Parker Marie Molloy, Vice Sports
November 6, 2014
The Minnesota State High School League recently tabled plans to vote on a new policy designed to allow transgender student-athletes the right to compete in high school athletics. The decision came after anti-LGBT activists mounted a campaign crafted to generate public outcry against the proposed policy. Said anti-LGBT activists argued that trans athletes have an unfair advantage over their cisgender (non-trans) counterparts, and manipulated the public with scare tactics.
For example, in a recent Minneapolis Star-Tribune op-ed, Autumn Leva of the Minnesota Family Council alleged that trans athletes would have an "unfair advantage" over other student-athletes. Leva went so far as to suggest that the new policy would hinder the careers of cisgender student-athletes.
Unfortunately, Leva's argument is also typical. The fact is, even as controversies like the one in Minnesota persist, there have been trans athletes for decades. And examination of the history of trans athletes in international competition reveals that for as long as trans men and women have been competing, bureaucracies and buffoons around the world have attempted to discredit them.
More:
https://sports.vice.com/article/heroes-martyrs-and-myths-the-battle-for-the-rights-of-transgender-athletes
