How bad could it get? America’s ugly election

The battle over transgender athletes and schools sports

Inclusivity v fairness 

Vitrix ludorum

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32

United States

The Economist

September 5th 2020

2

In Idaho, the American Civil Liberties

Union is battling a statewide law that bans

transgender women and girls from female

sports teams. They are representing Lind-

say Hecox, a transgender woman who was

denied a chance to join the women’s cross-

country team at Boise State University. Last

month, a federal judge issued a temporary

injunction on that law.

In Connecticut, three female high-

school athletes are challenging the policy

of the state’s interscholastic athletic con-

ference, which allows transgender girls to

compete against females. They argue that it

violates Title IX, a law passed to protect

equal educational opportunities for the

sexes, including in sports. In March the

civil-rights division of the Department of

Education said it did violate Title

IX

.

These cases highlight the often irrecon-

cilable nature of transgender rights and

women’s rights. Those opposed to the in-

clusion of transgender women in women’s

sports argue that it is unfair to allow people

who have gone through puberty as men,

and who tend to be bigger, stronger and

faster, to compete against women. 

Connecticut offers a vivid example of

this. Since 2017 two transgender athletes—

biological males who identify as women—

have between them won 15 state champion-

ships that were once held by nine different

girls. When they started racing as girls they

had not begun hormone treatment. But re-

search suggests that even those who have

gone through testosterone suppression re-

tain advantages of strength and muscle

mass. “It is so demoralising, running for

second place,” says 16-year-old Alanna

Smith, a highly competitive sprinter and

one of the girls challenging the state policy.

“I worry that women are going to become

spectators of their own sports.” Transgen-

der boys, meanwhile, often attest that it be-

comes easier to compete against males

once they have had “top surgery” (a mastec-

tomy) and taken testosterone.

Yet transgender activists argue that the

law should regard transgender men and

women as members of the gender with

which they identify. They say it is discrim-

inatory to exclude transgender women

from women’s sports as well as deeply

hurtful, especially for those at school.

“This debate frames these high-schoolers

as Olympians,” says A.T. Furuya, the youth

programmes manager at 

glsen

, which

campaigns for the rights of 

lgbt

school

students. Furuya, a former high-school

sports coach and one of a handful of people

in America to have obtained “non-binary”

as their legally designated gender, adds

that “These are kids who just want to play.”