Three governors this March alone have signed into law anti-trans legislation that keeps trans girls and women out of girls’ sports. Of course, these bills are about more than athletics—they’re about othering and excluding transgender people, and about establishing precedence to discriminate. On Friday, Republican Gov. Bill Lee of Tennessee signed the latest bill into law that requires middle and high school student athletes—beginning in the fourth grade—to prove their sex assigned at birth using their original birth certificate. Lee follows in the footsteps of Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves and Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
By relying on the original birth certificate, this means that transgender students won’t be allowed to play based on their correct gender identity, but rather, the one assigned to them at birth. If it’s not the original birth certificate, or if the certificate does not list a sex, the student must further prove evidence of their sex. So regardless of a student’s name, presentation, or stated identity, they’ll be forced to play on a team that coincides with the label they were given by a physician at the time of birth. That’s both inaccurate and deeply, deeply unfair. Of course, Lee, like other Republicans, is presenting this as a win for women’s sports—all the while refusing to acknowledge that trans girls are, in fact, girls.
Lee tweeted these thoughts after approving the legislation.
As 16-year-old openly transgender teenager Stella Keating said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing earlier this March, trans kids are, like most other kids and teens, joining sports teams as a way to hang out with friends. There’s nothing unusual or nefarious about trans youth wanting to bond with peers.
As these bills sprout across the nation, we’ve seen a number of transgender folks and allies step forward to speak against such discriminatory legislation. Take, for example, this Alabama father, or this dad from Missouri. That’s deeply moving and inspiring. Of course, in the ideal world, this legislation wouldn’t even be written, much less slowly gain traction.
On a practical level, as Daily Kos has covered, a number of professional and college-level athletes have already spoken out in support of the transgender community and sports. And people who support this legislation are unusually quiet on the numbers; at the rate that this issue is being pushed amid the pandemic, you’d think sports teams and leagues were crumbling into a panic as to how to handle trans youth joining sports teams. In reality, the only people trying to make this issue into front-page news are Republicans—and people trying to correct their dangerous rhetoric. And all the while, a pandemic rages.
