WNBA pro: Trans players in women's sports are not a problem

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Let's focus on the real things holding us back
Brianna Turner
March 20, 2023
Updated: March 20, 2023 8:40 a.m.

Growing up in Houston, I dreamed of one day playing for the WNBA. Two years ago, as I stood on the court about to play in the first game of the WNBA finals with the Phoenix Mercury, I took a deep breath and smiled. My dream had come true. Basketball has been a part of my life for more than 20 years, and I can’t imagine who I would be without it and what I would do if I couldn’t play.

As a Black woman and athlete, I have faced many challenges to equality in sports. But the participation of transgender women and girls in women’s sports is not one of those challenges. I cannot understand why lawmakers in my home state of Texas have been targeting trans athletes in grade school, and now at the college level, who just want to play the sport they love with their friends.

As we cheer on our favorite teams and athletes in the March Madness tournaments here in Texas, I can’t help but think of the transgender kids in our state who will never get the chance to play the sport they love.

In 2021, upon witnessing the absolutely unequal treatment between the women's and men’s teams during the NCAA’s March Madness tournament, I reached a breaking point. I could not believe what I was seeing: The men had access to a massive gym with fancy equipment, while the women had free weights and yoga mats. The women received less food, and of a lower quality and variety, than the men, and the men even received outside sponsors for catering that were not extended to women’s teams. The men had access to outdoor space at the height of a pandemic, the women did not — the list goes on and on and is outlined in painstaking detail by the law firm commissioned to do an external audit of all of the NCAA’s gender equity practices.

At the same time this was happening, dozens of states across the country — including Texas — were working to ban kids from playing sports with their friends, all under the banner of “protecting women’s sports.” I was floored. I actually think I laughed out loud. Keeping transgender women and girls out of sports is not protecting me or helping any women athletes.

It’s not helping the incredibly talented women in the NCAA tournament achieve food, lodging, sponsorship or media coverage that’s equal to the men’s teams. It is not doing anything to address gender inequalities that have existed for decades in sports. It is not helping to fill the stands of half-empty regular season games — and in fact, research shows that trans-inclusive policies may boost participation in women’s sports.

That is why I have joined hundreds of other elite women athletes to consistently express loud opposition to bills like the one Texas passed in 2021 to ban trans youth from sports and like House Bill 23, which currently seeks to ban transgender athletes from college sports. And that is also why more than 1,000 college athletes have signed letters supporting letting trans kids play sports with their friends.

If we want to protect women’s sports, we need to address the very real inequities that women athletes are talking about every single day. These include: lack of equal pay for women athletes, far less media coverage of women’s sports, and gross disparities in access to resources and facilities, to name only a few. We need equal access to resources, not separation from our teammates and friends. Athletes in women's sports need champions who will address the real problems we face, not distract from those problems by targeting kids who just want to play.

I would be lost without everything basketball has given me, and I have so much empathy for transgender youth who are being banned from sports they love just because they are living as their authentic selves. The kind of cruelty it takes to target kids rocks me to my core. Trans youth — like all youth — need support, kindness and care. If lawmakers and athletic leaders truly want to protect women’s sports, I urge them to make the investments to actually provide women in the NCAA with adequate resources. Stop hurting transgender athletes under the guise of caring about women athletes.

I’ve been able to live my dreams. Let them live theirs.

Brianna Turner is a native Houstonian playing for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and an Athlete Ally Ambassador.

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