DALLAS — Democratic U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico on Wednesday said he opposed transgender student-athletes competing in girls’ sports “if it endangers safety or fairness,” reversing course on previous positions he took while in the Texas House opposing restrictions on trans athletes.
It’s still a fake non-issue. I used to fall for the anti-trans propaganda because I do watch and have participated in women’s contact sports, so I know how already inherently unsafe it is, and the only reason it does not matter is because the percentage of trans women in sports is negligible so it’s exceedingly unlikely to be a problem. It’s not a real issue that affects me or you, most likely, so there’s no point in engaging with the hypothetical at all. Trans people deserve human rights, respect, dignity, and privacy, and sports organizations and schools should figure out their own rules that work for their own communities.
Even if minute in terms of the number of athletes affected, each person that cannot participate is being denied equal participation in society. More broadly, the same people pushing to ban transgender sports participation are seeking to remove transgender recognition from society as a whole.
Letting local communities selectively deny transgender people equal rights is not acceptable. Civil rights are not something that should be optional. No school or sporting organization in any state should be discriminating against transgender individuals in any capacity with respect to their gender identity.