Dear John,

Happy Pride Month! While we are celebrating the LGBTQIA + community all month long, extremists are continuing to attack queer people, with a specific focus on women and girls who are trans. As leaders in the gender justice movement, we need to advocate for all women and girls, including women and girls who are trans. Today, I want to explain why advocating for trans women and girl athletes 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 (like Brittney Griner), to swimmers with increased lung capacity (like Simone Manuel), to gymnasts with increased agility and strength (like Simone Biles), to a tennis star named the greatest of all time (Serena Williams), every athlete's body is different [[link removed]] and may be advantageous or disadvantageous based on the scenario. And while women and girls who are transgender have been playing school sports for many years, they have not been “dominating” their peers—lawmakers can’t [[link removed]] find a single example that says otherwise. This false 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 equipment, and money to pay for outside training.

Discriminating against women who are transgender threatens equal opportunity for all women: Sports bans may include invasive medical tests and examinations that particularly target women and girls who fall outside stereotypical notions of femininity. Tall women, very muscular women, women who present in more masculine ways, or women and girls who simply are “too good” at their sport could be forced to undergo sex testing or be prevented from playing sports. For example, earlier this year, a Utah State Board of Education member publicly questioned [[link removed]] the gender of a 16-year-old cisgender girl playing on her high school basketball team because she had short-cropped hair, wore baggy clothing, and was athletic. This led to bullying and threats of violence against her and her family to the point where they required police protection. These bans only perpetuate harm for all women and girls, and indeed, states with hostile policies designed to bully transgender and nonbinary students see overall fewer girls playing school sports, whereas states with trans-inclusive sports policies have more girls playing sports.

There are actual gender-based disparities in school sports—and anti-trans sports bans do nothing to address them: Decades ago, opponents of gender equity in sports assumed women and girls were less athletic and therefore didn’t deserve the same opportunities to play sports as men and boys. They based their beliefs on biological determinism—a belief that certain traits are innate and natural to men and women based on their sex assigned at birth. Women fought, and continue to fight, hard against those beliefs to gain equal access and opportunity—often still facing fewer team spots, less funding and resources, sex-based harassment, and unequal pay. If lawmakers want to help achieve gender equity in sports, then these are the problems they should fix. Instead, extremists are once again relying on meritless biological determinism in sports to exclude women and girls who are transgender by claiming anyone assigned male at birth is inherently more athletic than all people assigned female at birth, perpetuating the same discriminatory and outdated gender constructs we’ve been fighting against for decades. These are also the extremists working to strip [[link removed]] away our rights in other areas of our lives, like abortion, contraception, equal pay, child care, and more—showing clearly they do not care about women’s rights.

How we’re fighting back (and how you can too!): The National Women’s Law Center recently sought to intervene [[link removed]] in a lawsuit, Gaines et al. v. NCAA et al , to protect the rights of women who are transgender to play NCAA college sports with their peers. The anti-trans extremists who brought this lawsuit against the NCAA seek to impose horrific nationwide bans and policies, ranging from excluding women who are trans from sports teams, to completely erasing trans women and girls’ recorded existence as athletes. These extremists inappropriately rely on Title IX for their discriminatory agenda while seeking to undermine Title IX’s promise to all students, including to women and girls who are trans. NWLC wants to ensure extremists cannot misuse Title IX as a weapon to enforce the persecution, bullying, and exclusion of students who want—and deserve—to play college sports with their peers. If you want to join our advocacy efforts, tell the Department of Education to release a Title IX rule that explicitly protects all students' equal access to athletics [[link removed]] .

Every woman and girl, regardless of their sex assigned at birth, deserve equal access and opportunities to play free from persecution, discrimination, and dangerous policies that increase violence against all women and girls. Thank you for your support in the fight for gender justice.

In solidarity,
Shiwali Patel
she/her/hers
Director of Safe and Inclusive Schools & Senior Counsel
National Women’s Law Center
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