The ACLU, Center on Halsted, Chicago Therapy Collective, Lambda Legal and Trans Up Front Illinois held a Together We Win: Fight for the T in Team Panel and CommunityDinner Jan. 13 at Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted St., following oral arguments that took place earlier in the day at the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) on two cases, West Virginia v. BPJ and Little v. Hecox.
These cases involve two teen transgender girls, one from West Virginia and another from Idaho, who sued to be able to play sports on girls teams like their cisgender counterparts.
Panelists included Trans Masculine Alliance Sports Club Executive Director Keinan Carpenter, Trans Up Front Illinois Executive Director Asher McMaher, Lambda Legal Major Gifts Officer Stacy Pratt, student athlete Ellison and Chicago Therapy Collective and Practical Audacity Supervising Therapist Becca Sebree. Chicago Therapy Collective Advocacy and Community Engagement Manager Silas Leslie served as the event moderator.
McMaher said both cases involve trans girl athletes who just wanted to try out for sports teams “so they petitioned their states under the Equal Protection Clause and Title IX statute to be able to play.” They added that the crux of these cases is whether gender identity should continue to be included in the Equal Protection Clause and Title IX.
Pratt said both cases were eventually brought to SCOTUS due to state laws in both West Virginia and Idaho that bar transgender girls from playing on girls sports teams. She added that the West Virginia case concerns both the Equal Protection Clause and Title IX and the Idaho case only focuses on the Equal Protection Clause.
Both said this current SCOTUS is not friendly towards the transgender community and referenced the recent U.S. v Skirmetti case out of Tennessee where, in a 6-3 conservative majority decision, they ruled that Tennessee can bar transgender youth from obtaining gender affirming care which has opened the door for other states to follow suit.
The conversation moved onto the role sports play in the lives of young people and why there is such a big issue over transgender people playing in sports that align with their gender identity.
Sebree said sports “build a habit of enjoying physical activity” and help with socialization, responsibility, conflict resolution, goal setting and building self esteem. They also mentioned how the four C’s of childhood development—critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity—play a role when it comes to sports participation. Sebree added that youth who play team sports are able to better regulate their emotions and their academics also improve.
Carpenter said playing basketball has helped him grow as a person and the way he looks at the world.
Ellison, who recently moved to Chicago from Texas, said playing basketball has helped him escape from the world around him, be able to breathe and not be solely a transgender activist. He added that from the age of 12 onward (he is 18 now) he has had to fight against anti-trans Texas legislation and bigotry.
McMaher said the SCOTUS cases are an extension of the misinformation that surrounds transgender people in general and another way to “target our youth.”
Sebree said the push to ban transgender girls from playing girls sports is about “outrage politics” and “pure eugenics.” They added that these actions are “meant to breed discord and keep communities from coming together,” which is what authoritarians do to keep power.
Carpenter noted that it’s also about misogyny and pointed to the attacks on cisgender Olympians Caster Semenya and Imane Khelif, who were targeted and discriminated against because they don’t fit into some people’s standards of what women should look like. He also pointed out that there are no court cases or laws that have targeted transgender boys and men playing on boys and men sports teams.
Pratt said that since sports are about winners and losers, they become “potent tools” for hateful political storytelling.
Ellison said he doesn’t want to be a statistic, just a teenager playing sports while Carpenter said there is no difference between transgender and cisgender people playing sports and testosterone didn’t make him six feet tall.
