“Fairness in Sports,” or State-Sanctioned Sexual Assault?

When “protecting women and children” requires inspecting children’s genitals, we’ve crossed a line we can’t uncross.

Photo by Marcel Strauß on Unsplash

Erin Reed just dropped a story about a new development in trans sports bans, this time in the state of Washington.

Washington is a state that most trans folks think of as “one of the good ones”. Yet, over 400,000 people have signed a ballot initiative to prevent trans high schoolers from competing as their identified gender.

But it gets worse… way worse. How does the bill suggest that these high schoolers (who are children) prove their gender? By enduring genital inspections as one of the available gender verification methods. This isn’t hyperbole. This isn’t some inflammatory knuckle dragging, mouth breather sitting in his mom’s basement in some grimy corner of 4chan… this is written into a ballot initiative and supported by over 400,000 people that are perfectly ok with some random person, inspecting their children’s genitals for the sake of playing high school sports.

As an athlete who played sports as a child, high schoooler, and in college, I can’t remember a single person ever needing to look at my genitals for any reason. Forget sports… even as a teenager, not even my doctors were looking at my genitals. Not as long as I was healthy and didn’t present with a true medical reason that needed to be treated.

Isn’t that the same for most of us? Who is looking at children’s genitals (or adult’s) unless there is a medically necessary reason?

And no, proving your gender to arbitrary people in order to join the wrestling team is not a medically necessary reason. Now, in the past, or in the future.

So, let’s not pretend that examining the genitals of children is doing anything to protect anyone.

Let’s take a little trip down memory lane. Do you remember what middle school and high school were like? Even if you weren’t trans, how comfortable were you in your body as a teenager? As your classmates all developed at different rates and you watched some have what you didn’t or you developed in ways that you wished you hadn’t.

Can you imagine on top of all of those teenage hormones, peer pressure, and a very rapidly changing body what would happen if someone who you don’t know and certainly don’t trust forced you to show your genitals to them. By most measures, wouldn’t we call that sexual assault? And at best, are we suggesting that we traumatize children in the name of “fairness”?

Yet many suggest that something that we would normally associate with sexual assault is a perfectly fine suggestion if it means that a small handful of athletes can be dehumanized and punished in the name of “protecting women and children”. Don’t trans women and children also deserve protection? Especially from abuse?

I guess instead, we’d like to set a new precedent. Sexual abuse is ok, as long as the person you’re abusing is trans.

Just like the newly passed bathroom bill here in Texas, who exactly will be in charge of enforcing this? Who will be examining your child’s genitals? Will you be present for this exam as a parent? What happens if your child is intersex? Where will these exams happen? Who will make sure kids are actually safe? What school official has the legal rights to look at genitals anyway? How will they be certified and trained to do such a thing? Which kids will need to have to endure these inspections? Is it all kids? Or just the ones that look a certain way? Who decides? I mean, this is as sensitive a topic as it gets. How do we protect some kids by violating the sexual wellbeing of others?

We have a similar issue in Texas right now. Thanks to our freshly minted bathroom ban, we are left with a lot of questions. Who are the bathroom police and how are they trained in recognizing who is allowed in which bathroom? How will it be enforced? No one knows. But we now have bathroom police here in Texas. And recently trans activists were barred from using the bathroom at the Texas State Capitol building, issued a criminal trespass citation, and detained by Texas State Police. For exercising their first amendment rights to protest the passing of the bill. And for having the audacity to want to use a public restroom that aligns with their gender. A steep penalty that will hopefully result in a lawsuit, yet still, no one asked to see their genitals (I don’t think). They did however ask to see ID. To use a restroom. Like so many anti-trans bills in existence today, there’s absolutely zero thought or planning going into how to enforce new laws and policies. If the Texas bathroom ban is any indication of how poorly something like this will be enforced, imagine how this lack of preparation when it comes to inspecting children’s genitals may harm them.

There’s a history that ladders up to the highest level of sports of men, taking advantage of athletes. Larry Nassar and Jerry Sandusky may ring a bell. Both men committed atrocious acts against children, and athletes of the highest caliber. Their victims were children. They were the type of men that you would trust to care for your kids when you aren’t around. They were the men that were placed in the most delicate of situations with your kids to uphold and protect their safety. And while those cases garnered much of the attention, we have seen cases of sexual abuse across sports and across continents. We have seen more incidents in USA Swimming, Wrestling, Taekwondo, and at schools like Ohio State and Michigan State. Sexual assault is already an issue in youth and competitive sports. So, the response to trans kids trying to play sports is to further an already established problem by appointing someone to inspect what’s in a child’s pants?

I mean, what are we doing? Seriously, how is this an option? How is this something that 400,000 people in a state full of the “good ones” support? This is appalling. It’s disgusting. Its unfathomable. Yet, its real.

As a parent, how can you sign your name to something like this?

This is where we are as a society. To promote “fairness in sports” we turn to forcing the nonconsensual examination of children and teens to bare their genitals to an untrustworthy source. Because let’s be honest, if you’re willing to inspect a child’s genitalia and you aren’t a doctor or professional that’s highly trained to do so for a medical necessity, you shouldn’t be trusted around kids. Periodt.

Look, I get it. The President of the United States is an adjudicated rapist. He’s implicated in the biggest sex trafficking and abuse scandal in the history of this country and many people are complicit in not just excusing it or turning a blind eye but actively participating in trying to cover it up. The party of pedophilia seems to find another way to double down on their love of sexually assaulting children. So, yea… I guess it’s not that hard to imagine how we got here.

But let’s be clear. If you support this type of legislation, you should be ashamed of yourself. This is sick. I don’t typically like to wag a lot of fingers or judge folks. But this is beyond finger wagging. It’s hard enough to be a teenager. It’s even harder to be a trans teenager. These aren’t concepts we are talking about. We are talking about real, live people (children) who will carry the trauma of sexual assault with them for the rest of their lives if this kind of thing gains traction.

This bill is a long way from becoming a reality and as Erin Reed reports, the state legislature in Washington still has to decide whether this initiative will make it’s way to an official ballot. I sure hope that the legislature in Washington shows us who they are. I hope that they prove their “good one” reputation and this thing gets shut down before it even has a chance to proceed.

I’ve asked this before and I will again, but if we can’t even trust the good ones, then who can we trust?

When I was in high school, I looked more like Ashton than Ashley. Under this proposed initiative, I would have undoubtedly been one of those kids required to show their genitals to prove that they are competing with the right gender. I have no idea how I would have decided whether or not playing sports was worth showing my genitals to the gym teacher. Playing sports landed me a college scholarship. It taught me countless lessons about being a teammate, hard work, persistence, and compassion. Had I not been an athlete, I don’t know who I would be today. Stripping (pun intended) kids of these opportunities, will harm them, traumatize them, and will go no further in promoting fairness or protecting anything other than hate and ignorance.

Enough is enough of this. The mere suggestion of implementing something like this is beyond appalling. It should live in some far flung, right-wing, ultra conservative fever dream but instead, it’s happening right now, in real-time. Allies, call this shit out. I know, I know. We are all suffering right now. We are all worried about ourselves, our neighbors, our communities. It’s a lot. There’s too much. But now isn’t the time to be silent. So step up for kids who just want to compete as themselves.

Trans kids deserve to play sports without a single soul asking them what’s in their pants. Full stop.