LGBTQ Breaking News Service

A UK national collective is harnessing the power of TikTok to reach other young people and build a more inclusive community in sport. We invited one of the group’s founding members to explain more…

By Edward Kandel

Edward Kandel is part of the LGBTQ+ in Sport team.

LGBTQ+ in Sport is a national, grassroots collective of people young at heart across the UK working towards making sport inclusive for all.

Our team of 20 ranges in age from 19 to 30, across a range of sports – cricket to gymnastics, football to rowing, tennis to roller derby – encompassing a range of sexual orientations and gender identities, as well as ethnicities and races.

We work across four pillars…

• Building Community – events in-person and online
• Raising Awareness – collaborations with top athletes and social media
• Driving Impact – digital, research-backed courses and accreditation schemes for university & college clubs
• Manufacturing LGBTQ+ Kit – gear that meaningfully benefits the community

Sport reminds us that we are stronger in numbers – that when we are united, we are not only far happier but also more powerful.

Sport has the potential to have the most positive, transformative effect on society, uniting a wide variety of individuals from different backgrounds who have talents and are willing to work and push themselves to their limits, whilst receiving a myriad of health benefits.

However, it’s increasingly accepted that sport is not open and accessible to all. If you don’t have the privileges associated with being male, white, heterosexual, cisgender, and able-bodied, sport can be everything from unwelcoming to inhospitable, physically and mentally dangerous. It’s this issue which we’re laser-focused on nailing.

Research shows that LGBTQ+ people participate in sport far less than their heterosexual and cisgender peers – a Pride Sports report for Sport England in 2016 highlighted that 42% of these people had negative experiences of sport in school and university, and almost half found the culture of sport intimidating or unwelcoming.

Indeed, these experiences have been felt within our own team. I struggled being immersed in a sports environment I loved yet where, in the words of Macklemore, ‘gay is synonymous with the lesser’, used as an insult or put-down regularly, and any insinuation of attraction to the same-sex was met with contempt.

Others on our team have faced societal restrictions and physical assault due to their gender identity; others have been pushed away from even LGBTQ+ ‘inclusive’ sports clubs due to their ethnicity or race; many more of our team have concealed a part of themselves from even close team-mates over fears of reactions to their truth.

Yet, although there is significant work to do, it’s not all doom and gloom – more and more top athletes are feeling able to open up about their identities, and more of the millennial and Gen Z generations are speaking openly about not fitting into the straight, gender binary.

Some of our team have been lucky to have positive experiences within sport due to this change. One of our team members discovered their love of football at university through a women’s and non-binary football group, which has grown to become a huge passion. Others have seen success at the very top of sport, competing in British and European championships without fear or recourse due to their identity.

As part of this, LGBTQ+ in Sport has launched a TikTok account, as part of driving awareness and education of LGBTQ+ issues in sport for all people.

It’s well documented that there are a number of closeted individuals using TikTok.

We’re looking to provide a hub of inspiration, information, and support to all LGBTQ+ people in sport.

We’ll also be providing resources, tips, and guides to being a great ally and making your sport or club actually inclusive.

Twinned with our Instagram (@lgbtqsport), we post something LGBTQ+ and sport-related most days.

In addition, as part of our aim to make all university and college clubs inclusive, we’ve launched our Student Pride Pledge.

This involves university and college clubs publicly stating their support of LGBTQ+ people in sport, and has been signed already by nearly 200 clubs across the country and across a range of sports.

We’re aiming to build this up to a virtual festival involving 400 clubs celebrating Student Sport Pride on Wednesday, May 5.

Also in the latter stages of development are our digital programmes and accreditation. These will enable clubs, for free, to turn this huge amount of support we’re seeing into manageable actions, making their clubs actually inclusive for all LGBTQ+ people.

We’re also working with our Student Union partners to support clubs making this effort, in encouraging new members to join them who may not previously have felt comfortable partaking in sport.

We’re always looking for more awesome people to join our kickass team, solving big problems around inclusion in sport, all whilst having a great time and making lifelong friendships. If that sounds like you, head to the ‘Join Us’ page on our website.

Thanks to Edward Kandel from LGBTQ+ In Sport. Email him at edward@lgbtqsport.co.uk

Visit the group’s website at www.lgbtqsport.co.uk.

Follow on social – TikTok | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

Learn more on this recent episode of the BBC LGBT Sport Podcast.

Sports Media LGBT+ is a network, advocacy, and consultancy group that is helping to build a community of LGBT+ people and allies in sport. We’re also a digital publisher. Learn more about us here.

LGBT+ in sports? Your story could help to inspire other people – you don’t have to be famous to make an impact, and there are huge gains to be made both personally and more widely in sport. Start a conversation with us, in confidence, and we’ll give you the best advice on navigating this part of your journey.

Email jon@sportsmedialgbt.com or send a message anonymously on our Curious Cat.

“By the time we get some data somewhere down the road, there could be a lot of girls who’ve lost a lifetime opportunity,” Runestad told Bridge Michigan.

The proposal would likely impact only a small number of students: The Michigan High School Athletic Association has received and approved only 10 transgender athlete eligibility requests in the past five years, according to spokesperson Geoff Kimmerly. 

