Journalists covering legislation about transgender participation in sports should include these facts and context in their coverage, seek transgender voices in stories about transgender issues, challenge politicians’ rhetoric to provide facts to back up any claims, and include any history of targeting LGBTQ people (200+ profiles on the GLAAD Accountability Project, here).
- Transgender people make up a tiny fraction of all athletes. NCAA President Charlie Baker testified in December 2024 that he knows of fewer than ten transgender college student-athletes among 510,000 athletes total.
- All players follow protocols to participate. International Olympic Committee guidelines for transgender inclusion say there should be “no presumed advantage” based on sex assigned at birth or sex characteristics. IOC guidelines were created in consultation with experts in sports, medicine, and human rights.
- Sports bans are part of a systematic and expanding targeting of transgender people and youth that has surged to include their medically-necessary and supported health care, book bans and curriculum bans, and access to the restroom.
- Research shows states that include transgender participation have more girls participating in sports than states with bans. Claims that trans inclusion harms girls’ sports are inaccurate and baseless.
- Women and girls face significant barriers in sports that have nothing to do with transgender inclusion: inequitable facilities, pay, and marketing; abusive coaches; and racist, sexist, and homophobic harassment. Ask critics of transgender inclusion what efforts they have made to resolve real issues harming women and girls in sports.
- A 2024 NCAA study shows female players receive a barrage of social media harassment. 80% of abusive posts were directed at March Madness athletes, with female basketball players receiving about three times more abusive messages than their male counterparts.
- The 2024 NCAA women’s basketball and WNBA seasons and championships saw their highest ratings Women’s sports are not suffering because trans people might be included.
- Sports bans endanger all female players by encouraging baseless, false allegations and discriminatory, invasive screening. A college volleyball team in California had to get security to protect teams when one player was accused of being transgender. A high school player in Utah falsely accused of being transgender had to get police protection and a Utah elected official was censured for sharing disinformation about her. Bans on trans athletes have led to invasive screening that violate the privacy and safety of all women and girls, and discourages more who might want to play. Athletes of all ages and abilities who are not trans have been bullied and harassed when accused of being trans.
- LGBTQ athletes continue to face challenges based on their identities. While LGBTQ acceptance in sports has advanced in recent years, racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, biphobia, and colonialism are ongoing barriers for LGBTQ athletes from multiple marginalized identities. Harmful policies, attitudes, and discourse about LGBTQ people in sports are directed at transgender people, people with intersex traits, people of color, people from non-Western countries, women who do not fit conventional norms around femininity, as well as men who do not fit outdated norms of masculinity.
- Athletes come in all shapes and sizes including physical advantages helpful to their sports, such as Michael Phelps’ long arms and Simone Biles’ compact size that help them excel, yet those physical attributes have never been used to restrict or ban their participation. Being an athlete is also more than bodies – it is about courage, dedication, luck, talent, and most urgently, expanding access and encouragement for all who want to play.
- Seek transgender voices in stories about transgender people.
- Challenge lawmakers proposing bills to provide evidence for any claims about athlete safety and privacy.
- Include lawmakers’ history of activating against women and LGBTQ equality (marriage, adoption, book bans, workplace discrimination, and efforts to restrict reproductive health care that have proven deadly for female patients nationwide.) Claims about “keeping women and girls safe” should be contrasted with a record that explicitly endangers them.
- Seek expert opinion. South Carolina Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley said in 2024 that transgender women are women and all women should be able to play sports if they want to. The championship coach, who knows the game best and has nurtured and inspired hundreds of players, believes transgender women should be able to play. Listen to women who are in the game, who understand the real challenges their players face, and have worked to make more athletes feel welcome.
- Challenge paid spokespeople for evidence that blanket bans improve participation and fairness. Seek and include athletes who support transgender inclusion, not just those with time and monetized incentive to target transgender people.
- CDC research shows that transgender youth face disproportionate bullying, distress and increased risk of self-harm from being socially ostracized and excluded at school. 40% of transgender and questioning students have experienced bullying at school. 25% of transgender students and 26% of questioning students skipped school because they felt unsafe, compared with 8.5% of cisgender male students.
- The CDC urged schools to “create safer and more supportive environments for transgender and questioning students” with inclusive activities, mental health and other health service referrals, and implementing policies that are LGBTQ-inclusive. “Having supportive families and peers, feeling connected to family and school, having affirmed name and pronouns used consistently by others, and having a sense of pride of identity are protective factors for transgender students that buffer the effects of minority stressors and promote better mental health.”
- Include the benefits of sports for all children and their peers, and how trans youth would be unfairly and harmfully excluded from these experiences and lessons. Sports offer multitudes of benefits, including being active and healthy, making friends, feeling a sense of belonging and purpose, learning how to be gracious competitors as well as winners and losers, learning how to cooperate as a team, learning how to emotionally regulate, learning new skills, learning how to set and achieve goals. Sports participation is proven to improve academic performance, boost social and emotional wellbeing, and build skills and relationships that help youth succeed in all facets of life.