The Inequality That Transgender People Experience In Athletics

When articles are written about athletes and their achievements, they often highlight the most important moments of their careers, their most acknowledged wins, and the goals they have set for themselves for the upcoming season. However, when articles are written about transgender people, it’s completely different. The only things discussed within those articles are about them being transgender, current laws placed against them, and how they “negatively impact” sports in today’s society. It’s extremely unfair.

Just recently, Greg Abbot was in favor of the new Texas law that bans transgender students from participating in sports that align with their gender identity. “This next session, we will pass a law prohibiting biological men to compete against women in college sports,” He said at the Young America’s Foundation Freedom conference in Dallas, Texas. The law was put in place against K-12 students across Texas, meaning that the most important part of the developmental and self-discovery phases in their lives will be stunned. Schools are a place where kids can experiment with all kinds of things like art, sports, music, and more, so what harm does letting children play in sports with the opposite genders whether they identify as transgender or not? And since he said that the law focuses on “biological men” unable to compete in women’s sports, what about transgender men playing in men’s sports? Just because genetic makeup makes trans women biologically stronger than cisgender women shouldn’t matter. Cisgender women can have the same physiques as male athletes, do the same amounts of training and routines, and have the same capabilities as one another, so for Texas legislators to target this law against transgender women is extremely biased and discriminatory.

In fact, it’s even been shown that the involvement of transgender athletes in sports, especially college-level, has increased the rate of transgender students in the athletics departments. “But between 2012-13, when a set of rules enabling transgender athletes to compete began to be adopted, and 2018-19, the year before pandemic school closures, participation in high school girls’ sports increased by 13.4% nationwide, according to federation statistics. Within that average, large increases were seen — even in a number of states that later went on to adopt anti-trans policies.” Laws that were established in favor of transgender inclusivity led to a dramatic increase among transgender student-athletes. These equality laws helped trans athletes not be afraid of being discriminated against or judged based on their athletic capabilities. 

Unfortunately, many of the accusations made against transgender students have been proven to be false stories made up to sway the public’s opinions about athletics. “An investigation last year by USA Today found that as lawmakers introduced the measures in statehouses, they often cited supposed damage done to cisgender girls by trans athletes who turned out not to exist or, in a handful of cases, stories about contests won by trans athletes whose records of wins and losses were mischaracterized.” Politics play a big role in the inequality within sports, and they put so much harm to the transgender community by creating these fake accusations about trans athletes, which leads lawmakers to make these biased laws that have little to no accurate supporting information about how these students harm the sports themselves.

Transgender people have been fighting for equality for decades upon decades. American legislators will talk about how they want more equality for everyone in the states, but the second they see someone who's not an “ordinary person” achieve these huge goals, they immediately put a halt on it, preventing not only that specific person but also their supporters, people who see themselves in that person and aspire to be like them. They’re trying to stop a very large and powerful group of individuals that gain new abilities every day from being great, and will soon realize that they won’t be able to control them anymore and prevent them from inspiring new people from doing hobbies and learning new skills that other people cannot.

Work Cited

Dey, Sneha. “Gov. Greg Abbott says he supports legislation banning transgender college athletes.” The Texas Tribune, 12 February 2023, https://www.texastribune.org/2023/02/12/transgender-college-athletes/. Accessed 12 February 2023.

Hawkins, Beth. “National Analysis: They Said Letting Transgender Girls Play Would Drive Athletes Away from HS and College Sports. It Didn't – The 74.” The 74, 19 October 2022, https://www.the74million.org/article/national-analysis-they-said-letting-transgender-girls-play-would-drive-athletes-away-from-hs-and-college-sports-it-didnt/. Accessed 12 February 2023.