and this is the number one priority this majority has."
The bill passed 218-206, with the entire Republican caucus supporting it and all but two Democrats voting no. If the legislation is signed into law, schools that receive federal funding would be barred from allowing transgender girls from playing on girls' sports teams.
Republicans have poured $111 million on political ads regarding the issue in the past year, as communities in the Southeast have suffered catastrophic hurricane damage and homelessness has soared by 18%.
Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) agreed with Ocasio-Cortez's comments about the distraction caused by the transgender sports bill.
"Republicans fearmonger about the trans community to divert attention from the fact they have no real solutions to help everyday Americans," said Bonamici. "Transgender students, like all students, they deserve the same opportunity as their peers to learn teamwork, to find belonging and to grow into well-rounded adults through sports."
Ocasio-Cortez added that the bill, which lacks an enforcement mechanism, would open the door to "genital examinations" of student athletes as it would force schools to confirm the sex assigned at birth of each member of a school sports team.
"What this also opens the door for is for women to try to perform a very specific kind of femininity for the very kind of men who are drafting this bill, and to open up questioning of who is a woman because of how we look, how we present ourselves, and yes, what we choose to do with our bodies," said Ocasio-Cortez.
The so-called Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act was the subject of a letter signed by more than 400 civil society groups on Monday, who urged members of Congress to reject the "discriminatory proposal."
"Although the authors of the legislation represent themselves as serving the interests of cisgender girls and women, this legislation does not address the longstanding barriers all girls and women have faced in their pursuit of athletics," said the groups, led by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. "We firmly believe that an attack on transgender youth is an attack on civil rights."
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'Beyond Cruel': Ohio House GOP Overrides Veto of Bill Attacking Trans Kids
"To make matters worse, Ohio is now considering adopting sweeping new rules that would restrict the care that Ohio providers can provide to all transgender patients of all ages," one group noted.
Jan 10, 2024
In another blow to LGBTQ+ rights, Republicans in the Ohio House of Representatives voted Wednesday to overturn GOP Gov. Mike DeWine's recent veto of legislation that would ban gender-affirming healthcare for transgender youth and prohibit them from playing on school sports teams that match their identity.
While announcing his veto of House Bill 68 last month, DeWine—who spoke with families that would be affected by the bill—said, "Many parents have told me that their child would not have survived, would be dead today, if they had not received the treatment they received from one of Ohio's children's hospitals."
Rights groups and impacted families similarly highlighted the stakes after the Ohio House's 65-28 vote on Wednesday, which is expected to be followed by a vote in the state Senate on January 24.
As The Columbus Dispatch reported:
Betty Elswick of Marysville traveled to Columbus on Wednesday to protest the vote with her 16-year-old son, Parker, who has been receiving hormone therapy for four months. Elswick said the family will likely leave Ohio if House Bill 68 becomes law so Parker can access the healthcare he needs.
"If this gets passed through, it's going to kill kids," Parker Elswick said.
"We are extremely disappointed that the Ohio House continued their crusade against transgender youth and their families by returning early for an emergency session to override the governor's veto on H.B. 68," declared the ACLU of Ohio. "This state-sponsored vendetta against some of Ohio's most vulnerable young people is beyond cruel."
"The ACLU of Ohio stands in solidarity with all transgender youth and their families," the organization stressed. "This measure may force families to leave the state, disrupting communities and other deep ties to Ohio's history and economy."
The ACLU of Ohio also noted Wednesday that "to make matters worse, Ohio is now considering adopting sweeping new rules that would restrict the care that Ohio providers can provide to all transgender patients of all ages."
"These proposed restrictions, if finalized, would make Ohio the most restrictive state in the country with respect to evidence-based healthcare, imposing disastrous burdens on providers untethered from any medical guidelines," the group warned. "Ohioans do not want government officials involved in private medical decisions, these matters should be reserved for parents, children, and doctors."
While DeWine won widespread praise for his veto, "late Friday, the governor announced a new executive order and a set of rules from the state's health department that could threaten access to gender-affirming care across the state, even for trans adults," MSNBC columnist Katelyn Burns, the first openly transgender Capitol Hill reporter, explained Wednesday.
"Trans people used to die from secretive, underground bottom surgeries, and health issues frequently popped up among those who got black-market hormones with self-prescribed dosages," Burns noted. "We must avoid returning to a world where trans people are forced to turn to dark-market providers for their lifesaving medical needs, and that means we must vigorously and vocally oppose DeWine's onerous government overreach into the private lives of trans people. The quality of transition care depends on it."
In addition to battling over gender-affirming healthcare and sports teams, Ohio Republicans are considering House Bill 183, which would prevent trans students at public K-12 schools and universities from using bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their identity.
During an Ohio House Higher Education Committee hearing for the bathroom bill on Wednesday, one of the sponsors, Rep. Beth Lear (R-61), used a Bible verse to justify the bill and suggested supporters of trans students should be executed.
"If I had a child who thought he was a bird, am I going to take him to a doctor who tells him the best thing to do is to let him explore being a bird?" Lear also said, according to The Enquirer. "And oh, by the way, there's a five-story building next door—why don't you jump off and see if you can fly?"
Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio argued Wednesday that "trans people deserve equal accommodations. Going to the bathroom is a normal bodily function and trans people should be able to do so in the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity."
"Make no mistake—bathroom bills are part of a larger dehumanization campaign against the trans community," the group added. "There are so many other initiatives the Legislature could be focused on instead of perpetuating unnecessary surveillance and harm to the trans community."
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