No winners in politicizing trans athletes

One of the problems with sports — and there are many — is that competition conditions people to take sides. We crown Super Bowl, basketball and Olympic champions with such overinflated fanfare that every runner-up is parked in the category of loser.

On a scholastic level, sports can be a training ground for teamwork and setting goals. It can relieve stress and provide health benefits of mind and body. It can provide lessons in graciously accepting defeat, something everyone faces in life.

A recent scuffle between high school hockey dads in Stamford was a regrettable example of the perils of taking competition too seriously. The problem of overzealous parents in the stands of youth sports seems to chase every generation.

Now there is a more topical spin on sports gone awry. Three high school athletes are suing the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference along with some boards of education to keep transgender athletes from competing against them.

The three runners claim unfair competition could cost them college scholarships, as two transgender competitors have reportedly claimed 15 titles previously held by nine girls.

It’s a conflict that calls for poise and thoughtful consideration. Instead, it has been politicized.

Next month, the Connecticut Republican Party plans to present a “Courage Award” to the trio, deeming them “brave girls” who are “leading the charge to save women’s sports!”

We don’t discount that it wasn’t easy for Chelsea Mitchell, Alanna Smith, and Selina Soule to raise their hands in protest, but it is a repellent choice on the part of the GOP to leverage them with an award at a party fundraiser.

Connecticut Democratic Party Chair Nancy Wyman dubbed the response of her Republican counterparts “beyond shameful.”

The transgender athletes, Terry Miller of Bloomfield High School and Andraya Yearwood of Cromwell High School, have asked that they be named defendants in the lawsuit, a true act of, yes, courage. They have had the support of Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union.

“Terry and Andraya are girls,” said Robin McHaelen, executive director of the Hartford-based LGBTQ

advocacy group Our True Colors Inc .

The lawsuit refers to them as “biological boys.” Once again, sports has divided the human species — in this case teenagers — into boxes labeled “winners” and “losers.”

Assuming scholarships will be lost isn’t giving much credit to recruiters in athletic departments, who know how to interpret times recorded in high school track meets. It’s not as if superstars haven’t been recruited from high school lineups with losing records.

We can sympathize with families who only want a level playing field, especially since that field would be different in states where transgender athletes would be barred from the same competition. But Miller and Yearwood played by the rules they were given.

Responding to defeat with a lawsuit is misguided. Leveraging teenagers for political gain is simply repulsive.

There is no reason to take sides when both merit a measure of empathy. Winning can’t be everything.

Assuming scholarships will be lost isn’t giving much credit to recruiters in athletic departments, who know how to interpret times recorded in high school track meets.