Attacks on transgender participation in sports was never about sports, and always about getting people comfortable with discriminating against transgender people.
In the wake of Kamala Harris’s loss in the 2024 election, a debate has emerged among political pundits, a small handful of Congress members, and advocacy organizations: Should Democrats abandon “the sports issue” when it comes to transgender people? The question isn’t entirely unfounded—Democrats in key swing states were pummeled with a torrent of anti-transgender ads, many focusing on sports when targeting Democratic senators or on incarcerated transgender individuals when targeting Harris directly. But the conclusion that Democrats should “give up on sports” is deeply misguided. It overlooks the larger strategy of the anti-trans right: It was never about sports—sports bans are a calculated part of the GOP’s broader agenda to push transgender people out of public life entirely.
If you’d taken a time machine from 2019 to 2024, the dramatic shift in the debate over transgender rights in the United States would be nothing short of shocking. In the halcyon days of 2019, transgender people could access care without significant hurdles, and transgender youth and their families lived thriving, happy lives in states like Texas, Alabama, and Florida. Fast forward to today, and these places have become battlegrounds for the few transgender people who remain. Some towns offer bounties for reporting transgender individuals in bathrooms deemed “inappropriate,” child protective services target parents of trans youth, adults are cut off from vital medical care, and trans teachers are routinely fired simply for using titles like “Ms.” or “Mr.” if a parent objects. And not everybody has survived the battles fought there.
How did this happen? I’ve spent years covering anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and watched as the anti-trans right carefully crafted a strategy to use sports as a Trojan horse for a broader agenda of oppression. Sports were never the real issue—they’ve always been a way to get the foot in the door, to normalize placing an asterisk on the gender identity of transgender people. The notion that Democrats can “accept” sports bans to appease those who wish us gone, or to prevent future anti-trans laws, is both naïve and dangerous. It concedes far more than a few trans kids playing soccer; it legitimizes the idea that transgender people are unequal under the law, creating the very framework the far right uses to fuel further attacks. In state after state, sports bans have been the first domino, laying the groundwork for the horrors inflicted by Republican legislatures. This isn’t compromise—it’s capitulation, and it’s a strategy that has already devastated transgender lives in 25 states.
Article URL: https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/opinion-the-trans-sports-attacks