They're lying to you about transgender women and girls in sports
They're lying about transgender people in this world. They're lying about what LGBTQ+ inclusion in society really means, and they're lying about trans people in sports. They're lying about a 'transgender cult' and 'transgender insanity,' about teachers indoctrinating kids with 'transgender ideology' and about 'making mice transgender.'
Right-wing activists, anti-trans bigots, many politicians, the president — they're lying to you about many things but especially trans women and girls in sports. They're lying about transgender athletes supposedly ruining women's sports, and they're lying about this being a ubiquitous 'problem.'
They are deliberately and strategically lying about trans folks' lives, about trans athletes and about their own disingenuous motivations for pushing these lies. They don't care because they keep doing it.
Worse, it's working.
Trans people are among the many marginalized groups politicians vilify to secure your vote and then flood the country with executive orders, proposed laws and policies filled with bigotry and cruelty — all designed to exclude people from the society in which they (should) have every right to participate. These leaders prey on fear as the ultimate motivator, fabricating a problem where there isn't one to pull the masses on board with their larger platform.
Trans women are women, and, especially in sports, they're being scapegoated.
A red herring, they're disproportionately discussed and debated, like they're the most pervasive and urgent dilemma facing the country today, and anti-trans activists rely on inflated or straight-up invented numbers to sway people into believing they're addressing a problem that doesn't exist.
There are 510,000 NCAA athletes in the U.S., as NCAA president Charlie Baker explained to a Senate panel in December, and he's aware of 'less than 10' athletes who identify as transgender. But if you believe many right-wing voices, you'd think it was far more than 0.001961 percent of college athletes.
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They're lying about trans people, especially trans women and girls in sports, probably, in part, because the actual data doesn't support their arguments.
Yet several states have their own bans against trans athletes competing in sports consistent with their gender identity, despite expert estimates of fewer than 100 trans high school athletes nationwide. In 2022, Utah's Republican governor, Spencer Cox, vetoed an anti-transgender bill — it was eventually overruled by the legislature — and outlined his rationale. Along with the high suicide rates for trans youth, he noted that of 75,000 high school athletes in the state, four identified as trans and just one student was playing girls' sports. A whole state bill targeting four athletes, but really, one.
But if you believe the president or his fellow anti-trans disciples — who have lied about seemingly everyone from Olympians to high school athletes — you'd think most women's and girls' sports rosters featured primarily trans athletes.
U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville — a reviled former college football coach who blatantly lies about sports — recently broadcast on Fox News his latest fabrication with zero evidence:
"We're getting to a point now where women and girls' sports are getting ready to be extinct because, already in states across this country, we have high school teams that are made up of totally boys participating against girls."
Totally fabricated lies demonizing some of the most vulnerable people.
While the rhetoric and discriminatory policies escalate, the consequences for trans folks could be dangerous or even fatal. And as we saw during the Paris Olympics when many around the globe attacked boxer Imane Khelif, cis women are at risk too.
States like Ohio, Kansas and New Jersey have reckoned with legislation that could compel underage athletes to submit to invasive genital exams before they can slip on a jersey. These predatory exams could be traumatic and cause psychological damage while also possibly deterring women and girls from playing sports at all.
As for the NCAA's recent history with trans athletes, as The 19th noted: 'For the last 15 years, the organization had allowed trans women to compete on women's teams after completing one calendar year of testosterone suppression treatment.' Available evidence shows trans women who undergo this treatment don't have a biological advantage over cis women.
In 2022, the NCAA updated its policies for trans athletes to align with Olympic standards. It allowed each sport to follow the guidance of their respective national governing bodies or international standards, including documenting testosterone levels for trans athletes.
Following the president's recent executive order — which barred trans women from competing in women's sports, calling it a Title IX violation — the NCAA retreated in cowardice. Last month, it altered its policy while congressional legislation has yet to pass and now prevents trans women from competing in women's sports. All this over 10 of 510,000 athletes.
Along with consulting actual facts, another easy way to spot anti-transgender lies is to consider the language employed: We're protecting women's sports. It's for the safety of girls and women everywhere. It's to shield them from predators.
Bull.
First, trans people are far more likely to be victims of violent crimes compared with cis gender people, according to the NIH's National Library of Medicine.
And when people vehemently express fear over the possibility of a trans woman in a women's locker room, especially when they deadname or misgender people, they say the quiet part out loud: They're not afraid of trans women; they're afraid of men. And they laughably pretend accessing women's-only spaces is the lone way men can violate others.
If anti-trans activists really cared about protecting women, they would have been advocating for advancing women's sports, outside of discussions about trans women.
They wouldn't be actively dismantling the Department of Education, the enforcer of Title IX, which addresses all types of sex- and gender-based discrimination, including sexual assault and abuse. They wouldn't push for predatory and invasive physical exams for children before allowing them to play sports. They wouldn't ridicule women's sports, degrade them to a punching bag and only now feign caring because it furthers their power-hungry agenda.
More broadly, if they really cared about women, they wouldn't support economic policies that hurt women in the workforce, and they wouldn't be celebrating those who argue women belong in the kitchen. If they really cared about women, they wouldn't use misogynistic language or woefully misrepresent parental leave as a vacation. They wouldn't be introducing laws in Congress that could complicate the voting process for those who change their names, like some women do after marriage. They wouldn't strip women and trans people from making decisions about their own health and lives.
They don't really care, though. They care about winning your vote by provoking unfounded fear about trans women and girls. They manufacture or exaggerate anecdotes and offer deceitful attacks to further institutional discrimination — and outright criminalization for existing — while playing on people's worst instincts.
If they really cared about protecting women's sports, they'd address the abundance of issues that actually impacts women's sports and not the tiniest percentage of athletes participating in them.
But they won't do that because they're lying to you.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: They're lying to you about transgender women and girls in sports
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