Why Transgender Girls Are Suddenly the G.O.P.’s Culture-War Focus
Lawmakers in a growing number of Republican-led states are advancing and
passing bills to bar transgender athletes in girls’ sports, a culture
clash that seems to have come out of nowhere.
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People protesting this month outside the governor’s mansion in Pierre,
S.D. They were marching against a bill that would bar transgender girls
and women from participating in sports leagues.
People protesting this month outside the governor’s mansion in Pierre,
S.D. They were marching against a bill that would bar transgender girls
and women from participating in sports leagues.Credit...Stephen
Groves/Associated Press
Jeremy W. Peters <https://www.nytimes.com/by/jeremy-w-peters>
ByJeremy W. Peters <https://www.nytimes.com/by/jeremy-w-peters>
NYT, March 29, 2021
The last time Republicans in South Dakota made a serious push to bar
transgender girls from school sports, in 2019, their bill was known only
by its nondescript numerical title,Senate Bill 49
<https://mylrc.sdlegislature.gov/api/Documents/51654.pdf>. Its two main
sponsors were men. And it died without ever getting out of committee,
just 10 days after it was introduced.
But when Republicans decided to try again in January, they were far more
strategic in their approach. The sponsors this time were two women who
modeledtheir bill
<https://sdlegislature.gov/Session/Bill/12299/219924>after a template
provided by a conservative legal organization. They gave the bill a name
that suggested noble intent: the “act to promote continued fairness in
women’s sports.” Supporters from Minnesota and Idaho traveled to the
Capitol in Pierre to testify that a new law was urgently needed to keep
anyone with male biological characteristics out of female competitions,
even thoughthey acknowledged
<https://www.mitchellrepublic.com/news/government-and-politics/6903772-South-Dakota-House-passes-ban-on-transgender-athletes-in-girls-sports>only
a handful of examples of that happening in South Dakota.
“These efforts appear to be far more slick, and far more organized,”
said Elizabeth A. Skarin of the American Civil Liberties Union of South
Dakota, which opposes the bill. “Anytime they give a bill a name in
South Dakota,” she added, “you know something’s up.”
Then things took an unexpected turn. Gov. Kristi Noem, who is seen as a
possible contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024,
demanded changes to the bill. The response was swift and harsh: Social
conservative activists and Republican lawmakers accused Ms. Noem of
bowing to pressure from business and athletics organizations, which have
been successful at stopping laws in other states that single out
transgender people for exclusion and feed ugly stereotypes. On Monday,
the Legislature rebuked the governor and formally rejected her changes.
She said she hoped to force the issue again in a special legislative
session before summer.
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South Dakota is just one of a growing number of states where Republicans
are diving into a culture war clash that seems to have come out of
nowhere. It has been brought about by a coordinated and poll-tested
campaign by social conservative organizations like the American
Principles Project and Concerned Women for America, which say they are
determined to move forward with what may be one of their last footholds
in the fight against expanding L.G.B.T.Q. rights.
Three other states have passed bills this month that resemble South
Dakota’s.In Mississippi
<https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-mississippi-discrimination-gender-identity-tate-reeves-9dfa2829f12e5f7efbb1653aaf468941>and
Arkansas, they are set to become law this summer. And similar bills have
been introduced by Republicans in two dozen other states, including
North Carolina, where an unpopular “bathroom bill
<https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/24/us/north-carolina-to-limit-bathroom-use-by-birth-gender.html>”
enacted in 2016 promptedcostly boycotts
<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/04/sports/ncaa-hb2-north-carolina-boycott-bathroom-bill.html>and
led conservatives nationwide to pull back on efforts to restrict rights
for transgender people.
“You make change in our society by making laws, and luckily we have some
great states that have stepped up,” said Beth Stelzer, the founder of a
new organization, Save Women’s Sports, that she said opposes
“demolishing women’s sports for the sake of feelings.” Ms. Stelzer, an
amateur power lifter, has testified in support of new laws in South
Dakota, Montana and Arkansas.
ImageGov. Tate Reeves of Mississippi signed a bill this month that bars
transgender athletes from competing on female sports teams.
Gov. Tate Reeves of Mississippi signed a bill this month that bars
transgender athletes from competing on female sports
teams.Credit...Rogelio V. Solis/Associated Press
But the idea that there is a sudden influx of transgender competitors
who are dominating women’s and girls’ sports does not reflect reality —
in high school, college or professionally. Sports associations like the
N.C.A.A., which has promoted the inclusion of transgender athletes, have
policies in place to address concerns about physical differences in male
and female biology. The N.C.A.A.requires athletes
<https://www.ncaa.org/sites/default/files/Transgender_Handbook_2011_Final.pdf>who
are transitioning to female to be on testosterone suppression treatment
for a year before they can compete on a women’s team.
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Ms. Stelzer, who competes in a weight lifting league that does not allow
transgender women to participate, says the point is to get ahead of what
she and other activists believe will become a bigger issue. “We’re
nipping it in the bud,” she said.
In high school sports, policies vary widely. Some states pose no
barriers to transgender athletes; some have policies similar to those of
the N.C.A.A. and others have outright bans or demand that students
verify their sex if questioned.
Rarely has an issue that so few people encounter — and one that public
opinion analysts have only recentlybegun to study
<https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/public-opinion-trans-rights-us/>in
depth — become a political and cultural flash point so quickly. The lack
of awareness creates an environment in which the real impact of
transgender participation in sports can be overshadowed by hyperbole.
