Over the past few years, attacks on transgender people have intensified. While discriminatory policy targets and tactics have changed over the years in concert with election cycles, the goal has generally remained the same: to deny the existence of transgender people, use them as a political wedge issue, and discriminate against them so they do not have full participation in the American Dream, including sports. 

For nearly 20 years, the International Olympic Committee has had policies in place to address the inclusion of transgender athletes. During this time, there have been several high-profile cases of trangender and gender diverse athletes such as Caster Semenya, a World Championship winner (2009) and Olympic track and field gold medalist (2016); and University of Pennsylvania National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) swimming champion (2022) Lia Thomas. 

At the federal level, the Trump administration issued a devastating executive order to ban transgender athletes from participating in high school and collegiate sports, threatening, in part, to pull federal funding from schools that don’t comply. 

A few months ago, NCAA President Charlie Baker stated that he was aware of no more than 10 transgender athletes nationally, but he too folded and agreed to change the NCAA’s inclusive policy on transgender athletes to that of exclusion and discrimination. Organizations such as the Women’s Sports Foundation support the inclusion of transgender athletes. 

On national, state, and local levels, each sport’s governing body has the power to establish its own rules as long as they do not violate anti-discrimination laws. In the past few years at the local level, there have been several lawsuits filed against transgender athlete bans in New Hampshire and in New York. In Washington State, the state’s governing body for middle and high school sports determined that its proposed rule changes for transgender athletes violate state law. 

In Nevada, ahead of the 83rd legislative session, Lieutenant Governor Stavros Anthony propped up a “Task Force to Protect Women In Sports” through his office. The goal of the task force is to not allow transgender females to participate in girl’s and women's sports. The task force cites concerns about safety, fairness and a (potential) loss of scholarships. One of the primary catalysts for the formation of the task force was the volleyball match between the University of Nevada Reno (UNR) and San Jose State University. The San Jose State team included a transgender team member who reportedly had been on the team for nearly three years. UNR’s volleyball team decided not to play and forfeited the match, citing safety and fairness concerns.

The Nevadans for Equal Rights Committee filed a complaint claiming that the lieutenant governor is misusing his office to create the Task Force and that discriminating against transgender athletes based on gender identity and gender expression violates the Nevada Equal Rights Amendment, which is part of the state constitution. Saying that transgender athletes can compete in sports, but only under the category of their sex assigned at birth or biological sex, undermines gender identity and expression protections. 

Significant time, resources, money, and effort have been used to promote the lieutenant governor’s task force for an issue that affects relatively few individuals. Transgender Americans make up about 1 percent of our total population; therefore, there are even fewer transgender athletes. 

During a meeting on April 1, the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association(NIAA) voted to change its decade-long inclusive transgender athletes policy to one that is exclusionary and discriminatory. During the NIAA meeting, it was recognized that there is no evidence of transgender athletes in Nevada who have had a detrimental effect or hurting peers or competitors.. Moreover, there was an admission that there is no evidence of a transgender athlete who was awarded a scholarship instead of a cisgender female athlete. And there have been zero complaints filed leading up to this decision. 

It’s concerning that the new NIAA policy will subject female athletes to a higher level of scrutiny by way of a physical exam — a requirement not in place for their male cohorts.

The concerns raised are of fairness and safety — two things without a doubt we all want in sports and in life. To that end, it is only fair to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to participate in sports in alignment with their gender identity and expression, while simultaneously advocating for more funding for women’s sports to ensure equitable access to facilities, equipment and resources comparable to those enjoyed by male athletes. If Lieutenant Governor Anthony is concerned about female athletes at the collegiate level, then I wonder why he, and his task force, have largely remained silent on findings of Title IX violations and inequities in female athletics at UNR and what they plan to do to address them.   

We have an opportunity to address concerns together. It’s better to collaboratively create inclusive policies instead of creating policies that place barriers to activities such as sports. And this is an opportunity for everyone to have a compassionate understanding of transgender people. 

Participation in sports helps young people to develop teamwork skills, sportsmanship, leadership, and discipline. Sports are meant to unify — not divide.

Andre C. Wade is State Director for Silver State Equality, Nevada’s statewide LGBTQ+ civil rights organization that brings the voices of LGBTQ+ people and allies to institutions of power in Nevada and throughout the U.S. Silver State Equality strives to create a world that is healthy, just and fully equal for all LGBTQ people.