Trans Youth and Sports: Myths and Realities

You'll find this image of Rebekah Bruesehoff in this article, "National ban on transgender athletes in girls’ sports passed by U.S. House panel." You can read more about her on her website.

"I am struggling to survive, especially with the laws being proposed and passed, so please even if you don't understand my existence/identity at least be kind and respect me as a person."

Most of the "debate" about LGBTQA+/SGL people in sports these days is about trans girls and women participating on girls'/women's sports teams.

There is no solid scientific evidence to back banning these girls and women from participating on teams aligned with their gender identity. But that hasn't stopped the hysteria that allowing trans girls to complete on teams with cis girls will spell the end of cis girls ever winning anything ever again.

The fear that trans girls will run away with all of the trophies, medals, and sports scholarships is unsupported by science or actual life experience. Most trans athletes are as mediocre as cis athletes. And some cis athletes have physical advantages and, overall, no one says they should be barred from participating.

But cis people's fear is also quite real.

It could be helpful to focus not on winning and medals but on what sports really are for many people who participate in them: teamwork, learning how to lose, exercising regularly, becoming more physically fit, and having a community of like-minded people. (Thanks to Page at the Common Goodness Project for this reframing.)

Here, i also want to point out that this concern is almost universally about trans girls competing with cis girls; few cis adults seem to be concerned about trans boys competing with cis boys. Oh, the sexism masking as "protection" of cis girls!

Coaches in a safe school and community

Make sure they’re not getting bullied by their straight/cis teammates or by those teammates’ parents.
- Keep an eye out on young people and parents from other teams. They, too, could target your TGNC athletes.
  - If that's the case, try to meet with the other team's coach.
  - If that proves ineffective, either because the coach wouldn't meet with you or because they were unreceptive to your discussion, you may want to get your principal involved for support.
- Regardless, make sure to check in with your TGNC athletes about the situation and offer them whatever support you can.
Offer them changing rooms where they can choose to avoid the harassment, stares, or assaults that can plague locker rooms. But don't force them to use one.
- You may need to work with your school to find or construct an appropriate space.
- And i'm not unaware of the potential cost of -- and opposition to -- construction.

If your school or district doesn't have a policy supporting trans girls' rights to participate in girls' sports, fight hard to get one so it’s in place when the issue come up in the future. (However, this issue is inflammatory enough that you should go carefully in bringing it up if no one else has.)
If the fight does get broached, use the arguments made in the resources above to back up your case. We all know, of course, that emotion can — and often does — easily override logic. But you have strong arguments on your side, including all of the legitimate science.

Coaches in a hostile school or community

Everything below should be read as being preceded by "If you can do so without getting fired or disciplined…"

Make sure they’re not getting bullied by their straight/cis teammates or their parents. This goes for whether they’re playing on boys’ teams or girls’ teams.
Offer them changing rooms where they can choose to avoid the harassment, stares, or assaults that can plague locker rooms. (You may need to work with your school to find or construct an appropriate space, which could be challenging in an openly hostile community.) But don't force the students to use one.
Check in with your queer and trans student-athletes on a regular basis to offer whatever support you can.

Should a public debate arise, you can use the arguments in the articles in the top section of this page, although you’ll likely have a harder time of it than those working in more queer- and trans-friendly schools.