The fight for trans athletes isn't about fairness. It's about who gets to belonghttps://www.advocate.com/opinion/transgender-athletes-opinion-public-life 🔗Rose Montoya, Michael Ferrera (7 Aug 2026)
A young Rose Montoya was put in T-ball and basketball because of the gender she was assigned at birth. Her teammates were boys who spent more time bullying her than passing her the ball. Her real friends were the girls who let her play dress up. Most days, the boys made it clear she didn't belong with them. So she got pushed into solo sports instead, and she missed out on the things sports are supposed to teach kids: teamwork, confidence, belonging.
This was never really about sports. Sports are the distraction, the easiest fight for the far right to win, because it's a story people already think they understand: everyone remembers gym class, a rivalry, a close finish, so it feels simple even when it isn't. The real goal is far larger: deciding who gets to take part fully in American public life. A tiny number of kids just trying to play are up against a coordinated, well-funded campaign to make them the outcast.
... if this were really about protecting cisgender women's sports, its backers would be closing the pay gap between men's and women's leagues and investing in women's athletics the way they invest in men's, not gutting Title IX protections for every student in the process. Women's sports have never had an equal playing field, and blaming trans girls for that doesn't fix it.
