Trans Athletes on Girls’ Teams
an excerpt from the memoir, Mistaken For a Man, A Story for Anyone Struggling to Feel Comfortable in Their Own Skin, Clothes, and Community
I am a woman. I was born that way. Having competed against girls (in high school and college) and boys (pick up basketball) and on co-ed teams (college intramurals), I have an opinion on the controversy over trans athletes and where they fit in competition.
For a moment, imagine a big strong 12-year-old boy and a small 16-year-old boy. In some places, we would let the 12-year-old compete against older kids if they wanted to, if they could make the team. That seems fair, right. But the 16-year-old would not be allowed to compete against 12-year-olds just because the genetic lottery put them in a small body. That doesn’t seem equitable even if they really wanted to, even if they felt entitled, even if they weren’t competitive against children their own age and couldn’t make the 16-year-old team.
Now imagine a world not that long ago, before Title 9, a world without girls teams. In some cases we allowed girls to compete on boys’ teams. Once girls’ basketball teams and track teams started popping up and there were so many more opportunities for girls in sports, we didn’t allow boys to compete on girls’ teams but we still sometimes allow girls to compete on boys’ teams. We allow both to compete on co-ed teams but we restrict the numbers of each gender so it is fair.
If I was a sports’ commissioner or president or just someone with the power to decide the issue of trans athletes, I would allow girls both biologically defined girls and trans girls or trans boys to compete on boys’ teams. The only way I would allow a person who was born a boy to compete on a girls team is if they were hormonally and surgically female.
That is what seems fair to me. Another option is to have truly co-ed teams for anyone girls, boys, trans athletes to compete on. It would be fair but likely the issue would come down to money. Most schools barely have enough money to run boys and girls programs and won’t have the funds to field a third program that is designated co-ed. In the end I think many of these co-ed programs would be defacto extra boys’ teams.
What doesn’t seem fair to me is allowing a person to compete against girls, who was a baby boy and finished hormone treatments to transition less than a year ago, whether or not they present as a girl in the way they dress and respond to the world. They should be allowed, of course, to transition and dress and act in the world as they choose, I just don’t think they should be on a team for girls. We draw lines all the time about who can compete in a space or on a team, the issue of trans athletes is just a question of where and how we draw the lines.
