Guest Column by Dr. Pam Kohlmeier
A smoldering crusade against transgender students recently reignited. Two years ago, the Spokane’s Central Valley (CVSD) school board along with numerous members of our community sought to bar transgender girls from girls’ bathrooms. Recently, transgender students are being targeted again, but this time involving school sports under the guise of ‘protecting our girls.’
Historically, school sports were created to improve physical and mental health, while helping to build connections. Why does this movement stoke fears about trans athletes winning medals and college opportunities – when CVSD has virtually no transgender athletes? These medals often end up forgotten in boxes months after graduation, while the impact of anti-trans discrimination can lead to lifelong trauma and increased suicide risk.
Anti-Trans Laws Fuel Mental Health Crisis
Prevalent risks involving transgender youth are not from them injuring other athletes, but, rather, injuring themselves in despair over the hostility trans youth face at home, at school and in society. Laws that discriminate against transgender youth have been shown to further traumatize this vulnerable group. Researchers in the peer reviewed Nature Human Behaviour journal reported a causal relationship between suicide attempts and the passage of state anti-transgender laws – with up to a 72% increase in transgender and nonbinary youth suicide attempts the year following their passage.
Yet, our CVSD board recently urged our state legislature and the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) to discriminate against transgender athletes through the passage of a resolution calling for a ban of transgender student-athletes from competing in alignment with their gender identities, providing an illusion of fairness through the misuse of words like “inclusion” and “belonging” scattered throughout their resolution and accompanying letters to the legislature and WIAA. CVSD board members apparently have a different understanding of inclusion and belonging based on their cisgendered experiences and biases, than transgender students already struggling to cling to the hope that one day they may actually be accepted.
Real Sports Inequities Go Unaddressed
Meanwhile, there are thousands of (actual) inequities that impact the ability of women to earn medals and to be recruited in sports with approximately 60,000 more collegiate opportunities for men than women. These gender-based inequities have virtually nothing to do with an occasional transgender student-athlete nationwide, athletes who account for only 0.008% of all NCAA female competitors. Yet, that mere potential of any transgender student competing in CVSD recently triggered outrage, without a hint of concern for known inherited or socio-economic inequities that are prevalent among cisgendered student-athletes.
For example, there are height advantages in basketball and volleyball which have been favoring tall kids for decades. Where is the public outcry over unfairness? Additionally, numerous wealthy families have been fine-tuning the athletic prowess of their kids for decades, while economically challenged families have often been struggling to survive. Is it fair that students whose parents are wealthy often benefit from optimal living and training conditions with (heavy) participation in club sports prior to high school, while 31% of CVSD students are economically disadvantaged and over 1,200 students in Spokane Public Schools are actually experiencing homelessness such that even their most basic human needs for food and shelter are compromised. Again, where is the public outcry over unfairness?
Real Threats to Safety Lie Elsewhere
In this climate, how best can we protect our girls from inequities and injuries? Sports have always carried risks of injury, yet crusaders seek to have us believe these risks become unsafe when a girl, who was assigned female at birth, competes with a girl who was not. However, co-ed teams with men and women have existed in our community for years in Hoopfest and college intramurals without outcries over safety. The reality is that women are far more likely to become victims from gun violence or sexual assault than being injured by a transgender athlete. Currently, one to 12 children per day are killed by gun violence in America, and over 20% of girls are victimized by attempted rape or rape in their lifetimes. These staggering statistics warrant outcries for protection; in contrast, society somehow continues entrusting sexual predators with power, further compromising the safety of our girls.
Our understanding of fairness varies based on our experiences and biases. Mine includes being a mother with an urn holding my nonbinary child in my living room. My life, along with the lives of many others, has been traumatized by the suicide of a child. On average, a death by suicide impacts 135 family-members, friends, classmates, teachers, etc., and often triggers emotional injuries that linger beyond the lifespan of interest in boxed-up medals. Largely, due to the rather significant collateral damage, discussions involving student safety and fairness should prioritize suicide prevention which should simultaneously help to diminish risks of secondary emotional injuries to classmates and teachers. Transgender students are at high risk for self-harm including death by suicide, and these risks have been shown to worsen following the enactment of anti-transgender laws.
Sports Benefits Must Include All
Please help stop the ongoing anti-transgender movement and re-shift our focus to the plethora of (actual) inequities and safety issues that have been, and will continue, impacting our student-athletes. If we accept that school sports should be improving mental and physical health while helping to foster social connections, then we should recognize that transgender student-athletes need these benefits too –at least as much as their teammates.
Acceptance of transgender students helps to save lives — but it often requires the death of our own bigotry.
The views expressed in this opinion column are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of FāVS News. FāVS News values diverse perspectives and thoughtful analysis on matters of faith and spirituality.
