Trans Athletes Protest Sports Bans at the Supreme Court: "We Refuse to Back Down"

In 2025, state legislatures considered over a thousand bills that took aim at trans people in the United States, seeking to deprive them of everything from their identities to health care access, according to the Trans Legislation Tracker. Trans people's participation in sports has also remained a key issue, though groups like Athlete Ally and the Gender Liberation Movement continue to fight for the rights of trans athletes. Still, the majority-conservative Supreme Court seems poised to uphold a pair of state laws in West Virginia and Idaho banning trans women and girls from participating on sports teams aligned with their gender identity after hearing oral arguments on the issue this week.

Since 2020, 27 states have banned trans youth from playing school sports on teams consistent with their identity, and despite the despair of knowing that the highest court in the land might hand down yet another challenge to trans people’s ability to exist in public life in the spring or summer, trans athletes, activists and community members kept spirits high outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

“Growing up in North Carolina, I was never able to look around my community and see myself represented in others. As one of the only trans girls in my high school, I felt alienated from a multitude of activities, including sports,” said North Carolina-based trans athlete Jéssica Alegre Uriostegui, adding: “When I see other members of my community showing up in their truest form, I am reminded of why I fight for our right to be seen and heard. When they come for one of us, they come for all of us!”

Many trans athletes who have had their experience of participating in sports negatively affected by anti-trans discrimination took Tuesday as an opportunity to speak out, including marathon runner Cal Calamia, who summed up the Supreme Court rally’s intent thus: “We refuse to capitulate to a mischaracterization of all trans people. We refuse to back down. Because we are certain that only when we center our shared humanity, our shared desire for love and connection, can we create the world that we all deserve to live in.”

Right-wing activists have seized on the issue of trans people in sports as part of their larger attempt to paint progressive communities as inherently anti-family, but in the crowd outside the Supreme Court this week, families with young children were everywhere, chanting, laughing, playing, arguing and standing in solidarity to the cause. “We traveled to be at SCOTUS because the attacks on trans youth in our home state of New Hampshire and nationally have been relentless this year, and we needed a reminder that we are not alone and to make sure others know we won't stop fighting,” said Rosie, a mother who was in attendance with her nine-year-old daughter, Emily.

While the fate of trans women and girls’ ability to participate fully in their sports of choice hangs in the balance, Tuesday’s rally proved that the trans community and its allies aren’t about to go down without a fight. “Sports were a central part of my life growing up, and Emily and all trans kids deserve the right to have that same opportunity,” continued Rosie, adding: “No kid should be made to feel like they don't belong just because of who they are.”