UT HB11 is one of at least 75 anti-trans sports bills this year, that are adding to a legacy of normalizing and encouraging hatred towards transgender folks, through tired-old stereotypes that cast a lens of deception on trans people who are living their truth.

Following the theme of these copycat legislative attacks against trans girls and women’s right to play sports, this bill attempts to further institutionalize transmisogyny and anti-Black racism by disguising itself as a ‘savior’ of womanhood.

The stereotypes used against trans girls and femme atheltes for their participation in sports, is detrimental for all youth and atheltes through policing of gender by racist and invasive tests that’ve been used against Black athletes like Caster Semenya.

Researchers Jack Turban and Jules Gill-Peterson describe how conservatives’ refusal to acknowledge that trans women are not cisgender men, is an attack on science: “Unlike cisgender men, transgender women face dramatically elevated rates of bullying, harassment and subsequent anxiety and depression -- all of which make it difficult to train and succeed in athletics from a young age. In short, these anti-sports bills don't just deny scientific and social reality, they pretend to reverse it,” they write.

The misinformed notion that girls who are transgender have an ‘advantage’ because of testosterone levels ignores that 10 percent of women have polycystic ovarian syndrome (which elevates testosterone levels) but are still allowed to play sports, Turban explains in the Scientific American.

The harm created by this bills extends far beyond sports – more than half of trans youth are at risk of suicide, and 85 percent of transgender and nonbinary youth said in a poll, that their mental health was negatively impacted by last year’s record-breaking legislative attacks on their identities.

More sources to unlearn transmisogyny, leading with compassion, and getting your facts right on the science:

http://www.athleteally.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Resource-Document-FINAL.pdf

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

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trans-girls-belong-on-girls-sports-teams/#

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/24/opinions/attacking-transgender-people-is-attacking-science-turban-gill-peterson/index.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq3C9R8HNUQ