Bill Targeting Trans Athletes Advances

As the Tennessee General Assembly returns to the Capitol, so too does the state's annual assault on its LGBTQ population. The 2021 edition of the “slate of hate” includes bills aimed at transgender youth, with members of the state House and Senate debating a bill that would bar trans athletes from competing on teams consistent with their gender identity. (Or as the bill puts it, a student’s gender “for purposes of participation” in school sports will “be determined by the student's sex at the time of the student's birth.”)

The legislation is being pushed by state Republican lawmakers, and many arguments in support of the bill echo the usual clichés about trans athletes that have rattled around in half-baked sports talk for years now — in particular, the belief that trans athletes, particularly those transitioning from male to female, have an unfair advantage. The bill presents itself as protecting the safety and athletic dreams of girls while it misgenders and mischaracterizes trans athletes as boys competing in girls’ sports, unfairly stealing their scholarships away.

“Males are much stronger, upper-body, in the big muscles of the body,” said ever-eloquent former House Speaker Glen Casada (R-Franklin) as the K-12 Subcommittee debated the bill.

Rep. Scott Cepicky (R-Culleoka), the bill’s House sponsor, argued that Usain Bolt, the fastest man in the world, would be faster than the fastest women in the world.

“If you gave Usain Bolt puberty blockers or hormone treatment when he was a teenager, how would he compete against women?” asked Rep. John Ray Clemmons (D-Nashville), alluding to gender-affirming hormone therapy that some trans folks undertake (and which some organizations, like the International Olympic Committee, require for athletes).

Cepicky maintained that factors like bone density still present an unfair advantage and that he was just trying to keep a level playing field for female athletes. The bill passed the House subcommittee, but it will take some time before reaches the governor's desk.

First off, the discussion is blatantly transphobic, presenting young transwomen as con artists trying to take advantage of new and nuanced understandings of gender. It’s a tired argument, and one that doesn’t play out in national or international sports.

As Inside Hook notes, trans athletes receive outsized attention after big wins — along with an avalanche of controversy — yet they often go ignored when they compete and lose or come up short (as most student athletes do). Plus, transgender boys and men attain far less notoriety for success in their sports — a double standard that reflects societal views on male and female athletes. 

On a much broader level, the Olympics has allowed transgender athletes to compete since 2003, though none have qualified. The games have testosterone requirements to compete in women’s sports, which have also been criticized by LGBTQ activists. (That's not to mention the fact that conditions like hyperandrogenism may cause higher levels of testosterone.) And at such an elite level — with the combination of an individual athlete’s exceptional gifts and top-tier training and resources — hormones may be rather irrelevant.

Second, the trans population is fairly small: Nationally, 2 percent of high schools students identify as transgender, and according to a 2016 study, less than 1 percent of Tennesseans identified as trans. There isn’t some wave of overly advantaged athletes waiting to dominate the sports scenes; just a small and vulnerable population being targeted by a body consisting mostly of straight white men.

But those white men are still propping themselves up as protectors of girls around the state. On Wednesday, Gov. Bill Lee said, “Transgenders participating in women’s sports will destroy women’s sports," adding that it would ruin their scholarship opportunities. The Defender of Women also defended the strict anti-abortion bill he signed last summer, which is facing a lawsuit.

The Republican-dominated legislature has pursued anti-LGBTQ legislation for years, despite consistent warnings that such legislation could invite lawsuits or discourage businesses to settle in Tennessee. Last year, Lee signed a bill allowing state adoption agencies to discriminate against same-sex couples. House lawmakers also pursued a bill to outlaw providing gender-affirming therapy to trans teens. Legislators also pursued so-called “bathroom bills” to keep trans folks from using the restroom consistent with their genders. That last one was also defended by Republicans as preventing “indecent exposure.” The Tennessee Equality Project lists other anti-LGBTQ legislation the assembly may consider this year.

The continued transphobia is as frustrating as it is predictable, and the hypocrisy about protecting girls feels especially heinous given the fact that lawmakers work with Rep. David Byrd of Waynesboro, who was credibly accused of sexually abusing the female athletes he coached. State Republicans continue to conjure up boogeymen among our most marginalized groups while they share a chamber with actual monsters.