Let kids play: the impact of anti-trans sports legislation
How do we learn who we are, what we like, and where we fit?
Seventeen-year-old Sivan Kotler-Berkowitz feels he is happiest when he’s playing soccer. The moment he steps on the field, his fears and stress wash away. He likes knowing he’s an essential part of a team; his collaborative mindset helps give him motivation and confidence. When asked why he enjoys soccer, he said, “we’re all going for one goal: to win the game, to learn, and to have fun. Nothing else really matters in that moment” (Stanford). When he’s off the field, however, he does worry, because young trans athletes like himself are being pushed away from the sports they love. Kotler-Berkowitz lives in Massachusetts, where state laws protect his ability to play on boys’ sports teams. He was able to start soccer without needing to tell his coach he is transgender. Unfortunately, many K-12 trans athletes have had very different experiences, as anti-trans politicians have created barriers that exclude trans kids from athletic settings.
Research indicates that kids develop values and social skills through play. In social science, play is any imaginative and/or social task that humans engage in. According to How Children Develop Identity, a “lack of play activity based education can negatively impact on the child’s cognitive development during a crucial stage for identity development [first eight years of childhood]. Play contributes to children’s emotional development, and since play requires use of multiple motor and mental functions, children develop various skills as well. Play-based learning aids children in developing moral and social skills” (Esquivel et al.). Activities like crafts, board games, and sports are all examples of play. Team sports can particularly benefit children because they not only enhance physical health, they also improve social connections, boost self-esteem, and relieve stress. Kids who do not have the opportunity to play miss out on chances to grow into their healthiest, most fulfilled selves. Understanding the essential nature of play, it is clear that the recent influx of anti-trans legislation in youth sports detrimentally excludes trans kids from positive developmental experiences.
Ideally, youth sports teams are places for kids to encourage one another to grow as people and athletes. However, transphobic politicians are barring trans kids from having positive athletic experiences. Last year, the ACLU tracked 278 bills targeting LGBTQ+ people, twenty of which became law (ACLU). Seventeen of those laws restricted the rights of transgender student-athletes. Specific trans-exclusionary policies vary from state to state. In Texas, House Bill 25 requires K-12 students to play sports according to their sex assigned at birth. In Idaho, House Bill 500 “explicitly bans students assigned male at birth from being on sports teams designated for women or girls. If disputed, the law would require a student to present a physician’s statement indicating their biological sex based on their internal and external reproductive anatomy, testosterone levels, and an analysis of their genetic makeup” (Rezal). Many bills require athletes to undergo invasive procedures to document their sex before they can join a team. In this process, trans kids are denied privacy and can be outed against their will.
Before she could play on the girls’ softball team, sixteen-year-old Ember had to prove she was trans. According to Ohio law, she would need to either complete at least one year of hormone treatment or otherwise demonstrate that she did not have a physical or physiological advantage over cis women. Ember chose to receive hormone treatment, which allowed her to play during her sophomore year. But in her junior year, she was also required to obtain a doctor’s note stating that did not have a physical advantage; the note provided information on traits like her height and weight, comparing them to the traits of cisgender girls her age. Ember has to go through this process yearly if she wants to keep playing softball. She says that this monitoring is “anxiety-inducing [and] demeaning … You’re having to prove your femininity … I am having to prove that I am girl enough to play on a girl’s team. That in itself is just kind of painful” (Stanford). Nobody should have the authority to challenge another person’s identity; not in the name of sports, not in any context. Processes like this one simply magnify feelings of ostracization and dysphoria.
Playing a sport can reduce depression and anxiety. Team-based physical activity improves concentration, focus, and sleep quality. Most importantly, kids get to form friendships with others; teams can become support networks for children who might not find support elsewhere. Kotler-Berkowitz clearly feels supported by his soccer team, given his outlook that he and his teammates are all working towards the same goal. Other trans athletes share similar sentiments:
Fifteen-year-old field hockey player Rebekah Bruesehoff says that “one of the most important things that field hockey has taught me is how to fall and get back up again … I’m definitely not the best person on my team. Learning from mistakes I may make during a game or just being with peers who are better than me, trying to keep up with them and learning from what they do, that’s been really valuable” (Stanford). She credits field hockey as a major contributor to her mental and emotional growth. She has taken broadly applicable life skills away from her involvement with a youth sport.
Adult trans athlete Lia Thomas swam for the Penn women’s team from 2021 to 2022 after swimming for the men’s team from 2017 to 2020. She tells her story in an issue of Sports Illustrated. Thomas describes how competing on the men’s team impacted her mental health before she came out at her school: “Though she’d come out to herself and to her family, her feelings of dysphoria heightened that second year in school, particularly after the swim season. With fewer demands on her time, she sank into her thoughts. ‘I was very depressed,’ Thomas says. She trained less often and felt disengaged from her life. ‘I got to the point where I couldn’t go to school. I was missing classes,’ she says. ‘My sleep schedule was super messed up. Some days I couldn’t get out of bed.’” (Sanchez). Thomas found it difficult to strengthen connections with her friends, though she made an effort to keep up with them. She worried about the rejection she might face when she came out, which caused her to spiral into self-doubt. Her dysphoria was a draining force that affected all aspects of her life. She says that “I knew at that moment I needed to do something to address this” (Thomas). Thomas considered hormone replacement therapy, but she put it off for some time, fearing that it would adversely impact her swimming career. She began HRT in May of 2019, and almost immediately, “her negative feelings began to subside. ‘It surprised me,’ she says. ‘I felt, mentally, a lot better and healthier pretty quickly. The relief it gave me was quite substantial’” (Sanchez). Thomas knew that she had to keep swimming. She was determined to join the women’s team so she could compete as her authentic self. In her junior year, she came out to her coaches, and they were instantly supportive. She would continue to compete with men for the rest of that year, but she wore a women’s suit in the pool. She attended meets less frequently as her body changed and she started producing slower times. When she finally became a member of the women’s team in 2021, she continued to post season-best times. Some outsiders as well as team members took issue with Thomas’s presence on the team; however, she continued to receive support from her friends, family, and coaches. Thomas says, “I just want to show trans kids and younger trans athletes that they’re not alone … They don’t have to choose between who they are and the sport they love” (Thomas).
