The Trans Advantage In Sports

Sports Are Better For Everyone When Trans Participants Are Welcomed

This 10 second clip is one of countless, everyday moments in sports that embody what we lose sight of when the right of participation by trans athletes is framed around rebutting the lies of their “unfair competitive advantage.”

The fact of the matter is that sport at anything below national and international competition is simply not about winning games and achieving victory.

I played lacrosse for a Division I university. I was no star but that activity remained on my resume for decades. I kept it there knowing that fact mattered to many prospective employers because I would be asked about that obscure item in nearly every job interview I ever had.

Nobody ever asked what the team's Won-Lost record was, or how many titles we won, or what my personal stats were...but they did want to know about how I worked with others as part of a team, how I dealt with adversity, what kind of discipline it took to get better, what I thought of my coaches, and all about the hundreds of other soft skills that people carry from sports throughout life long after their playing days are over.

Sport - for the 99.9% of the participants who do not compete on a world stage - is not about victories. Sure, victories are important, but they are, in truth, a side hustle to the innumerable more important purposes of sport, including how it fosters both physical and mental health for participants.

When the far right provokes outrage that women and girls they misgender are competing against women and girls they don't misgender, they unironically demand equity in terms of one element of sport: the recorded outcomes in the field of competition.

Yet that's not even why it is important for the people on the field or on the court or in the pool to be involved in their sport.

I don't know if the right-wing just fails to understand sports in general or if they fully understand how inconvenient it is to their bigotry for the conversation to get around to the most important reasons we want young people to play sports.

My heart aches when people defend trans athletes by arguing that the playing field is more level than the bigots will admit.

Can we stop that? Who the fuck cares if the playing field is or isn't level? Sports will always favor some over others in arbitrary ways - whether it’s a short right field fence, the frozen winter weather for some football teams, freakish height in basketball…there’s no level playing field, which is how we sort out the winners and losers in contests.

The more important question is this: will participants be frustrated from learning teamwork if one of their teammates is somewhere on a trans journey? Will their own physical development be stunted? Or…might there be soft skills developed on that team that will be more enduring than winning a state championship could offer?

Will there be less discipline in practice? Less respect for the coach? Less opportunity to develop leadership skills? Less sportsmanship? Less drive to excel?

Having a trans person participating in sports does not impede any of these more important reasons for people to pursue athletics.

I am at a loss to see how it diminishes the athletic experience in any way - while I hope you, dear readers, are identifying for yourselves the numerous ways that having a trans teammate or competitor would likely expand, accelerate, and emphasize so many of the soft life skills that we gloss over when we allow the right to force the debate about trans athletes to dwell on wins, medals, and podium placements.

Remember this: every "feel good" story you encounter about sports encapsulates a counterargument to the bullshit attacks on children they want to exclude from sports.

Think of those “feel good” stories of sport and insert however many trans athletes as you wish into those scenes, wherever you want to plug them in, and ask yourself: did the special moment - the all-important element that makes a minor sporting event go viral - not happen on account of the trans participant(s)? Did a trans participant stand in the way of good sportsmanship? Did a trans person prevent the post-game handshake from happening? Did an act of selflessness not happen because a trans person spoiled the moment in some way?

If it weren’t for the fact that I can imagine so many additional “feel good” moments that can happen because trans athletes are participating, I’d say that the presence of trans athletes has absolutely no impact on any of the true reasons that sport matters.

The stories of sports that are memorable and cherished testify to the fallacy of exclusion that’s being justified by demanding birth certificate-based “equity” to arrive at unimpeachable scoring and judging outcomes.

We know that those kinds of outcomes are not driving this debate. We know they use that standard for exclusion because a conversation about the real reasons we love sports will quickly reveal that some children are being judged unworthy to compete only to affirm the bigotry that addles the minds of the most disgusting adults.

And how do we know these adults are disgusting?

We know this with a moral certainty because they find some children to be revolting and are actively trying to make those children - and those women in some cases - unsafe.

If you observe an adult who is making another child unsafe then you know - again, with a moral certainty that cannot be refuted - that your own child would be unsafe with that kind of monster, no matter how different your child may be from the child under attack.

You would not allow a person who attacks some children to be a coach, a trainer, a referee or judge, or league official for your own child...

...and I submit to you that the real problem with sports are all the people in sports (as well as the politicians who wish to govern sports) who make children (and any participants at any age) unsafe.

Consider these videos (below) about what stories of sports are the important and compelling ones and you will quickly realize that trans athletes are making sports better for everyone - provided we insist on discussing sports on the terms that actually matter for sports.

If you want to exclude the villains who pose the true threat to sports right now, know that the call is coming from inside the house. And the Senate.

All of these clips are a reminder of why we want to take the most inclusive approach to sport - for ourselves, for our children, and for society as well as for the benefit of those people the monsters wish to exclude. Welcoming trans youth - and trans adults - into athletic venues as participants on their terms isn’t all about them.

Sport - when it’s done well and the bigoted asshats and hyper-competitive “grownups” are the only ones excluded - is about opening doors for everyone else to be extraordinary in all the ways athletes are encouraged to be champions that, for whatever reason, we don’t recognize with blue ribbons, letter jackets, gold medals, or trophies.

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Here are some examples of extraordinary wins that reverberate long after the final scores or times are reported in the paper:

(In the Little League World Series, a batter who was hit by a pitch consoles the pitcher who is distraught. Who won the game? Nobody even knows. This was the highlight that will be remembered for years afterwards because this is the kind of development we hope for when sports are functioning at their best.)

(The team in black won the game. They probably won on the scoreboard, but who even knows if that’s the case? We know they won because this is the memory they’ll carry with them because this above-and-beyond choice to be inclusive exemplifies sports at their very best. I don’t think this is a left-right or Democrat or Republican virtue. Onlookers of all stripes recognize this as a highlight that the team in black deserves praise for.)

(This runner was trying for her personal best but took a detour to help a runner from a rival school cross the finish line. This made national news because of the sportsmanship, not because of the athleticism, the record-setting time, or any performance that’s measured in competition. The news anchors say the runner received several scholarship offers, too. Winning and personal bests in sports come from participating and expressing our humanity in the best ways. There is no participant who keeps their teammates and competitors from that kind of greatness. Excluding trans folks from participating diminishes sport and the opportunities for greatness.)