The so-called “Save Women's Sports Act” by 24 sponsors attempts to gatekeep ‘womanhood’ by banning trans girls and femme youth from participating in school sports in Arizona by re-emphasizing a socially constructed binary.

The act attacks trans femme youth’s right to participate in sports teams consistent with their gender, while simultaneously invalidating all genders through a superiority complex that lets anyone participate in men’s teams.

In other words, the act reproduces the idea of associating femininity with fragility through its notion of toxic masculinity – textbook gender stereotypes that put cisgender men on a pedestal.

Excluding trans girls and femme youth from participating in sports has negative outcomes for all youth.

It invites a systemic policing of gender against all youth through bio-essentialist ideas that perpetuate white supremicist-patriarchal that mold cisgender women and girls into a category that needs ‘protection.’

The proposed act will let cisgender students sue schools that allows trans athletes to participate. It also gives schools the power to sue if their team competes with one that has trans athletes, and safeguards anti-trans policies by not allowing government entities to challenge the ban.

Most sponsors behind anti-trans sports bans, don’t know of any trans athletes in their states, and this act follows a common theme of erasure in these legislative attacks: it doesn’t use the word “transgender” even once, and perpetuates false narratives through its binary understanding of “biological sex.”

The arguments quoting ‘science’ to uphold differences based on “biological sex”, fall apart the more you dig into the details of how genes, gonads, and hormones keep sex subject to change: “The truth is, your biological sex isn’t carved in stone, but a living system with the potential for change,” Neurobiologist Dr. Simón(e) D Sun writes.

Four facts debunking common myths about trans athletes: https://www.aclu.org/news/lgbt-rights/four-myths-about-trans-athletes-debunked/

AZ SB 1165 was transmitted to house on 2nd February, 2022.