Last week, the Biden administration released conflicting policy proposals regarding the participation of trans youth in sports, announcing that blanket trans sports bans are illegal under Title IX, but leaving provisions whereby schools can create specific guidelines that target trans athletes, including barring them from participation.
On Monday, 14 transgender and nonbinary legislators sent a letter to the Biden administration criticizing the move, urging the administration to reconsider. “When it comes to policy addressing trans athletes, our stance is this: Trans athletes belong in sports. Full stop,” the letter reads in part. “To put it plainly, there is no such thing as an acceptable ‘compromise’ that limits transgender Americans’ access to equal rights.”
This point has been echoed by advocates who argue that, as explained by them’s Quispe Lopez, “these bans are often steeped in assumptions about trans children and their bodies that simply aren’t based in reality.”
The day this story was filed, April 12, the 21st statewide ban on trans participation in sports was passed in North Dakota; as a result, per Movement Advancement Project senior policy researcher Logan S. Casey, at least 30% of trans kids live in a state where they can’t “play sports with their friends.”
Other federal-level politicians such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) also criticized the Biden admin’s proposal, with AOC calling it “indefensible,” “embarrassing,” and “a disgrace.”
Teen Vogue speaks with three of the writers and signatories about the letter to the Biden administration. These legislators, all three of whom are trans and/or nonbinary, are grappling with the onslaught of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, particularly that targets trans youth, in their communities.
“Once the proposed Title IX rules were released, it was presented very positively," says Montana Rep. Zooey Zephyr. "But the more I and other legislators looked into it, it seemed to show a pretty clear roadmap for how someone could create discriminatory policies that would be in compliance with this proposed Title IX. Especially since public comment was opening up, it felt important to let the public know that this policy risks real harm to trans athletes at all levels.”
“The attacks on trans athletes are misguided because trans people are underrepresented in sports," Zephyr explains. “You don't see us having high participation levels that match our representation in society at large, you don't see us having a ton of successes. When you do, even at the highest level, with people like Lia Thomas, you see people getting upset about that — but the moment a cisgender athlete breaks the record a year later, no one says anything.”
Zephyr adds, "They are really looking not so much at sports, they are looking at a way to undercut trans people, wholly and totally — and sports is their first intent.”
Pennsylvania Rep. Izzy Smith-Wade-El says that, in their region of Lancaster, they’re “fortunate” to have a school board “who understands that what we're trying to do is make sure that all of our kids get a fully and fairly funded education — not to use kids as proxies for our biases — because all our kids deserve a beautiful childhood.”
But in neighboring districts, they say, “we have friends and neighbors who are seeing their school boards try to exclude them from athletics, and keep them out of bathrooms, which should be understood as a public accommodation, really.”
“As a nonbinary person myself, I can't get down with that,” Smith-Wade-El says. “Our conception of what athletics is and isn't shouldn't stand in the way of that beautiful childhood. Trans people belong in sports just like they belong in every other arena of life. Seeing myself as responsible for all my friends and neighbors in and outside of my district, it's important to assert that we are going to make space for queer folks in public life.”
This group expected more from a Biden administration that has claimed to be supportive of trans folks even as it tacks noticeably rightward. Smith-Wade-El continues, “Part of it is saying to our administration — a group of people that I voted for and knocked on doors for and advocated for and gave money to — bring absolute clarity that you are going to protect our communities to every federal rule, sports, education, housing, health care, everywhere.”
The attacks weigh on these representatives as individuals who are directly impacted by the ideology they’re attempting to legislate against. “Across the country and in New Hampshire, there's an unnecessary focus on such a small percentage of people that are affected by these laws,” says New Hampshire Rep. Alissandra Murray, who worked on the letter and co-chairs the state's House Progressive Caucus. (Disclaimer: Murray and I are longtime friends, predating both our current roles.) The same day that the proposed Title IX policies were announced, the Supreme Court refused to reinstate West Virginia’s trans athlete ban, which Zephyr says would currently impact only one student in the state, a common dynamic of this proposed legislation.
“As a trans legislator, ever since I came out — I had to come out again [entering] the State House — I can't post anything without getting a ton of hate from people, some of them fellow representatives, about being trans, calling me a groomer, calling me all the stuff,” Murray says of legislating in this political environment.
In New Hampshire, Republicans have proposed anti-trans bills such as sports and health care bans; two years ago, a “divisive concepts” bill regulated what kind of conversations teachers could have with students.
“Our existence now becomes a defense: We have to defend ourselves against these attacks because the legislation has set that landscape and put us on the defensive," Murray continues. "When you're already in a position where you're in the minority and you're facing all kinds of discrimination, to have all the public talking points be against you right now, it was extremely difficult for me as a legislator. But I can also only imagine for trans kids in school right now, how much they’re dealing with the same thing.”
These state legislators are skeptical that voters are buying into the narrative that's being pushed by the right wing and transphobes. “I think voters recognize this is a tried-and-true strategy, to use this ‘culture war’ nonsense to create public animosity towards the most vulnerable people in our communities,” says Smith-Wade-El, “to distract from the fact that many of the people who spout this nonsense, who try to make these policies, don't have any plans to help our kids live a beautiful childhood…. So they beat up on easy targets. It is an old strategy and we really ought to stop falling for it.”
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Zephyr was a student athlete prior to transitioning. Montana’s trans athlete ban, passed in 2021, was the first bill she testified against prior to running for office. “It's important to remember that the attacks on trans athletes and sports were part of the strategy of the right for trying to tear down trans rights more broadly,” Zephyr explains. “At the same time that [21] states have passed trans sports bans, these states are passing health care bans for trans youth that are going to deny trans youth health care, deny trans women puberty blockers, deny them access to hormone replacement therapy, force them through a wrong puberty, and then use that fact to deny them the ability to play sports.”
At the heart of the matter, these state legislators are concerned with protecting all those who are made vulnerable by attacks on trans youth. Says Wade-Smith-El, “I see it both as a finality and as an entry point. We will defend the rights of trans youth to participate in sports and to see themselves reflected in a curriculum. Also, let's talk about how challenging it is for trans people of color to access housing, health care, or other public accommodations. I’m a big fan of saying we defend the right for everyone by defending the right for anyone, and I think that absolutely applies here.”
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