The Utah Legislature is attempting to tackle a problem that doesn’t exist.
Not really. Not in reality.
For them, and maybe a few others around here, it’s more an imbroglio mixed in fear and philosophy rather than practicality, as those oh-so-concerned folks wrestle with the idea that transgender students who want to play high school sports should be sized up by weight and height and wingspan and leg dimensions and other ridiculous measurements in order to participate.
Why not fingernail length and tone of voice, shoe size and Q angles?
Excluding those last questions, that’s what a bill before the state’s legislative body is considering, an idea put forth by Rep. Kera Birkeland, one that would form an appointed committee to take those measurements and make those judgments as to who is eligible and who isn’t. The bill made it out of the House and is now onto the Senate.
Here’s a better idea: Let transgender girls play girls sports, let transgender boys play boys sports.
Boom. Done. A problem that doesn’t exist solved without legislation.
Presently, there are a couple handfuls of transgender girls who are playing high school sports in Utah. These girls are what they identify as — girls.
And that’s OK. It really is.
Leave them alone without subjecting them to proposed committee evaluations that would throw a greater burden upon them, ostracizing them further, making them to feel as though they are Berkshire hogs seeking a blue ribbon at the county fair, to be poked and prodded, gauged and assessed in a manner that is wholly unnecessary.
What are we afraid of here? That a bunch of boys will insincerely avalanche into girls sports in order to gain some competitive advantage, to slake some hearty thirst for winning? That transgender girls will roll into those sports and dominate?
Or is it actually a way to discourage and persecute and shame transgender girls, an attempt to remind them, to remind everyone, that they aren’t what they feel they are? Is it a weapon to further a religious or philosophical stance?
Beats me.
But suspicion hangs thick in the air.
What do you think?
What is fairly clear is that transgender students already are walking straight into heavy blasts of wind that stir challenges for them, all as they attempt to find their paths through early life.
Those hurdles have no need to be ratcheted up even higher by legislatures, churches, schools, committees, and institutions of all kinds, organizations that should be looking for ways to embrace and accept young people, whatever they are.
There are far too many stories of tragedy in transgender students’ lives.
Let’s repeat the message here: Let them be. Help them. Love them.
Don’t worry about anything as insignificant and unproven as some imagined sort of massive threat to competitive balance or a new imbalance.
The question echoes again and again and again, bouncing on and off the walls of the minds of clear-thinking, well-meaning adults in this state: Will championship teams, championship events be thrown out of whack by an influx of transgender prep athletes?
Say it with me now: No.
Are legislators clear-thinking, well-meaning adults?
We’ll let the coming actions of that body answer that question.
Maybe some people in Utah really do have earnest concerns about this issue, minus the zealous religious overtones or the abject paranoia that exists in certain corners.
It’ll be OK.
Allowing transgender girls to compete — more importantly, participate — in high school sports will not be the end of girls sports in Utah. Worrying too much about that is an insult not only to the legitimacy of transgender girls, but also to all female prep athletes who train hard to be what they are — skilled and talented.
Hoisting up a mandated designation via appointed committee as to who qualifies to participate by measurement creates more problems than it solves. Should biological girls also be measured? If athletes designated female at birth exceed established measurements, should they be forced to compete with boys? And if boys who are not transgender fit a certain measurement, should they be assigned to girls sports?
The answers are simple enough.
Let girls — whether designated at birth or transgender — compete on girls teams, in girls events. Let boys — whether designated at birth or transgender — compete on boys teams, in boys events.
We’re talking high school sports here.
These kids aren’t professionals.
They’re kids who want to play freaking games on their school teams.
Just let them.
