I’m Trans. I Don’t Support Trans Women in Women’s Sports.
We need to support reasonable allies like Gavin Newsom and Seth Moulton speaking up
When California governor Gavin Newsom revealed on his new podcast, This Is Gavin Newsom, that he thinks trans women playing in women’s sports is ‘deeply unfair’, it unleashed a small storm among LGBT circles and the more left-leaning parts of the Democratic Party. How could Newsom, a long-time LGBT ally famous for issuing illegal same-sex marriage licenses as mayor of San Francisco back in 2004, ‘betray’ the LGBT community just like this? Except, let’s be real, this is actually no betrayal at all. It’s not like he suddenly decided to adopt Trump’s policy to totally refuse to recognize trans identities, or to ban trans people from the military, for example. The simple truth is that, trans women don’t need to play competitive sports with genetic women to be able to live fulfilling and happy lives. The fact is, even many trans women, like myself, don’t necessarily support the sports thing! Let me explain.
We, both society in general as well as the trans community, must let go of the delusion that the ‘sports’ thing is an important pillar of trans rights. It’s not. It’s a wedge issue invented by right wing culture warriors, and one we should drop ASAP, so that we can focus on winning other much more important battles. I’ve consistently called for the trans community to basically give up on the sports issue since about two years ago, after taking a more avoidant attitude towards the issue for several years. For the record, I’ve been personally concerned that a focus on the sports issue might lose us crucial support and political capital since 2018, and given how things have developed since then, I regret not speaking up more clearly on this issue sooner. The fact is, there is not adequately convincing evidence that it would be fair for trans women who had undergone male puberty to compete against genetic women. The public’s view is that male puberty makes people bigger and stronger in many ways, and they are not convinced that a few months or a couple of years of hormone therapy entirely removes this advantage. There is simply not enough evidence to persuasively defeat this commonly held view.
This is what I want to say to my fellow trans people: I think you would agree that we are really not in a good position right now. If we keep insisting on fighting for an issue that most of the public consider as an unfair and unreasonable demand, we will only lose support and sympathy from the public, which would put us in a dangerous position, especially in the face of the increasingly anti-trans policies of the Trump administration and other right-wing governments around the world. In the podcast, Newsom said that the Democratic Party’s brand was being ‘crushed’, which is presumably the reason why he’s talking about this now. As a trans woman, what I’m more concerned about is the fact that, let’s face it, the whole credibility of trans rights is being totally crushed by this sports issue. Many people see ‘trans rights’ and immediately think of sports, and reflexively answer ‘no way’. If we continue to ignore this fact, it will be to our peril. Just like how Newsom is worried about his party being ‘crushed’, I’m worried about my community being ‘crushed’ by this issue. For the sake of the welfare of the trans community, and for both trans people living now and future generations to come, I think it’s time to give up on the sports issue once and for all. This ‘fight’ is simply not justifiable and not worth the costs at all. I should also remind everyone that the activist establishment has no moral right to demand that other trans people support their hopeless cause and/or suffer the associated backlash.
The swift and unreasonable reaction to Newsom’s podcast comments proves what Rep. Seth Moulton said a while ago, that the Democrats were in a position where they couldn’t even talk about this issue, for fear of backlash from activists. And the backlash towards Newsom has been even swifter and fiercer than that directed at Moulton last year, which is only to be expected given that Newsom is a likely contender for 2028. Comments directed at Newsom this time included such loaded words as ‘disgusting’, ‘disappointed and sickened’, ‘their governor hates them’, and ‘the betrayal of vulnerable communities’. What nobody mentioned is the fact that trans women really don’t need to compete in sports against genetic women to live a happy life, and this equation of the sports issue with trans rights in general plays into the hands of anti-trans forces. What’s more worrying is that the activists might even set this as a litmus test as to who they are willing to support for 2028. Already, some are saying that they are now ‘never Newsom’ (hope they don’t mind President Vance). This just reinforces the whole focus of ‘trans rights’ onto the sports issue, which, as previously analyzed, is counterproductive.
I think it’s time for trans people like myself to speak up, and actively support the right of Gavin Newsom, Seth Moulton and other allies to speak their mind on this issue, as part of an attempt to build a more popular vision of ‘trans rights’ that can attract broad-based support. Nobody should lose their ally status just for expressing reasonable concerns that certain activists don’t like to hear. By showing that some trans people actually agree with these concerns too, we are putting to bed the argument that they are somehow ‘throwing trans people under the bus’ by voicing these concerns. We really need to put an end to the widespread misconception that trans rights equals the sports thing.
The other thing is, I think we might have actually witnessed a turning point here: now that even the Governor of California has spoken up, the pressure for trans allies to keep quiet on their disagreement over the sports issue might finally be crumbling. And it could be a very good thing, because it means that concerns around fairness in sports will no longer be monopolized by right-wing culture warriors, to lead people down an anti-trans pipeline of misinformation and hate. When other reasonable alternatives are available, I believe most people wouldn’t choose to side with the reactionaries. And this is how we defeat them.
Originally published at https://taraella.substack.com.
TaraElla is a singer-songwriter and author, who is the author of the Moral Libertarian Manifesto and the Moral Libertarian book series, which argue that liberalism is still the most moral and effective value system for the West.
She is also the author of The Trans Case Against Queer Theory and The TaraElla Story (her autobiography).