Transphobic politicians tend to claim that banning trans women from women’s sports protects cis women. This notion continues a long history of transphobic rhetoric that demonizes trans women by labeling them as a threat to cis women. Transphobes will often point to higher testosterone levels as an unfair athletic advantage for trans women. Their narrative assumes that testosterone is an extraordinary strength hormone that separates (powerful) men from (weak) women. The hormone can increase muscle mass, endurance, and speed, but transphobes ignore that everyone needs testosterone to be healthy, and that hormone levels vary from one individual to the next. Some trans women choose to undergo hormone therapy as a type of gender-affirming care, while others do not. Some cis women have higher testosterone levels than others due to conditions like Hirsutism, polycystic ovary syndrome, congenital adrenal hyperplasia, or simply because they are genetically likely to. Intersex women often have high levels of testosterone; several intersex runners who have previously competed in women’s track races have been removed from the sport by rules that monitor women’s hormone levels. Ultimately, testosterone is in no way the definitive maker of a great athlete. Height, effort, routine, and various other factors contribute to an athlete’s success (and no states have put a height limit on women’s sports). On the whole, the erroneous notion that all women should be less physically capable than men is harmful to trans and cis women, as are invasive procedures to certify one’s sex.
The most crucial point overall is that people are at the heart of sports. The people that make up teams of any kind are humans with rich inner worlds and complex relationships with their friends, family members, and society at large. All people should be permitted to pursue self-discovery and happiness. For this simple reason, it is obviously vital to let kids follow their passions. Like Sivan Kotler-Berkowitz, they will learn how to be an effective individual as part of a larger whole. Like Rebekah Bruesehoff, they will gain the confidence and emotional intelligence that allows them to pick themselves back up when they fail. And, like Lia Thomas, they will search for meaning and find themselves. According to the Trevor Project’s CEO, “transgender and nonbinary youth are already at higher risk for poor mental health and suicide because of bullying, discrimination, and rejection … misguided legislation will only make matters worse” (Rezal). Trans kids need the opportunity to play sports so that they can connect with their peers and form a sense of self. A grounded social life and a relatively stable self-image can make a major difference for kids when they are forming their identities. By denying trans kids the ability to find community with people they relate to, transphobes increase trans kids’ feelings of ostracization. The act of forcing a child to play on a team that is wrong for them can worsen dysphoria. By restricting access to sports, legislators are withholding potentially life-saving experiences from trans children and adults.
If you are wondering how you can help protect trans kids’ ability to play the sports they love, there are many actions you can take. First of all, vote in all of the elections you are able to, on national and state levels; support politicians who promote trans-inclusive policies. Be sure to stay informed on the bills that are introduced in your state, so that if a proposed bill targets the freedoms of LGBTQ+ people or other marginalized groups, you can voice your dissent before it becomes law. If transphobic bills have already become law where you live, you can push back against them by vocally protesting. Challenge the transphobia of the people in your lives, and spread accurate information on the importance of activities like sports for trans kids. Engaging with online resources and signing petitions can also help you have a positive impact. To find a variety of actionable resources, you can visit @pinkmantaray’s informational website based around the hashtag #LETTRANSKIDSPLAY (you can follow him on Instagram too). It is our duty to fortify developmental opportunities for kids so that they can grow into the people they deserve to be.
Works Cited
Esquivel, Krischa, et al. “How Children Develop Identity.” LibreTexts, 4 Jan. 2021, socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Early_Childhood_Education/Book%3A_The_Role_of_Equity_and_Diversity_in_Early_Childhood_Education_(Esquivel_Elam_Paris_and_Tafoya)/03%3A_The_Development_of_Identity_in_Children/3.02%3A_How_Children_Develop_Identity.
“LET TRANS KIDS PLAY!” Pinkmantaray, www.pinkmantaray.com/resources/lettranskidsplay.
“Over 120 Bills Restricting LGBTQ Rights Introduced Nationwide in 2023 So Far.” ACLU, 19 Jan. 2023, www.aclu.org/press-releases/over-120-bills-restricting-lgbtq-rights-introduced-nationwide-2023-so-far.
Rezal, Adriana. “States Restricting How Transgender Students Play Sports.” U.S. News, 1 Dec. 2021, www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2021-12-01/these-states-restrict-how-transgender-students-participate-in-school-sports.
Sanchez, Robert. “‘I Am Lia’: The Trans Swimmer Dividing America Tells Her Story.” Sports Illustrated, 3 Mar. 2022, www.si.com/college/2022/03/03/lia-thomas-penn-swimmer-transgender-woman-daily-cover.
Stanford, Libby. “Transgender Student Athletes ‘Just Want to Play.’ Will Federal Law Assure They Can?” EdWeek, 8 Sept. 2022, www.edweek.org/leadership/transgender-student-athletes-just-want-to-play-will-federal-law-assure-they-can/2022/09.
