This year, we’re seeing a tidal wave of transphobic legislation targeting kids, largely
in retaliation for President Biden’s executive order to protect trans rights.
- It’s estimated more than half of all states are considering bills that would restrict
trans rights. A record 80+ in all, most involving either medical care or sports. In at least
seven states, those bills have become law—most recently West Virginia, where the governor
there signed a bill to ban transgender girls and women from participating in sports at
the elementary, secondary, or post-secondary level consistent with their gender identity.
This is so awful. The only person who should be kicked off their team is the soccer coach
who spends the entire practice complaining about his divorce. There are more legislative
proposals aimed at trans people now than in the last three years. And they’re all as
wrong as Gwyneth Paltrow’s sunscreen routine. - The argument that lawmakers are bringing
to this is that transgender inclusion in sports would harm women’s equality.
- When you allow boys to compete on girls’ sports teams, the boys are going to be, because
of their physiology, superior in general, superior performance. They’re going to take
scholarships that are supposed to go for girls. - So I have three daughters, TJ. And in this
country we have fought for years and years to ensure equal opportunity for female athletes.
If you allow biological males to compete on the athletic field with biological females,
then biological females are going to be put at a disadvantage.
Man, f*** off, Tate Reeves! Maybe the guy who looks like he was bitten by a radioactive
Bible college should stop invoking science. Conservatives are staging a coordinated attack
on trans kids by making up a problem that absolutely doesn’t exist. And you know they’re
desperate because this time they’re saying it’s to “protect women’s rights.”
Usually, Republicans only care about women’s rights when Callista Gingrich is fighting
for the right to make chili while wearing a business suit. I support a woman’s right
to choose, but some women choose stupid. Most of the legislators who sponsored anti-trans
bills this year can’t even cite a single instance where trans girls competing in sports
has caused problems. Rather, these laws stem from the very incorrect misconception that
trans women are not women. - People substitute the words “transgender
girl” and “transgender women” for men and boys, and I think there needs to be a
distinction drawn. Transgender women and transgender girls do not have men’s bodies, especially
after they start hormone treatment or puberty blockers.
- Most medical experts, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, say theres no scientific
or medical evidence that transgender female athletes inherently have an edge.
It should go without saying that trans women are not men, and they don’t share the same
physical traits as cis men. More importantly, you can’t assume all trans people have the
same athletic ability. Just like you can’t assume that all cis men and cis women have
the same athletic ability. If that were the case, it would be really good news for me,
and really bad news for Serena Williams. Republicans love to use “testosterone” as a buzzword
when discussing trans athletes. They falsely claim trans women automatically have more
testosterone, and therefore more muscle mass than cis women. But studies don’t show a
consistent relationship between testosterone and athletic performance. They do, however,
show a consistent relationship between testosterone and when things went wrong for Carrot Top.
But all that pesky science still hasn’t stopped every single conservative s***head
from perpetuating these lies. - If this is not changed, women’s sports
as we know it will die. They’ll end. - The discipline, the teamwork, the comradery,
the competitiveness that girls’ sports teaches is effectively destroyed from this bill.
- So should someone who looks like me—I look like a man, you’d think I was a man—I
say I’m a woman and I demand a plan to play on a woman’s sports team, I demand to go
to a women’s college. That’s a real thing. That’s not a real thing, and no one’s
doing that, you transphobic, bleached white a******. The world is not Tootsie. If the
world is any Dustin Hoffman movie, it’s Meet the Fockers. It was a documentary. There
was really a family named the Fockers, and Robert De Niro really met them. So why are
conservatives actually targeting trans athletes? Fear mongering, baby! Just like with the bathroom
bills, Republicans are trying to scare their base into voting for people like Governor
If Life Didn’t Go Well Pat Sajak. And they’re pulling out all the stops. More than 30 states
have already introduced bills that would ban transgender students from playing on teams
that match their gender identities. In March 2020, Idaho passed a transgender athlete ban
that’s become a template for other states. The law not only required athletes to participate
in sports based on their sex assigned at birth, it also mandated that all participants answer
invasive questions about their sex, surgical procedures, medications, and if they’ve
had sex organs removed. That is disgusting. It’s such a terrible invasion of privacy,
even transvaginal wands were like, “whoa, that’s f****d up.” Furthermore, if an
athlete’s sex is challenged by an opposing coach or parent, that athlete would be required
to have a physical, genetic, or hormonal exam conducted by a physician. Forcing kids to
undergo invasive and traumatizing exams like that opens the door for abuse. Thankfully,
the Idaho law is temporarily being blocked by a federal judge. But it still paved the
way for the onslaught of anti-trans laws we’ve seen in 2021. Mississippi has the non-honor
of being the first state to pass an anti-trans athlete law this year. Although that makes
sense in a state whose best feature is a sign that says “Now Leaving Mississippi.” The
law takes effect on July 1 and requires public schools and universities to have athletes
compete according to their sex assigned at birth. Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, and West
Virginia have enacted their own versions of the law, and South Dakota's governor issued
executive orders specifically prohibiting trans girls from playing on girls’ teams.
The only way South Dakota could be more regressive is if it spawned its own Deep South Dakota.
Their state flag is just a photo of Kirk Cameron. And it’s not just state laws. Republicans
are also trying to pull this s*** in Congress. In January, Florida Representative Greg Steube
introduced a bill to make it illegal for sports programs to receive federal funds if they
permit trans girls to play on teams for their identified gender. Later, Mike Lee introduced
a similar bill in the Senate. Don’t you a******s have more important things to do?
Like, I don’t know, discussing how God can’t see it if it’s in the back hole? And remember,
trans people just want to participate in sports for the same reason any kid wants to!
- I don’t know how I would’ve gotten through high school if I didn’t have my running
teams. They were my only friend group. - I love track because of the community within
track. - I love track because I feel like I’m a
part of a second family. It’s another bond that you experience.
- I actually wanted to join my girls high school bowling team because I wanted to just
hang out with my friends. And so it just is really disappointing that there are people
who don’t want me to hang out and play with my friends.
Oh my God, people, just let her live! The nerds on the bowling team would be so lucky
to have her. They really need some cool points. Currently, only 12% of trans girls and 14%
of trans boys play team sports, compared to 68% of all youth. Anti-trans policies are
only going to further decrease the number of LGBTQ athletes participating. Look, trans
kids aren’t going to destroy high school sports. That has already been accomplished
by the sport of dodgeball. Also, trans people have been competing on the collegiate level
for years, and everybody has survived just fine. Except for that time the Duke Blue Devil
fell through a burning hoop and went straight to hell. But that was unrelated! Claiming
trans women are taking away opportunities from cis women is just false. If anything,
it’s cis men who are getting in the way. Trust me, I know! Gender is not binary, and
there is no single biological measure that unassailably places every person into one
of two categories. We need to create an environment for trans people to exist safely and socially,
and that includes playing sports. Every kid deserves to be able to play sports—if only
so they can experience the exquisite joy of someday quitting that sport. Let’s be real.
Conservatives don’t actually care about this! They just want to politically profit
from excluding trans people from yet another public space. At the end of the day, Republicans
need to stop policing other peoples’ bodies, mind their own f***ing business, and let trans
people live their lives.