“It’s very, very few,” he said. “It’s an average of two per school year.”

Under a policy adopted in 2012, the MHSAA determines post-season tournament eligibility for transgender athletes on a case-by-case basis. The association considers factors, including whether the student has begun testosterone suppression therapy or undergone gender-reassignment surgery. 

“This policy has worked for us, and it’s worked for schools,” Kimmerly said. “We haven’t had any issues.”

Supporters argue the new legislation would “protect female sports.” But as written, it would also prohibit cisgender girls — those whose gender matches their sex assigned at birth —  from joining designated boys teams.

Roughly 800 girls played on boys high school teams in Michigan last year, including more than 300 wrestlers, according to Kimmerly.  Some girls simply want to compete against boys, and others join boys teams because their school does not have a separate program for their sport, he said.

Runestad, who is among 13 out of 20 Senate Republicans backing the measure, said transgender girls should not be able to participate in girls sports because there is a clear “genetic advantage to being born a biological male.”

He noted that in 1998, Venus and Serena Williams claimed they could beat any male tennis player outside of the world’s top 200 but were both defeated by No. 203 Karsten Braasch. In 2017, nearly 300 boys rivaled the fastest 400-meter time by gold medal sprinter Allyson Fox. 

“So if you allow biological males to get in and compete, their records are gone, the college scholarships for girls are gone, the records that women set are gone, and I think it’s wrong,” Runestad said. 

But just like other students, transgender athletes “vary in terms of their athletic abilities, and it’s a myth and a mistruth that somehow they have a competitive advantage in school sports,” said Knott, the executive director of Equality Michigan. 

Having lost their fight against gay marriage in 2015 and their fight against workplace anti-discrimination protections in 2020, social conservatives are now “targeting our most vulnerable young people here in Michigan,” she argued.

“I think that it’s disgusting.”

The State Board of Education in 2016 issued guidance to Michigan school districts recommending they allow transgender students to participate in interscholastic sports programs “in accordance with their gender identity.” 

The ACLU of Michigan in 2017 worked with a Jackson-area transgender student to persuade her district to allow her to join the girls track team. Other districts including Ann Arbor Schools have adopted transgender-friendly policies on their own.

“School officials shouldn’t treat a transgender female student as a young woman between the hours of 8 a.m. and 3 p.m., and then flip to treat her as if she’s a young man when sports practice starts,” Knott said. “It’s hurtful to the student and disrupts the school’s policy of treating kids fairly.”

Critics contend the proposal, if enacted, would also violate established anti-discrimination laws, which several state and federal courts have interpreted to protect gay and transgender residents on the basis of “sex.”

The U.S. Supreme Court last year delivered a major victory to LGBT employees last year when it ruled in favor of a transgender Michigan woman who sued after she was fired for transitioning. 

Advocates say transgender students are already some of the most “vulnerable” to discrimination, and researchers say they are more likely to suffer from mental health issues like depression and suicide as a result. 

“Trans students participate in sports for the same reasons other young people do: to challenge themselves, improve fitness, and be part of a team,” said Jay Kaplan, LGBT Rights Project attorney for the ACLU of Michigan. 

“Excluding trans students from participation deprives them of opportunities available to their peers and sends the message they are not worthy of a full life.”

Danbury High School sophomore Alanna Smith at the Connecticut State Capitol on Feb, 12, 2020. Smith is among three girls who sued to block a state policy that allows transgender athletes to compete in girls sports. Pat Eaton-Robb/AP hide caption

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Pat Eaton-Robb/AP

Danbury High School sophomore Alanna Smith at the Connecticut State Capitol on Feb, 12, 2020. Smith is among three girls who sued to block a state policy that allows transgender athletes to compete in girls sports.

Pat Eaton-Robb/AP

There was an impassioned debate in the South Dakota State Senate this week over a proposed bill that would restrict transgender female students from participating in female sports.

Legislators supporting the bill framed their arguments around fairness.

“HB 1217 makes sure women’s sports in South Dakota stays fair by prohibiting biological males, no matter how they identify, from competing in female sports,” said Republican state Sen. Maggie Sutton.

A Democratic opponent of the bill responded by talking about Christian values of love and inclusion.​

“Jesus says, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost,’ so meaning that there is no rejoicing until all have found a place in the flock, including our trans siblings of faith,” said Democratic state Sen. Reynold Nesiba, reading from a letter from a Lutheran bishop.

The bill’s proponents were ultimately successful; South Dakota has passed its bill, and Republican Gov. Kristi Noem has tweeted that she is “excited” to sign it.

This bill is just one small part of a bigger national dispute over transgender rights. This year, state legislators have introduced 35 bills restricting transgender girls and women — that is, girls and women who were not assigned as female at birth — from playing on girls’ and women’s sports teams, according to LGBTQ advocacy group Freedom for All Americans. That’s up from 29 bills last year and only 2 in 2019.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves on Thursday signed his state’s bill restricting transgender girls’ sports participation.

Evolving fronts over LGBTQ rights

It’s a fight that’s much bigger than state-level legislation. President Biden in January signed an executive order aimed at protecting LGBTQ rights. That order stated, “Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports.” Democrats have also reintroduced the Equality Act, which would enshrine LGBTQ rights into law.

