Can we talk about transgender athletes?
Fighting for the ball, the bigger, taller player drags the smaller, shorter player for a moment until she falls to the floor.
That part of the video clip, posted on X, has become a flashpoint in the debate over transgender participation in women’s sports. What happened next also caught my attention. After taking a shot, the bigger, taller player reaches out to try to help the player on the floor, but she turns away from the outstretched hand. It’s a perfect illustration of the gulf between the two sides on yet another battlefield of America’s culture wars — in this case, a basketball court.
The video clip, which was posted by Riley Gaines, a former collegiate swimmer who opposes the participation of transgender athletes in women’s sports, appears to show an injury; reportedly the player was the third to be hurt during a game between Collegiate Charter School of Lowell and KIPP Academy Lynn. Collegiate left the game at halftime after players said “they feared getting injured and not being able to compete in the playoffs,” a Collegiate spokesperson told the Globe.
Is there a way to talk about this without being labeled right wing and transphobic? There should be, just as there should be a way to stand by the rights of transgender athletes without being accused of sacrificing safety and fair play on the altar of left-wing political correctness. Supporters of transgender rights argue that incidents like the one reportedly captured in the video clip are exaggerated. It would be great to see some solid data from the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association concerning injuries connected to transgender athletes, as well as data about the overall impact of transgender athletes on competition. Instead, information mainly flows to the public via opponents of transgender athletes who use it to stir fear.
The rhetoric on the other side can also be overheated, as when Carol Rose of the ACLU of Massachusetts states that the controversy surrounding the video clip is “part of a coordinated attempt nationwide to try to remove LGBTQ people from public life.” I have great respect for Rose and the ACLU. But such a sweeping generalization does a disservice to parents who are merely trying to sort out what it means to have a transgender girl compete against their daughters.
Anyone who has ever watched or played high school sports knows there’s always someone bigger, stronger, better, and more naturally gifted on the playing field. As a player, coming to terms with that is part of life. But it’s harder to put it into that framework if the bigger, stronger, better, and more gifted athlete was born male and is now playing against females and if injuries are a problem. That requires honesty about ways to make youth sports safer for everyone instead of trying to sweep the issue away as the petty concern of bigots.
Like it or not, public opinion is shifting away from allowing transgender athletes to choose whether they want to play on male or female teams. According to a Gallup poll released in June, 69 percent of Americans who were surveyed said that athletes should only be allowed to play on teams associated with their birth gender; that is 7 points up from the percentage who felt that way in 2021. According to that recent Gallup poll, 93 percent of Republicans, 67 percent of independents, and 48 percent of Democrats agree with that view. “Political liberals are the lone major subgroup showing majority (57 percent) support for allowing transgender athletes to choose which team to play on,” the Gallup poll concluded. Those poll results also showed that young people are more supportive than other subgroups when it comes to allowing athletes to choose which team to play on, which is a good thing and something to build upon.
In this politically liberal state, the MIAA handbook states that a “student shall not be excluded from participation on a gender-specific sports team that is consistent with the student’s bona fide gender identity.” In practice, the MIAA relies on the gender determination made by the student’s district and does not make separate gender identity determinations. As a result, transgender students play on Massachusetts teams based on their gender identity. Meanwhile, right-wing media outlets focus on selective victories by transgender athletes, or on injuries reportedly associated with them, while everyone else tries to ignore any given controversy.
What does the MIAA have to say about any of this? So far, not much. “The MIAA has been made aware of an incident at a girls’ basketball game between Collegiate Charter School of Lowell and KIPP Academy Lynn Collegiate,” the MIAA said in a statement reported by the Boston Herald. “The MIAA continues to serve as a resource to its member schools as they navigate the facts of the matter at the local level.”
They owe a lot more than that to the student athlete on the floor and to the one with outstretched hand.
It would be great to see some solid data from the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association concerning injuries connected to transgender athletes, as well as data about the overall impact of transgender athletes on competition.