Dear John,
You may have seen the news lately with state after state passing anti-trans bills and conservatives villainizing the trans community in speeches and policies. As leaders in the gender justice movement, we need to advocate for all women and girls, including trans women and girls. Today, I want to explain why advocating for trans women and girls strengthens our gender justice work and all women’s rights.

Natural body diversity is inherent in sports and transgender and intersex athletes are no exception: From basketball players who tower over six feet tall to swimmers with increased lung capacity, every athlete’s body is different and may be advantageous or disadvantageous based on the scenario. And while transgender women and girls have been playing school sports for many years, research shows they have not been “dominating” their peers—lawmakers can’t find a single example that says otherwise. That claim also ignores how athletic success is dependent on other factors, such as practice and discipline, and especially socioeconomic factors, like access to good coaches, facilities, and money to pay for outside training.

Discriminating against transgender women threatens equal opportunities for all women: Sports bans invite gender policing of all women and girls. This is dangerous and may include invasive medical tests and examinations that particularly target women and girls who fall outside stereotypical notions of femininity, especially intersex women and girls and Black and brown women and girls who don’t conform to white standards of femininity. Tall women, very muscular women, or women who present in more masculine ways could be forced to undergo sex testing or be prevented from playing sports—no one should be subjected to such abuse. And while sports bans purport to create a solution to a non-existent problem and actually harm all women and girls, states with trans-inclusive sports policies have more girls overall playing sports, whereas states with hostile policies designed to bully transgender and nonbinary students see fewer girls playing school sports.

There are actual gender-based disparities in school sports that anti-trans sports bans don’t address: These include unequal athletic participation opportunities for girls because of fewer team spots, less funding and resources for girls’ and women’s sports teams, racial disparities that mean girls of color are less likely to have athletic opportunities at school, sex-based harassment of student-athletes, and unequal pay for coaches of women’s and girls’ teams and for women professional athletes. If lawmakers want to help achieve gender equity in sports, then these are the problems they should fix. But unfortunately, they’re not addressing these real issues because the extremists who are pushing for anti-trans sports bans don’t actually care about women’s rights; in fact, they are the same ones working to strip away our rights in other areas of our life, like abortion, contraception, equal pay, child care, and more.

Next week, you’re going to see an email from me asking you to tell your representatives to oppose H.R. 734, a bill that is trying to ban transgender and intersex girls and women from participating in girls' and women’s school sports. When you’re making your decision on whether to take action, I urge you to remember that exclusionary anti-trans athlete policies do not protect “fairness” in women’s and girls’ sports, they just prevent trans women and girls from participating fully in society. There is no gender equity if trans women and girls are left out.
Thank you for continuing to challenge your own beliefs in the fight for gender justice.
In solidarity,
Shiwali Patel
she/her/hers
Director of Justice for Student Survivors & Senior Counsel
National Women's Law Center
If you’re ready now, take action here, [[link removed]] and if you’d like to continue to learn more, check out our posts from Trans Day of Visibility. [[link removed]]
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