As state legislatures convene across the United States, the rights of transgender youth are at the forefront of debate in 33 states. From Arkansas to West Virginia and across the Midwest, lawmakers have put forward more than 100 bills to curb the rights of transgender students on issues pertaining to athletic participation, facility use, and gender affirmation surgery. Despite President Biden signing an executive order banning discrimination against LGBTQIA+ people, Republican-led states, which have reserved powers over education, have undermined this order at every step of the legislative process.
ATHLETICS AND STUDENT CHOICE
The debate surrounding the ability of transgender athletes to participate in sports leagues in accordance with their gender identity has been a key talking point in Republican and conservative circles. Opponents of choice argue that allowing transgender students to play in the gender league of their choice could give them an unfair advantage over cisgender students. Twelve states have banned transgender athletes from participating in leagues that represent their identified gender. A few days ago, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed MT HB 1112, known as the Save Women's Sports Act, which would require “public school athletic teams to be designated based on biological sex”.
Human rights and trans-rights advocates have long argued that these bills are solutions in search of a problem. In a recent interview, West Virginia Governor Jim Justice was unable to cite any examples of transgender athletes competing in youth sports of the gender they identify with in his state despite his signing legislation that would ban transgender youth from doing so. Likewise, Governor Tate Reeves tweeted in response to criticisms of his signing a similar bill in Mississippi;“I will sign our bill to 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[xecutive] O[rder] forced the issue. Adults? That’s on them. But the push for kids to adopt transgenderism is just wrong”.
However, as public health experts like Dr. Eric Vilain have noted, the scale on which the issue is being address is disproportionate to the actual occurrences of transgender athletes competing in youth sports. Instead, these bills are an attack on the very idea that trans rights as human rights and further ostracise and otherise a community that has already undergone, and continues to undergo discrimination and persecution in social spheres.
IMPACT ON STUDENTS
While conservative politicians have argued that the basis of these bills is the protection of fair play, all these bills and the controversy surrounding them come at a time when 1 in 3 transgender youth report having attempted suicide. Transgender youth suffer from higher rates of mental health disorders than their cisgender counterparts. Schools, meant to be safe places for students to learn and grow with classmates, have instead become hotbeds for hatred and bullying, particularly for transgender students. While many of these laws have ended up at the Supreme Court, federal anti-discrimination measures are currently failing trans youth in the United States. If the Biden administration’s commitment to trans rights is serious, further measures must be enacted to protect transgender Americans across all aspects of life.As state legislatures convene across the United States, the rights of transgender youth are at the forefront of debate in 33 states. From Arkansas to West Virginia and across the Midwest, lawmakers have put forward more than 100 bills to curb the rights of transgender students on issues pertaining to athletic participation, facility use, and gender affirmation surgery. Despite President Biden signing an executive order banning discrimination against LGBTQIA+ people, Republican-led states, which have reserved powers over education, have undermined this order at every step of the legislative process.
ATHLETICS AND STUDENT CHOICE
The debate surrounding the ability of transgender athletes to participate in sports leagues in accordance with their gender identity has been a key talking point in Republican and conservative circles. Opponents of choice argue that allowing transgender students to play in the gender league of their choice could give them an unfair advantage over cisgender students. Twelve states have banned transgender athletes from participating in leagues that represent their identified gender. A few days ago, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed MT HB 1112, known as the Save Women's Sports Act, which would require “public school athletic teams to be designated based on biological sex”.
However, as public health experts like Dr. Eric Vilain have noted, the scale on which the issue is being address is disproportionate to the actual occurrences of transgender athletes competing in youth sports. Instead, these bills are an attack on the very idea that trans rights as human rights and further ostracise and otherise a community that has already undergone, and continues to undergo discrimination and persecution in social spheres.
IMPACT ON STUDENTS
While conservative politicians have argued that the basis of these bills is the protection of fair play, all these bills and the controversy surrounding them come at a time when 1 in 3 transgender youth report having attempted suicide. Transgender youth suffer from higher rates of mental health disorders than their cisgender counterparts. Schools, meant to be safe places for students to learn and grow with classmates, have instead become hotbeds for hatred and bullying, particularly for transgender students. While many of these laws have ended up at the Supreme Court, federal anti-discrimination measures are currently failing trans youth in the United States. If the Biden administration’s commitment to trans rights is serious, further measures must be enacted to protect transgender Americans across all aspects of life.
Alexandra Smith is a recent graduate of Loyola University Maryland where she studied Political Science and Philosophy. Alexandra is an incoming Master's student at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium where she will focus on European Union governance and foreign policy. Her research and academic interests include international relations, game theory, genocide studies, and continental philosophy.