Transgender athletes in American sports have become a significant topic of discussion, with various perspectives and policies impacting their participation. The debate spans across professional, collegiate and youth sports, as well as public policies and societal debates.
Recently, an executive order passed by the Trump Administration has banned trans women, men transitioning/transitioned to women, from participating in sports with girls and women. This executive order has caused upheaval in the trans community, and the larger LGBTQ+ community nationally.
Trans women at GCSU seem to be upset by this executive order passed by the new president and express their concern for the future of representation in sports.
“I feel like we need equal representation,” said Kai Williams, a sophomore music education major. “I feel like there should be the opportunity for trans women to be represented in sports, I will say that In some sports I can see why it is seen as a bit of a discourse because I trans woman will have a bit of a strength advantage but I still feel that the options should be there, and in some sports there should be a trans league.”
The debate’s main controversy is that trans-women may have a competitive advantage due to physical differences such as muscle mass, bone structure and endurance, even after undergoing hormone therapy. Critics argue that this could create an uneven playing field.
While some who support the order argue that the presence of trans-women in women’s sports could create an unhealthy environment, others argue that the policy is an act of transphobia.
“I personally feel that it is an act of transphobia,” Williams said. “This is because, one, most of these legislations have been towards trans-women specifically because for some reason trans-women are used to fearmonger and are the target towards these sorts of things.”
The participation of transgender athletes in competitive sports in the United States raises difficult questions surrounding fairness, inclusivity and respect for all involved. As society’s comprehension of gender and athleticism progresses, the debate surrounding transgender athletes in sports will undoubtedly continue to evolve.
Some in the GCSU community share in this sentiment, arguing that the policy could be determined as transphobic, however in reality might just be done to respect the fairness of the game.
“Knowing Donald Trump, I believe that there might be some layers of transphobia,” said Cooper Treadaway, a junior business administration major. “However, how I see it is that I think that it’s not necessarily fair, competitively speaking for trans athletes to compete in women’s sports. There are certain physiological and hormonal differences that provide a certain advantage, athletically speaking.”
The history of trans-woman’s inclusion in sports has proven to shake the foundation of America’s social divide, creating many who believe the sanctity of competitiveness should be preserved, while others believe rights are being violated in policies that are too traditional.
The history of policies in the U.S. surrounding transgender women in sports has evolved gradually, with significant shifts in societal attitudes and growing recognition of transgender rights in the past few decades.
Before the 2000s, there was very little public discourse surrounding the inclusion of trans athletes, with many recognizing this time as an era of “trans invisibility.”
The NCAA implemented its first guidelines for transgender athletes in 2011. These guidelines allowed transgender athletes to compete in the gender category they identified with, provided they met specific hormone levels. This was the first major policy change in this direction and sparked massive debates surrounding the true ethicality of these reforms.
The mid-late 2010s saw increased attention. The trans movement began to make massive strides in its own visibility and representation on a national social scale. By 2015, the International Olympic Committee, ICO, changed its policies to allow trans women to compete without requiring any surgery, as long as their testosterone levels were below a certain point.
Also in 2015, the NCAA issued a policy permitting transgender women to compete in women’s sports without requiring surgery, as long as they met certain hormone requirements. The Trump Administration executive order is a direct response to this policy, with the overturning of this policy many in the trans community have recognized this as a degradation of their rights.
As more trans athletes gain visibility, and with the continued rise in state-level legislation, it’s likely that these issues will continue to evolve in the coming years, with many in the greater LGBTQ+ community seeing this policy as a setback, but not a total defeat.