As I read the news on June 30 about the US Supreme Court upholding bans on trans kids in sports, I felt heartbreak and a sense of “Well, we knew it would happen” at the same time. Then I immediately thought about Dew and Em, two young transgender athletes who are among those that the bans will hurt the most. How many of the justices who voted for this ban know trans kids? How many have taken the time to hear their story?
In working on our latest book, Fair Game: Trans Athletes and the Future of Sports, Dr. Anna Baeth, Chris Mosier, and I interviewed trans athletes ages 8-59, including Dew and Em. Dew is a trans boy who loves powerlifting. While Dew is powerlifting, he doesn’t think about gender. He doesn’t think about classifications. He is totally in the moment, in his body, focused on form and the task at hand.
Dew’s coach runs a practice that transcends gender. The athletes are not seen as girl powerlifters and guy powerlifters, just powerlifters. At the end of the day, it's just the athlete against the bar. Dew’s high school powerlifting competitions, however, do have a gender component. As a trans boy, Dew wants to compete in the boys’ category; in his state, though, he has to compete in the category that is consistent with the assigned gender on his birth certificate, so he is forced to compete with the girls or not at all.
Dew doesn’t just get to be a kid competing in a sport he enjoys; his body in competition has become a political debate. Although Dew likes winning, he does not like winning in the female category because it does not feel authentic to him. He stays, though, for the joy of competing and the safety of belonging to your body and a team. Policies like the one that force Dew to compete against girls need gender and sex policing to be enforced. They put more scrutiny on trans bodies and all bodies in the girls’ and women’s category.
Now take Em, a high school softball and volleyball player who is trans; she plays in a state that does not force her to play in the category that is listed on her birth certificate. But with the direction in which the bans are moving, at some point, she will likely have to prove she is a girl—using someone else’s definition.
Banning trans women from sports only reinforces harmful stereotypes and undermines the progress made in athletics. As Billie Jean King stated at a Women’s Sports Foundation event, “There is no place in any sport for discrimination of any kind…. The global athletic community grows stronger when we welcome and champion all athletes—including LGBTQI+ athletes.” Em was an emotional child, and she felt pressure to suppress her emotions and be stoic, in part, because she was assigned male at birth. Her peers made fun of her for being feminine and she felt othered. Sports, then, became a place to rest from the pressure and just play. Em participated in T-ball at age five and, eventually, baseball.
When Em came out as trans, she started playing softball and girls’ volleyball. On her high school team, Em’s coach was supportive and attentive, and when a teammate misgendered her and said unkind things about her behind her back, two of her teammates and her coach stepped in, stood up for her, and shut it down. It brought the team closer together and built trust. Over time, her teammates grew to love her, partly because she is so dedicated and team focused. She will do what it takes to improve and contribute.
Early in Em’s high school sports career, opposing teams and cheering sections got vocal. Each time, Em’s advocates sent emails to the principals and athletic directors of the opposing schools in such a high volume that when she returned to those schools, the team always broke out a few more rainbows and trans flags to support her. It made Em’s sports competitions feel like safer, more inclusive, and more positive places for everyone.
The youth athletes on Em’s team and on the opposing teams are learning and growing. Every youth trans athlete deserves this kind of advocacy and support. By the time Em was a senior, her hard work had conveyed her truth, and the wider community remembered what is really important.
“I think one of the biggest things that gives me joy is being able to walk onto the court or field of my chosen sports and knowing I worked my hardest to be there,” Em said when interviewed for Fair Game. “I worked my way to where I am, and that I'm playing with a team and with coaches who accept that and are ready to play me and have me be a part of the team like anyone else.”
Why would anyone want to restrict that? Sports are about teamwork, discipline, and personal growth. They’re about breaking down barriers and creating spaces where everyone, regardless of gender, can thrive. Excluding trans kids not only harms them, it undermines the very values of fairness and equality that sports are supposed to uphold.
Writer and activist James Baldwin wrote in his essay “Notes on the House of Bondage” for The Nation, “The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality.”
We know that trans children are struggling. If done right, sports could help them; it could also help their cis counterparts. As we reference in Fair Game, in states with more inclusive policies for trans athletes, cis girls report healthier sport environments. They participate at higher rates, have a higher likelihood of staying in sports, and they say that sports enhance their social life with more friends and more joy. Youth sports programs give kids the opportunity to develop physical skills and a sense of accomplishment, confidence, and self-esteem that we all deserve. I believe that everyone, including Dew and Em, deserve it too.
