US states ban trans athletes from competing in women's sport

[nickymanchester]

This was in the Guardian earlier today, although it was actually reported in the US press last week:-

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/11/mississippi-governor-bill-banning-trans-athletes-womens-teams

Tate Reeves, the Republican governor of Mississippi, is set to sign a bill on Thursday that will ban transgender athletes from competing on girls or women’s sports teams.

Mississippi will become the first state this year to enact such a ban, after a federal court blocked a similar Idaho law last year. Mississippi’s Senate Bill 2536 is set to become law on 1 July, although a legal challenge is possible.

Reeves, who has three daughters who play sports, has said that the bill is needed to “protect young girls from being forced to compete with biological males for athletic opportunities”. The governor added that the “push for kids to adopt transgenderism is just wrong”.

[...]

More than 20 states are currently proposing restrictions on athletics or gender-confirming health care for transgender minors this year. Conservative lawmakers are responding to an executive order by Joe Biden that bans discrimination based on gender identity in school sports and elsewhere. The US president signed the order on 20 January, the day he took office.

South Dakota’s state senate passed a bill that restricts transgender female athletes from competing on high school and college girls’ and women’s teams. Schools and athletics bodies will be required to collect written statements that document each student’s “reproductive biology”.

So there is at least some acknowledgment of what is happening.

I also thought it was interesting the point that the Governor himself has three daughters who are involved with sport:-

Reeves has three daughters who play sports and he said March 4 on Twitter that Mississippi’s bill would “protect young girls from being forced to compete with biological males for athletic opportunities.”

“It’s crazy we have to address it, but the Biden E.O. forced the issue,” Reeves tweeted that day. “Adults? That’s on them. But the push for kids to adopt transgenderism is just wrong.”

Is this perhaps an example of that old phrase "the personal is political"?

I was just reading the law that will come into place in Mississippi and I noticed that it also effectively bans mixed sex toilets and changing rooms as well:-

[[http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/2021/html/SB/2500-2599/SB2536IN.htm Senate Bill 2536
]]

Any student whose bodily privacy is violated, including encountering a person of the opposite sex in a facility traditionally designated for the exclusive use of members of one sex, by any action, policy or practice of a primary or secondary school or institution of higher education shall have a private cause of action for injunctive relief, damages and any other relief available under law against the school or institution.

a bill on Thursday that will ban transgender athletes from competing on girls or women’s sports teams

Is it really the case that all transmen athletes will be banned from competing on girls or women’s sports teams? Or it this yet another example that this is a serious matter because it affects men and whether it affects women and girls is neither here nor there?

That changing room clause is quite canny nickymanchester. Get someone to engage with that and they could find themselves arguing explicitly that, of course, some boys have the right to be in spaces where girls are in a state of undress.

I would think both transwomen and transmen would be barred from competing in women's sports, because transmen would benefit from the drugs they were taking, such as in the case of Mack Beggs, the transgirl wrestler who was forced by the authorities to compete in the girl's category, whilst transitioning. Beggs is now competing agaist the boys/young men.

How many transmen are on drugs and how many not? It's not just transwomen who adopt an "opposite gender" appearance and leave it there.

@nauticant

Is it really the case that all transmen athletes will be banned from competing on girls or women’s sports teams?

In the case of Mississippi - no. I don't know about other states though.

The wording of the law in Mississippi just speaks of banning male athletes from female sports:-

Athletic teams or sports designated for "females," "women" or "girls" shall not be open to students of the male sex.

The transgender females would - quite rightly - be banned if they were taking banned performance enhancing drugs - including - but not limited to - testosterone.Transgenderism is therefore is neither here nor there.

If the females wanted to call themselves "Bob" and have a short haircut AND compete on a level playing field (with fellow females) then that again would not really be an issue.

ANY males being kept out of female only sports? Good.

Yes, and this would have been clear to the Guardian journalist but they ended up misleading the reader in the first sentence of the article.

Journalist will understand how to form an impression of the story in the readers' minds.

There was a report on the women in sport issue in the US in the Irish Times newspaper at the weekend (it is a liberal, Democrat favouring (as all Irish media is) newspaper) and it mentioned that Trump was championing the cause of women as was a Republican female senator (I think the one who was banned for something recently). And the female IT journalist wrote - Do the Republicans not understand that the majority of Americans do not support them on this issue (and that was a WTAF moment for me, because I do not believe a majority of people in the US support trams women competing in women's sports events).

The secondary story here is the UK Guardian keeping this story off the pages ages after the US version went to print.

Makes them look....snakey.

