Transgender Rights and Protections
Recent legislation on youth sports has banned many trans youth from playing or enacted invasive requirements for clearance. The American government's harsh new anti-trans laws do not only impact minors. Lia Thomas is the first transgender woman to win an NCAA swimming championship. She is twenty-two years old and met the requirements to swim on the women's team. Before 2022, the NCAA required that trans women had to be on testosterone suppression treatment to compete on a women’s team in any sport. Yet while the NCAA claims to be in favor of inclusion and fairness, Thoma’s win garnered little recognition. After her win, no one hugged her or congratulated her. The arena was quite beside a few polite applauses. Her presence as a trans woman on the women’s team provoked some fans leading to protesters lining up outside the arena. Protesters from the group called Save Women’s Sports stood along the walkway and yelled at Thomas with a microphone. They attacked and continuously yelled, “save women’s sports”.
While some disagree with Thomas’s participation, Erica Sullivan, the Olympic medalist who lost against her has come out in support of her. Sullivan took third place and some claimed that it was unfair because Thomas has a “biological advantage” due to being assigned male at birth. Sullivan is not the only one, many other athletes and coaches are supportive of trans women. They believe that there are many benefits to participating in sports and don’t want to see people barred from the experience based on who they are or how they identify. Sullivan believes that Thomas has been unfairly targeted solely due to her being a trans woman. She emphasizes that Thomas trains just like all the other swimmers and does not win every competition. Thomas's losses do not make the headlines.
Not every athlete is like Sullivan, Olympian Sharron Davies has been very vocal in her support of banning trans women from women's sports teams. When presenting her arguments she emphasizes that she grew up in a “very normal” working-class family from England. She has competed against a German Trans woman and describes her in very transphobic details. She misgenders her competitor and describes her as “dopped with testosterone” and having a “male physique”. Trans women participating in sports upset Davies so much she wrote a letter with 60 signatures to the International Olympic Committee to change the rules. On June 19th, FINA made new changes to its requirements. Davies was excited about the news and suggested the trans community create their own sports teams.
After many states such as Texas and Ohio enacted harsh antitrans laws, the NCAA and FINA both changed their requirements for trans women's participation in sports. The NCAA now requires that trans women document their testosterone levels at the start of the season, six months later, and four weeks before championship selections. They also voted for a sport-by-sport approach to determine transgender participation. This freedom provided to individual sports committees has led to more harsh legislation. The world swimming governing body has banned transgender women from competing in women's events. The committee has decided to only permit swimmers who transitioned before the age of 12 to compete in women’s events. The claim was supported by scientists who stated “If you transition after the start of puberty, you have an unfair advantage, which is unfair.”.
Currently, there are no transgender women competing in elite levels of swimming. Yet trans swimmers like Thomas, who had aspirations of becoming elite swimmers, no longer can participate in a sport they love. The ban not only harms Thomas but generations of trans girls and women. The most likely to be harmed due to this banned are particularly minority athletes. Minority athletes already have to deal with a variety of stereotypes and ignorant views of trans women have caused more harm than good. The new age requirement for the start of hormone replacement therapy is unrealistic for many minority trans women who are disowned by their families and struggle with homelessness and poverty. They also face harder times finding therapists and doctors. These new laws are being put in place in the name of fairness while completely excluding an entire community.