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The US supreme court on Tuesday is considering state laws banning transgender athletes from school sports.
The cases were brought by trans students who challenged bans in West Virginia and Idaho barring trans girls from girls teams. The outcome could have wide-ranging implications for LGBTQ+ rights. A total of 27 states have passed sports bans targeting trans youth while more than 20 states have maintained pro-LGBTQ+ policies.
As the highest court in the US debates their rights to participate in school sports, five trans youth and their families spoke to the Guardian about the role athletics has played in their lives. The students are based in California, a state that has long had trans-inclusive policies.
The youth described the joy sports brings them and how meaningful it has been to play on teams that match their gender identity. They said sports were about community, team-building, socializing and exercising, like they are for so many youth in the US. Some expressed frustration and anxiety about the national debates focused on “fairness” in competition, saying the legal battle was about fighting for their place in society and their fundamental rights to access the same opportunities as their peers.
Here are some excerpts of their reflections.
‘Sports is my escape’
Lina Haaga, a 14-year-old Pasadena student, has played sports since age four, starting with soccer: “My entire family is very athletic,” she says. “I wasn’t particularly good at soccer, but it helped me realize what an asset sports is in my life – as a release and an escape, but also a way to connect with other people and make new friends.” A trans girl who transitioned at a young age, Lina always played on girls’ teams, eventually doing basketball, swimming, water polo, lacrosse, tennis and track.
When she has faced stressors, “sports was always a place where I could find a reprieve and just think about the ball that was ahead of me or the next step in the race,” she says.
The attacks on trans girls in athletics have taken a toll, says Lina: “The political climate has put into question my relationship with sports. Instead of it being something innocent I can just enjoy without fear of being discriminated against, I’ve had to now worry every time I step on the track or the court that somebody might disagree with my participation. That’s been really scary, because it’s started to steal something that’s precious for me – that moment of bliss.”
There are times, she says, when she has avoided games out of fear someone might object.
Her message to the supreme court? “We’re still human. We’re just kids. We’re just trying to have fun … We’re not trying to be monsters or predators or anything malevolent. We’re just trying to find connection and community.”
Lina hopes other trans kids continue to pursue athletics: “Playing sports and loving being out there on the field is in its own beautiful way an act of resistance.”
‘I defied the president’
In May, AB Hernandez, a 17-year-old track and field athlete, won first place in the high jump, first place in the triple jump, and silver in the long jump in the California state finals. It should have been a moment of pure celebration for the high schooler from Jurupa Valley, a city east of Los Angeles, but she and her mom had to worry about something else: Donald Trump’s attacks.
The US president turned AB into a media spectacle, targeting her in a social media post and claiming he was “ordering local authorities, if necessary, to not allow” her to compete, writing her participation was “TOTALLY DEMEANING TO WOMEN”.
Now a senior, AB says she has learned to brush aside her detractors: “People are always gonna have negative thoughts to say about you … I just had to realize I need to be comfortable with who I know I am and be comfortable in my own skin and not let anyone get under it.”
“Victory,” she adds, “meant a lot, especially after all the internet drama. To come out on top and be number one. You can’t say anything besides argue with a wall. I’m still competing … Sports is my everything.”
She was touched that standing up inspired others: “People DM’d me to say: ‘I’m so happy you’re fighting. You’re making a really big impact for our community.’ … I thought I just went out and competed, but to others, it was like a movement. I defied the president, in a way. I was like, oh my god, I did do something.”
Her mom, Neredya Hernandez, says she won’t stop defending her daughter’s rights and hopes other parents will be moved to embrace their trans kids. “My message to other parents is: support your kids and be louder. We’re unaware of how much support we have within this community until you’re actually put in a position like we were. We’re not alone.”
‘We’d have to leave the country’
While anti-trans rhetoric has generally focused on restricting trans girls, the toxic climate has also been distressing for trans boys, some parents said. Several states with bans against trans girls have included restrictions impacting trans boys, too.
One 13-year-old trans boy in the Bay Area, whose name the Guardian is withholding to protect his identity, played soccer starting at age two and now also plays basketball and baseball. “Sports is how I made friends. It’s nice you have people to lean on who have your back,” he says.
Jennifer, his mother, says her son struggled to fit in on girls’ teams before he came out as a boy at age nine, but now is embraced by the boys’ teams and coaches. If he were barred from athletics due to being trans, “we would have to leave the country,” she says. “The message the country is sending deeply and negatively impacts his feeling of belonging in his own country.”
Jennifer, who asked to go by a pseudonym to protect her son’s identity, says the supreme court case “terrifies” her: “The sports issue is so important, because it fundamentally tells us whether people believe trans people exist. Trans girls are girls and belong on girls’ teams. Trans boys are boys and they belong on boys’ teams. Full stop. Once you take the position that trans girls are not girls for the purposes of sports, you have now dehumanized them. It’s a slippery slope to taking away rights after rights after rights.”
Her son says he didn’t understand why some people were so focused on stopping children from playing on teams: “I’m just a kid that wants to play sports with my friends. I’m not special. I just want to be left alone and hopefully be successful in sports. We’re not a threat. We’re not gonna tear down the world … If the Trump administration wouldn’t let me play sports, they would basically be taking away part of me.”
‘I’m used to slurs, but I’ll keep speaking up’
Lily Norcross, a 17-year-old track athlete from California’s central coast, says she has grown accustomed to negative news articles about her participation on the girls’ team, which sometimes lead to death threats and other harassment.
“I know this sounds really sad, but I’ve grown used to people calling me slurs. The news itself doesn’t bother me as much as what it causes. After Trump was inaugurated, people were far more comfortable openly being transphobic and hating minorities,” she says. “For me, it’s important to defend the rights of trans kids … because compared to others, I’m extremely lucky. Practically my entire family is supportive. I live in California, which is very liberal. My school board and most of my teachers support me. Most people aren’t in that situation … I’m speaking up for people in places like Texas, Ohio or Florida who don’t have these opportunities.”
Lily says she also wished Democratic leaders did more to stand up for her rights, noting it felt like their stance was: “Let trans people fight for themselves.” She urges lawmakers to have more empathy: “Put yourself in [our] shoes. Imagine if somebody said your people aren’t allowed to use bathrooms or play sports. How would you feel if you were segregated from everybody else?”
‘I feel hopeless’
Leonard, a 17-year-old swimmer in the Bay Area, says it was hard to be optimistic that his rights would remain protected, even in a state like California.
“I feel hopeless. I don’t like this supreme court and I don’t think they’re going to support trans people’s ability to play sports,” says Leonard, a trans boy who is also a fencer and asked to go by a pseudonym to protect his identity. “I’m scared of the precedent it’s going to set, maybe countrywide. I’m scared of what could happen to me and my friends.”
Leonard wishes people understood how meaningful it can be for trans youth to play on teams where they belong: “It made me really, really, really, really happy to be on the boys team affirming my gender identity, affirming I was as good as any cis boy. I know that I’m a boy, but being on a boys team proves to everyone and myself that I am, in fact, a boy and this is where I’m supposed to be.”