@nauticant

a bill on Thursday that will ban transgender athletes from competing on girls or women’s sports teams

Is it really the case that all transmen athletes will be banned from competing on girls or women’s sports teams? Or it this yet another example that this is a serious matter because it affects men and whether it affects women and girls is neither here nor there?

I was just thinking that this reporting is fundamentally dishonest, as always. It’s not about “transgender” athletes, it’s about male athletes. That’s why they’re being banned, because they’re (biologically) male, not because they’re transgender.

The act says specifically:
Athletic teams or sports designated for "females," "women" or "girls" shall not be open to students of the male sex.

I presume that a biologically female trans student whose transition was social rather than medical, ie who was not using testosterone, would still be perfectly eligible to compete in women’s/girls’ sports, should that student so wish.

So yeah, the framing of it - it couldn’t centre male people more blatantly, could it? They’ve just outright erased biologically female trans students, in their pursuit of what “really” matters, and trying to prove an “anti-trans” agenda.

If only the Guardian cared about being pro-women and girls.

Got interrupted mid post and finally finished only to find I’m now just saying what’s already been said 😂

@nauticant

Yes, and this would have been clear to the Guardian journalist but they ended up misleading the reader in the first sentence of the article.

Journalist will understand how to form an impression of the story in the readers' minds.

Yes.

@nauticant

That changing room clause is quite canny nickymanchester. Get someone to engage with that and they could find themselves arguing explicitly that, of course, some boys have the right to be in spaces where girls are in a state of undress.

It is indeed canny and is presumably there in the light of the appalling Supreme Court ruling last year(?) that teenagers don’t actually have the right to “visual privacy” from members of the opposite sex.

Thank goodness that our legal system seems so far to be more fit for purpose than the US one.

I think we should be careful of the language we use here, I don't like the word 'banned'.
Transwomen are not 'banned' from anything - they are able to take part in any sport in their sex class, same as everyone else.

"Thank goodness that our legal system seems so far to be more fit for purpose than the US one."

Don't take that for granted.

I think we should be careful of the language we use here, I don't like the word 'banned'.
Transwomen are not 'banned' from anything - they are able to take part in any sport in their sex class, same as everyone else.

Good point, alias. Agreed.

Don't take that for granted.

I don’t, Triphazards, that’s why I included the caveat “so far”!

I've been closely watching the comments on various mainstream news articles regarding these states bans. While you get an equal amount of gleeful conservatives calling out "stupid progressives," "that's what you get with liberals," and the ever popular "the woke suck," you also get an equal amount of commentators who identify as democrats/progressives/liberals who say, "trans people deserve human rights but trans women shouldn't play against women/girls in sports," or "we shouldn't discriminate but you can't have males playing on female sports," and several, "aren't we the party of science?"

How the journalists are forced to cover this (must use "trans" not "male") complicates and obfuscates the issues, but from commentary, it seems much of the left isn't buying TWAW.

So this is a backlash from Republican states against Biden or are any Democrat states also following suit? Presumably if it were to be challenged by a transgender woman, it would be unlikely to succeed as the courts have been stacked with right wing judges in the Trump years.

Forcing transwomen into womens sports by Executive Order as one of the top priorities of Biden assuming office was quite stupid. But this ideology tends to cause that in people.

@Delphinium20

Thank you very much for that comment.

I have some friends in the PNW which is why I tend to keep in touch with some things going on in the US. But it's always so super helpful to hear from someone who follows these things more closely than I do and knows what is happening.

Mumsnet is, of course, very UK centric and so it's always great to hear from someone who follows events in the US more closely.

One big negative is the states and politicians proposing these laws are very conservative and rarely friends to feminism...so the fact they are championing women's rights in sports isn't necessarily a sign that feminism is professing. However, if the Democrats don't want to lose swing voters in 2 years they really should pay attention to the majority of American views on this issue because most Americans who know and love sports knows it's unfair for boys to play against girls.

Another view that seems to spring up a LOT from liberal and Democrat commentary are various opinions in this range, "why are we focused on laws that impact such a tiny portion of the population? So what if a rare trans woman plays on a random team. How often does this even happen? I'm ok if a TW competes because it would a rare thing for them to win." All of these comments clearly do NOT accept TWAW. Rather, it's seen as such a rarity that the default should be "ah, let's just be kind this one time."

Im curious that once COVID is over if we have some Olympic or big profile sport with a championship won by a TW, that's when more people will say, "ummmm.....that's not fair!" But, as an American, I'm an unfortunate optimist

*progressing

Though I doubt conservatives are "professing" any feminism!

Is it just me or is the phrase "gender-confirming health care" implying that the medication or surgery would be confirming their "correct" gender (as the writer sees it) as opposed to something more neutral like "cross-sex" or "transitioning"?