For years, there has been debate on whether or not trans student athletes should be permitted to compete as the gender they identify as. This argument is another ploy to invalidate these athletes and their gender identity.
Many people like to argue that being transgender would give someone an unfair physical advantage. For example, someone who was born male but identifies as a female could potentially be generally taller and stronger than other girls that she would compete with.
But isn’t this the whole point of sports?
Yeah, some people are stronger and faster than others; that’s why some people make it into the MLB and others don’t go past tee-ball. The case of gender assigned at birth is no different. This is also why most teams have a JV and varsity team.
Besides, this argument is hardly ever brought up when discussing trans men participating in sports with other men. This is because, unfortunately, for many people, this argument has nothing to do about skill, but about putting down trans youths.
If a trans woman were to compete with cis women and win, she would be told that she shouldn’t compete with cis women. However, if a trans man were to compete with men and lose, no one would care.
On the other end of the spectrum, if a trans man were to compete with trans women and win, people would argue that a man shouldn’t be allowed to compete with women due to his physical advantages.
This was never about fairness or equality; it has always been about putting others down. Transphobic people will use these divisive arguments as a way to devalue trans athletes and it’s not right.
With the argument of physical advantages, people are saying that allowing trans athletes to compete amongst the gender that they identify with will cause others to take advantage of the situations.
There seems to be this stigma that men would lie and claim to identify as female in order to gain an easier win by competing with women. Frankly, the notion that some of these transgender athletes are lying for a cheap win is insulting and damaging to the trans community.
And if you know of someone who has attempted to do this, please understand that it is incredibly harmful and disgraceful. It is disgusting that someone would attempt to use a validating right that so many people have fought needlessly for in order to help themself.
The bottom line is that these are students we are talking about; they are children. And these kids have the right to have fun and enjoy the games they like, just as their peers can.
No student should feel excluded from a sport because of who they are.