Mara Keisling is an American transgender rights advocate and senior fellow at the Searchlight Institute. She was the founder and executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, the nation’s leading social justice advocacy organization for transgender people.
The most culturally salient trans issue this year is, once again, about participation in sports. The trigger this time was WNBA star Sophie Cunningham, who recently said that “biological men” should not compete in women’s sports. She went on to say, “I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”
As someone who’s been in the trans activism space for decades, I’m of two minds about it. First, young trans kids should be able to compete in the sports leagues of their choosing. If the children are prepubescent, it couldn’t affect the competitive integrity of the league, so there is simply no reason why they should not be able to play with their friends. Cunningham’s comments don’t recognize that nuance. There is also nowhere in the United States where young girls play sports against biological men, and there is not and should not be anywhere that adult men share locker rooms or take showers with young girl athletes. No one finds that acceptable.
On the other hand, I think the trans community should recognize that when we go beyond prepubescent youth sports, many sports leagues, including the WNBA, need eligibility rules. And many, if not most, people in the United States honestly do worry about and object to trans women having a competitive advantage in women’s sports. A recent poll from Pew found that 73% of voters said they were uncomfortable with trans athletes competing on sports teams that do not match their sex at birth.
In the greater scheme of trans issues, this is not even close to the most important topic. But it has become the primary way the typical American hears about our cause. It is also the issue that has been used to bludgeon trans people and supportive Democrats. Competitive sports matter in our society and we need to be pragmatic about that.
Can someone just pretend that they’re a trans woman and participate in the league? Obviously not; that’s why the WNBA recently ruled two former male NBA players were not eligible. But as the WNBA continues to develop policies around trans participation in sports, our community needs to understand that sports leagues are the right people to institute rules on participation.
We should be able to acknowledge that elite sports leagues are sex-segregated for a reason, or at a minimum understand that this is a view most people strongly believe. This will allow our movement to focus on the more important goals of advancing anti-discrimination law and access to healthcare.
There should be rules, the question is who enforces them
Most adults know there must be rules in life. That’s why we institute traffic laws, criminal laws, and building codes, for instance. Sports in particular have always been a rules-based activity. After certain levels, there are even referees at every game policing the rules. Rules for what to do, what not to do, what equipment is used, and rules for who can participate.
Most sports have fairly frequent rules changes for reasons involving safety, watchability, or technological changes. But in every case I can think of, the rules are made and changed by the sports league with primary input from people directly involved in the sports—players and team owners.
However, there are different rules for recreational leagues for the youngest children, and they are usually not followed rigorously. These leagues, by the way, are and should be comfortably co-ed for all prepubescent children. Many times they don’t even keep score.
But should governments make sports rules?
Most relevant to this question is Title IX, which Congress enacted in 1972, as part of a collection of Education Amendments to federal law. The law prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school (kindergarten through college) that receives funding from the federal government. Applied to sports, it was passed to help women’s and girls’ sports flourish, not to hurt or exclude men and boys.
Still, Title IX is not the government imposing on schools who can and cannot participate in specific sports or teams. That has always been left up to the individual sports leagues or associations and schools where it belongs.
This summer, the Supreme Court essentially ruled that Title IX doesn’t protect transgender students in sports, which allows states to both pass laws barring transgender participation in sports or continue to allow transgender children to participate in sports. This means states are allowed to usurp authority over schools and sports leagues.
Just as people believe healthcare decisions should be made by doctors and patients (and when it is a child, by doctors and parents), I think people understand that decisions on sports should be made by sports associations, teams, and players. In the case of children’s sports, parents and schools also should have a say.
But any decision about sports should not be made by President Trump or Congress or you or me. It should be made by sports associations like the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the US Olympic Committee, the state interscholastic athletic associations, or the local school district.
An Alternative
Transgender women and girls playing on women’s or girls’ teams is a relatively new issue, but public opinion has moved rapidly against it. So much so that I cannot imagine that we will be able to win the issue for the foreseeable future. In fact, I think trying to argue for participation in elite sports will only turn more Americans against trans rights and empower anti-trans politicians to attack us.
