Illustration by Mel Tirado
illustration of swimmer on the blocks
As high school and college athletes across Minnesota head back to locker rooms, some will be doing so with a fresh confidence that they belong there. The Minnesota State High School League, the International Olympic Committee, and the NCAA have had policies that allow athletes to play on the team consistent with their gender identity for years. But now, with transgender athletes competing in the Olympics and a new victory from the Minnesota Court of Appeals, it seems clearer than ever that trans girls have the right to play on girls’ teams and trans boys can play on boys’ teams.
At the same time, however, groups such as Save Women’s Sports are trying to pass anti-transgender bills around the country that would limit such protections.
How much does that sort of anti-trans sentiment affect a kid who just wants to kick a soccer ball after school? Quite a bit, say experts ranging from Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve to Children’s Minnesota doctors to the Women’s Sports Foundation.
Take Nick, a trans boy who joined the Coon Rapids swimming team as a ninth grader and fell in love with diving.
“I looked forward to it,” says Nick, now 20. “It was always nice to get out of school and do something I enjoyed. The meets were fun, and I made a few friends.”
The only issues he faced as a trans boy on the team came from outsiders: other teams commenting on his swim shirt, for example. That is, until the school board got wind that Nick was changing in the boys’ locker room, and, as he says, “everything changed.”
He remembers the day the school’s athletic director pulled him into the office and told him he’d have to change in a separate area.
“They showed me on a map. It was across the school from the pool,” he says. “I had already been struggling with my mental health before that happened, and that kind of just—it was disappointing because I had been told it wouldn’t be a problem, and there hadn’t been any problems.”
After that meeting, Nick never went back to the team.
It may seem obvious, notes Angela Kade Goepferd, medical director of Children’s Minnesota Gender Health program, but evidence shows that when trans youth participate in sports, they do better across several metrics, from better grades to lower levels of depression. They benefit from sports in all the same ways cisgender kids do, but that’s especially important for a population that is at higher risk for mental health issues—including suicide, Goepferd says.
“Affirming and accepting trans kids in any setting drives down suicide risk by half,” she says. “And on the flip side, a GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) school climate survey in 2019 showed that when LGBT youth experienced discriminatory policies, they had measurably lower self-esteem, higher rates of depression, and higher rates of skipping school, etc. So, we know and can measure that trans kids do better when inclusive policies are in place and worse under discriminatory policies.”
Photo by Martin Bernetti/AFP via Getty
Team Canada midfielder Quinn
This year, Team Canada midfielder Quinn (far left) became the first out trans athlete to medal in the Olympics.
But most trans youth don’t participate in sports: A 2020 research brief from The Trevor Project shows that trans kids are about half as likely to play sports as their cisgender LGBQ peers. Research also shows they experience high levels of harassment on playing fields and in locker rooms and that, often, no one intervenes.
Which is exactly why Nick eventually sued the Anoka-Hennepin School District. “I wanted to make things better for future students and make it so maybe schools would think twice about going backwards and forwards with their words and actions,” he says.
In March, the case was settled after a ruling by the Minnesota Court of Appeals found the school district in violation of both the Minnesota Human Rights Act and the state constitution for segregating Nick from his peers in the locker room.
It was a landmark victory, but it didn’t erase every barrier for young trans athletes. The testimony presented by proponents of the anti-trans bills in particular is taking a toll, says Jess Braverman, legal director of Gender Justice.
“We got this great ruling for trans youth, but we’re getting more calls than ever about bullying and harassing going on,” Braverman says. “You can get great laws and policies, but more is needed to support kids.”
A Trevor Project survey shows that nearly all respondents (94 percent) said the anti-trans legislation affected their mental health negatively, Goepferd says—even when the bills didn’t pass.
“You can’t underestimate the harmful effects that anti-trans legislation has on kids,” Goepferd says.
Women’s sports advocates say the legislation harms all female athletes: “Transgender exclusion pits woman athletes against one another, reinforces the harmful notion that there is only one right way to be a woman and distracts us from the real threats to women’s sports,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve wrote in Sports Illustrated.
The Women’s Sports Foundation went so far as to release an official statement opposing the Save Women’s Sports bills: “Let us not lose sight of the most valuable aspects of sport participation, which go well beyond the medals: to instill health and wellness; to build camaraderie and belonging; to learn discipline and leadership. Long after the race, game or match concludes, these are the life-long benefits of sport that drive the mission of WSF to enable girls and women, including transgender girls and women, to reach their potential in sport and life. These bills would unfairly deprive transgender girls and women of these critical developmental opportunities and experiences.”
Advocates question what problem the legislation is trying to solve. Trans athletes are not taking medals from other female athletes in droves, they point out. And trans athletes have been allowed to compete in some sports, like tennis, for decades.
“The attacks are new, and they’re not actually prompted by anything that’s happening,” Braverman says. “They create problems, and they don’t solve any.”
As for a competitive advantage, Goepferd says that’s a myth: Prepubescent kids don’t have a biological advantage. And teens taking hormone modulators would be more likely to derive disadvantages than advantages from them.
The International Olympic Committee agrees: Since 2004, transgender athletes have been allowed to compete in the Olympics, although this is the first year openly transgender athletes have participated. In August, Canadian soccer midfielder Quinn became the first out trans athlete to medal, helping their team earn a spot in the gold medal game by beating the U.S. women in a semifinal.
“I feel optimistic for change,” Quinn wrote on Instagram. “Change in legislature. Changes in rules, structures, and mindsets. Mostly, I feel aware of the realities. Trans girls being banned from sports. Trans women facing discrimination and bias while trying to pursue their Olympic dreams. The fight isn’t close to over . . . and I’ll celebrate when we’re all here.”
Back in Minnesota, Nick agrees that people need to continue the fight. “It’s important that if people see or hear something going on, they should say something,” he says. “It took a lot for me to say, I don’t like this. But it was worth it in the end, because there’s some change that’s hopefully going to happen.”