The topic has taken on far greater importance in Republican rhetoric, as well. Former President Donald Trump brought up the topic at CPAC last month.​

“Young girls and women are incensed that they are now being forced to compete with biological males,” he said. “It’s not good for women’s sports, which worked so long and so hard to get to where they are.”

The bills are a newer front in a fight over LGBTQ rights, where the focus has shifted over time. For example, in 2016 and 2017, there was an uptick in bills that aimed to dictate which bathrooms transgender people could use. Now the focus is on sports, as well as medical treatment for transgender youth, while the number of so-called “bathroom bills” has fallen off.

Jason Pierceson, political science professor at the University of Illinois Springfield and expert on gender and sexuality in politics, sees these bills as just the latest battle in a political culture war waged by the right.

“What they do is typically say, with the bathroom issue five or six years ago or with the transgender youth issue these days, they try to find something that doesn’t seem to poll as well as general anti-discrimination protections,” he said. “And they use a lot of scare tactics around that issue to distort the issue perhaps, to try to create a lot of anxiety among religious conservatives.”

What happens when the bills go into effect?

The question remains what practical impact transgender sports bills would have.

“They are suggesting a solution for a problem that simply does not exist in terms of the numbers of transgender youth who are participating in sports,” said Kyle Velte, a professor of law at the University of Kansas. She testified against that state’s bill.​

A recent AP report found that overwhelmingly, sponsors of these bills couldn’t cite examples in their own states where this became a fairness issue. Some pointed to a lawsuit filed in Connecticut aimed to limit transgender participation in that state.

Proponents maintain that the bills will prove to be useful.

“I think the ultimate outcome will be to protect women and girls’ equal opportunities,” said Emilie Kao, an attorney at the conservative Heritage Foundation.. “I think eventually these cases, the examples will proliferate.”

There are also questions about the legal future of these bills. The first state transgender sports law, passed in Idaho last year, was later blocked by a federal judge who argued, in part, that the state had “not identified a legitimate interest served by the Act.”

The Supreme Court decision in Bostock v. Clayton County last year, that discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation qualifies as sex discrimination, also greatly strengthens potential legal cases against these laws once they’re passed, according to Velte.

Legal arguments aside, she also fears these bills further marginalize transgender youth, whom research has shown are at elevated risk for suicide.

Joanna Harper is a leading authority on gender in sports, author of the book Sporting Gender, and a transgender athlete herself.

She explained that considering the roles of gender and sex in sports is phenomenally complicated, not just because of the science, but because of the importance of inclusion and the role of sports in students’ lives. For many students, she said, sports are not about state championships or athletic scholarships, but simply about competing alongside their friends. For more competitive athletes, she added, there’s room for nuance, but in her opinion there are no simple answers.

“At the upper levels, it’s reasonable to hope to put restrictions. Now, restrictions are not the same thing as bans. And I can’t imagine in high school sports that it would ever be unreasonable not to let high school trans girls into girls’ sports after they’ve been through a year of hormone therapy,” she said. “And in many cases, it’s probably not even necessary to do that, but in some cases, it certainly is.”

“And if all that sounds complex, well, it is,” she added.

The upshot is that talking about the topic of inclusion in sports can be deeply sensitive and nuanced, in a way that conversations about limiting transgender girls’ participation in sports often are not.

An appeal to swing voters

Backers of these bills say they are reacting to Democratic overreach, pointing to things like Biden’s executive order and the Equality Act. And they say key voters may be receptive to that argument. Charles Moran, managing director of the Log Cabin Republicans, pointed to a group the GOP struggled with in 2020: suburban women.​

“LGBT issues are something that they care about,” he said. “But at the same time, when presented with this issue that we’re dealing with here, with transgender sports, some of them will be the first ones to stand up and say, ‘No, this is wrong. My daughter shouldn’t be having to compete against a person in the same league who’s M to F.'”

Polling has shown that Americans’ opinions on transgender rights differ based on the specific topic being discussed.

For example, a 2019 poll from the Public Religion Research Institute showed that a solid majority of Americans (62%) said they had grown more supportive of transgender rights as a whole over the prior five years. And 7 in 10 Americans told Gallup that year that they support transgender people openly serving in the military.

However, Americans were more evenly split on which bathrooms they believed transgender people should use. 2018 polling from PRRI likewise showed Americans only slightly in favor of transgender girls playing sports with other girls.

Less than 1% of U.S. adults identify as transgender, according to Gallup. That makes transgender rights a new topic to many Americans, said Robert Jones, CEO and founder of PRRI.

“We’re still at a place in the country where a majority of Americans don’t know someone personally who’s transgender,” he said. “And so I think that means that some of these issues, until they become politicized, aren’t things that the public has spent a great deal of time thinking about. That means that the issue is more malleable, I think, when it’s a low-information or low-salience issue.”

If that’s true, it heightens the importance of the current debates over transgender bathroom usage, medical treatment and sports participation. As these issues become politicized across the country, it could at least temporarily solidify many Americans’ opinions.