Here are the guidelines I would propose:
Decisions should be made by sports associations and leagues based on legitimate safety and fairness concerns. Politicians should stay out of it as much as possible, and worry about protecting all of their constituents and especially all children.
There should be no un-American blanket bans on any type of person. Rather, specific participation decisions should be made according to the age of the athlete and the particular sport they are playing.
Decisions should be based on science and common sense, not on scare tactics that talk about strong men playing and showering with young girls. People should focus on the real issues of safety and fairness.
Science should continue studying the effects of testosterone on sports performance.
And lastly, the youngest children should be allowed to play in a safe and fair way without getting caught up in shameful political posturing.
No one should be cavalier about this and dismiss or bully trans children out of hand. I understand these guidelines may be a hard tonic for transgender advocates, but the alternative is just as hard. We have lost control of the narrative. Public opinion is hardening against trans women playing in sports, and it has triggered a witch hunt that is threatening to infect every aspect of trans life. On sports in particular, it has harmed trans children who just want to play sports with their friends. Prepubescent children should be exempted from these bans, which are made by the wrong people.
But with a lot of sincere and clear-headed work, we can move this toward a rational place, win back public opinion, and continue to protect trans people in all facets of life.
As for Sophie Cunningham, she should continue speaking her mind, as is everyone’s right. But as someone who would like to be known as a protector—of both her team and of young girls—I hope she sees that protecting the young girls means letting them play sports with their friends.
For guidance, she should look to Cheryl Reeve, the coach of the WNBA Minnesota Lynx, who recently wore a shirt with the words “Trans Kids Belong.” Ultimately, that’s what everyone, including Cunningham and trans people, needs to focus their work on as well: ensuring that our most vulnerable groups are protected, while understanding that elite sports may need rules.
Just going to point out that allowing a small group of people to follow a different set of rules is not a “right,” it is a privilege.
I’m a lifelong progressive Democrat and very much appreciate your attempt to find some compromise on this issue. But in my view what you lay out here falls well short of what is reasonable and common sense.
This issue is not complex and it is not nuanced. Males have substantial innate speed and strength advantage over females and this advantage _precedes puberty_ due to male hormone exposure in utero and during male mini puberty in the first months after birth. (Please Google male mini puberty.) We already know this both from scientific study and because we ran races against all our classmates at recess in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grades and the boys (males) _always won_. By a lot.
Yes a blanket ban is appropriate, just as the age categories and weight categories in sport are blanket bans, e.g. there are no circumstances under which a 17 year old swimmer is allowed to move down to compete in the 13-14 age group or a 190 pound wrestler is allowed to move down to the 132 pound category. The sex categories are the same.
Raising this issue of pre-pubertal rec leagues is a smokescreen—of course a kids’ sex doesn’t matter if you have a designated mixed sex sports league for fun. If there is a girls’ category however it must be reserved for females—girls have a right to fairness at all ages, we don’t tell them that they only get fairness sometimes because in certain situations their feelings and rights come second—this is plain old sexism and an absolutely regressive and terrible thing to say to young girls who are competing in a girls’ race or sport.
Yes there are intact male athletes who identify as transgender using girls’ changing rooms in a number of high schools at present—and female athletes are bravely starting to show up at school board meetings to express their profound anger at this violation of their privacy and dignity.
You say we need policy based on science and common sense. The verdict from both is already in. Hormones barely dent male physical advantage, as demonstrated both in studies and in front of our faces—e.g. Lia Thomas was ranked 65th in the NCAA in the 500 freestyle, then suppressed testosterone and took estrogen for over a year, then went promptly won the women’s national championship in the 500 freestyle. And you say we still need to study this?
Lastly, you focus on fairness for elite female athletes—why are the other 98% of female athletes also not entitled to fair competition? A girl who wins first place (or second or third) in one of her races in a high school swim meet against a neighboring school is just as entitled to the opportunity and the feelings of accomplishment that come from her achievement as a WNBA player. Saying otherwise is profoundly
sexist.
We can and must welcome trans athletes in sport—in the category of their sex. A number of trans men (female) athletes are now happily competing in women’s sport on women’s teams. We can do the same for trans girls and women. And if you say, they won’t be able to compete—well most males are not able to make the cut for competitive sport, that’s life. There are plenty of other school activities to participate in.