But the debate also raises questions — that ethicists, lawmakers and the
courts are only beginning to address — about whether the decades-long
effort to give women and girls equal opportunities in sports is
compatible with efforts to give transgender people equal opportunities
in life. A lawsuit in federal court in Connecticut brought by three high
school runners who lost in competition against transgender girls will be
among the first to test how nondiscrimination laws apply.
A mix of factors has helped social conservatives breathe new life into
the issue: activists who agreed to give up on unpopular bills regulating
public bathrooms; an awareness that women, not men, could be more
persuasive and sympathetic advocates; a new Democratic administration
that quickly moved to broaden and restore rights for transgender people
that the Trump administration had eliminated; and a political and media
culture on the right that often reduces the nuanced issue of gender
identity to a punchline about political correctness.
Activists who have been fighting the anti-transgender efforts say the
focus on school athletics is creating a false and misplaced perception
of victimization.
“There’s a sense that there’s a victim of transness,” said Chase
Strangio, a lawyer with the A.C.L.U., which was successful in
temporarily blocking the implementation of a transgender athlete ban in
Idaho last year.
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In fact, studies have shown that themajority of transgender students
<https://www.glsen.org/sites/default/files/2019-11/Separation_and_Stigma_2017.pdf>report
feeling unsafe at school.
“What we have is a speculative fear of something that hasn’t
materialized,” Mr. Strangio, who is a transgender man, added. “They’re
acting like LeBron James is going to put on a wig and play basketball
with fourth graders. And not one LeBron James, 100. In reality, you’re
talking about little kids who just want to play rec sports. They just
want to get through life.”
Image
Chase Strangio, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, at a
campaign event to uphold a transgender nondiscrimination law in
Massachusetts in 2018.
Chase Strangio, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, at a
campaign event to uphold a transgender nondiscrimination law in
Massachusetts in 2018.Credit...Natasha Moustache/Getty Images
But the isolated instances that have been filmed or generated headlines
— female weight lifting records being broken by a new transgender
competitor, for example — make for viral content, bolstered by media
personalities with huge followings like Ben Shapiro, Tucker Carlson and
Joe Rogan.
The issue is much more widely covered in conservative media — and often
presented with a heavy dose of sarcasm. According to a review of social
media content conducted for The New York Times by Media Matters, a
left-leaning watchdog, seven of the 10 most popular stories about the
proposed laws targeting transgender people so far this year were from
the Daily Wire, a website founded by Mr. Shapiro. Two others were from
Fox News. Combined, the articles were read, shared and commented on six
million times, Media Matters said.
The heightened media awareness on the right is due in part to how social
conservative activists have improved atpackaging transgender-specific
restrictions
<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/03/us/politics/kentucky-transgender-school-sports.html?>.
Borrowing a page from the anti-abortion movement, which was led by men
for much of its early period, they have begun featuring women as public
advocates.
In Arkansas, where the governor signed the“Fairness in Women’s Sports
Act”<https://www.thv11.com/article/news/politics/arkansas-bill-transgender-women-sports-ban/91-f3ce17e1-91cc-43ad-acbc-e8c572346fba>into
law last week, the leading proponents were the attorney general, Leslie
Rutledge, who is a candidate for governor, and the Arkansas Republican
Women’s Caucus. The bill will prohibit transgender participation on
female teams from kindergarten through college.
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In many instances, lawmakers have worked closely with groups like the
Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal organization that has
argued several Supreme Court cases on behalf of people claiming
discrimination because of their traditional beliefs about marriage and
gender roles.
In the case in Idaho, opponents of the law argued that it was
exclusionary, discriminatory and a violation of the Equal Protection
Clause of the Constitution. The Alliance Defending Freedom, which is
representing two female college runners who said they had “deflating
experiences” after losing to a transgender woman, agreed that the case
was about equality, but in the context of creating “a level playing
field,” said Kristen Waggoner, the group’s general counsel. “When the
law ignores the legitimate differences that exist between men and women,
it creates chaos,” she added.
Image
Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota is seen as a potential contender for
the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.
Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota is seen as a potential contender for
the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.Credit...Erin Schaff/The
New York Times
Limiting the rights of transgender people is an issue that has resonance
with an increasingly small share of the overall population.A new study
<https://www.prri.org/research/despite-partisan-rancor-despite-partisan-rancor-americans-broadly-support-lgbtq-rights-broadly-support-lgbtq-rights/>by
the Public Religion Research Institute reported that only 7 percent of
Americans were “completely against” pro-L.G.B.T.Q. policies. But it is a
vocal group intent on showing that it can flex its power in the
Republican Party.
Ms. Noem is now at odds with most Republicans in the Legislature. Though
she initially said she was “excited” to sign their bill as is, she is
now demanding that they leave college athletes out of any new law.
Social conservative organizations went on the attack, taking aim at her
apparent presidential ambitions. “It’s no secret that Gov. Noem has
national aspirations, so it’s time she hears from a national audience,”
the Family Policy Alliance, an affiliate of Focus on the Family, wrote
in an email to supporters.
Ms. Noem appeared to be aware of how damaging it could be to have
conservatives think she was on the wrong side of the issue.
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On Thursday, she and her advisers joined a hastily arranged conference
call with members of the Conservative Action Project, which includes
leaders of the largest right-wing groups in the country. Ms. Noem
expressed concern that if she signed the law, the N.C.A.A. would
retaliate against South Dakota, as it did with North Carolina, by
refusing to hold tournaments there, according to one person on the call.
The activists were respectful but clear, this person said: This was not
what they expected from the conservative firebrand they had come to
admire so much.
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