Discriminatory policies that subject children to gender verification to play sports are grossly invasive and a violation of human rights.10 No child should be subject to gender verification tests such as genital examinations as a condition of playing sports with their friends. Title IX requires inclusion of trans kids; we thus have a responsibility to act and protect trans kids so they can play sports without fear of being targeted by dangerous policies like these.
Title IX has been successful in challenging traditional gender stereotypes by opening opportunities in sports for women. Title IX has helped challenge stereotypes about what women that contributed to them being shut out of opportunities to play. These stereotypes prioritized beauty and submissiveness over traits like physical strength or the desire to win, which were cast as “masculine” traits.11 Before Title IX, women were more often expected to focus on demonstrating femininity while playing sports, and athletes that didn't conform were suspected of being impostors or somehow cheating.12 The passage of Title IX not only aimed to increasing access to athletic opportunities for women, but to show society that there is more than one way to be a woman, that there is nothing “suspiciously masculine” about athletic success by women, and that no person should be denied the opportunity to play on the basis of stereotyped ideals of femininity.
All women and girls are harmed when laws rely on sex stereotypes, as trans athletic bans do. These policies police who is and who isn't a woman. Trans women and girls are being told that because they do not conform to certain ideas of what a woman should act and look like, they cannot play sports. These policies threaten all women and girls who do not conform to gender stereotypes with being prevented from playing sports.
These bills are a distraction from the real issues facing women and girls in sports. Women and girls face many barriers to participation, including a lack of resources. Despite the gender equity required by Title IX, a YouGov survey of U.S. adults found 73%13 of participants believed that schools “provide more support for boys' and men's sports programs” than girls' and women's.14 This disparate funding tends to especially decrease participation opportunities for Black and low-income girls. These girls are more likely to attend schools with fewer resources. The issues hurting women and girls in sports are not trans inclusion; if anything, trans-exclusive policies hurt women and girls’ participation in sports by subjecting everyone to scrutiny and policing of their bodies if they do not conform to stereotyped ideals of femininity.
Trans sports bans will disproportionately affect women and girls of color. Historically, sex verification in sports has been a way to enforce cultural and racial stereotypes about femininity and athletic ability against women of color.15 Since the Olympics opened to women, fears that men would impersonate women to win competitions have been used to justify various methods of sex verification for participants who did not present femininely enough.16 Over the years, cultural anxieties about impostors led to policies attempting to impose a scientifically reductive and inaccurate binary definition of sex for the purposes of competition.17 Even now, athletic associations create policies to single out and target athletes of color who are transgender18 or intersex,19 subjecting them to suspicion, scrutiny, and discrimination. Sports federations have an ugly history of forcing athletes to submit to sex verification, scrutinizing the hormonal makeup of some athletes, performing invasive tests and procedures on those athletes who officials suspect may have an “unfair advantage.”20 In practice, this “suspicion” model leads to public humiliation for anyone deemed not feminine enough.21 Women of color, especially when they perform well in sports, face increased scrutiny and rumors that they are somehow cheating. Trans sports bans risk humiliating and excluding girls of color under the same rationale.
