Want to see otherwise normal people expose their bigotry? Just discuss transgenderism in sports – or transgender anything.
The latest to out their inner bigot was about half of Reno’s online population. This came in the wake of the Nevada women’s volleyball team’s attempt to jump into the mix by asserting a forfeit notice – against the desires of UNR administrators – against SJSU because some on the team believed playing against a team with a member who is transgender would amount to a crime against womanhood.
Taking a glance at the team in question shows how such an assertion is bizarre.
The players’ decision drew hoards – including the governor and other Republicans – proclaiming support. Many chalked it up to “a man playing on a women’s team.”
The obvious refusal to recognize that transgenderism is a thing – it is – and, further, to assert that transgender athletes are somehow a greater threat to player safety – they are not – amplified transphobic tropes around the state.
Hence, bigotry.
To date, the alleged concerns come off as fear-based fabrications largely, it seems, being amplified by one political party and its adherents.
A study in the journal Frontiers in Sports and Active Living from last year explains:
“The disproportionate focus on the relatively small portion of the population who are trans seems based on the belief that cis men, who cannot succeed in sports among other cis men, would choose to misidentify as trans women to gain an advantage in sports against cis women. However, there are no legitimate cases of this occurring. An individual’s sex does not determine their success or failure at any athletic event despite the high level of competition.”
The American Psychological Association concurs.
The transphobic supporters of UNR’s volleyball team also ignored the possibility that refusing to play based on a player’s gender could amount to a Title IX violation. UNR refused to address questions about potential Title IX violations earlier this week when asked by This Is Reno. But the national publication, the Chronicle of Higher Education, also noted after our reporting that refusing to play could generate such complaints.
The Chronicle reported: “Colleges could also face Title IX complaints from within by players who view the institution’s decision to play against a transgender athlete as a violation of their Title IX rights.”
After several days of having a swath of the community giving UNR shit for proceeding with the game and allegedly not supporting its players, the institution finally put up its dukes and released a statement on Thursday.
“As a public university, the University is legally prohibited by Section 24 of the Nevada Constitution and other laws and regulations to declare a forfeit for reasons related to gender identity or expression.”
Of course, the communications office couched that statement with another, saying that UNR supports the free speech rights of its students, and that the refusal or choice to play can be “interpreted as free expression that is protected by the First Amendment.” That’s a little wishy-washy, and it’s not completely clear how that interpretation squares with the school’s anti-discrimination policy.
SJSU was clear, however. All of their players meet NCAA standards, and the notion that a transgender athlete would somehow put competitors at more risk is unsupported. In other words, the issue is largely hypothetical – except in the minds of those with a propensity toward bigotry in the first place.
The opposite, actually, is what occurs: Transgender athletes face disproportionate discrimination. “Overall, it appears that the majority of transgender people have a negative experience of competitive sport and sport-related physical activities. Accessibility to sport-related physical activity needs to be improved.”
That’s according to a research article in Sports Medicine from 2016, which also concluded transgender athletes confer no advantage due to their gender. “Within competitive sport, the athletic advantage transgender athletes are perceived to have appears to have been overinterpreted by many sport organisations around the world, which has had a negative effect on the experiences of this population,” the researchers concluded.
More recent research confirmed the trend continues. There is also some evidence transgender athletes may be at a disadvantage. While the science is in its infancy, and therefore subject to change, current online discourse is not matched by publicly available studies. Nor publicly available statistics. Just this month UNLV’s women’s volleyball team defeated SJSU 3-1 with no reports of injuries — physically or to their womanhood.
Nevertheless, bigotry persists. That it’s arising from a higher education institution – and first reported by a right-wing news source – demonstrates how discriminatory narratives continue to trump easily found, research-based evidence about this topic. Student athletes have access to UNR’s wonderful Knowledge Center, where this research can be considered.
Students are the collateral damage. At the end of the day, the athletes may exercise their choice not to play against a team with a transgender athlete, which UNR claims may be a First Amendment right.
Higher institutions may also exercise enforcement of anti-discrimination policies and issue penalties – up to and including loss of scholarships – should that be deemed an appropriate course of action if the refusal to play is based on discriminatory beliefs.
Which is what appears to be the case.
-Bob Conrad & Kristen Hackbarth
