Biden’s Proposed Protections for Trans Kids in Sports are Inadequate

Biden’s rule for trans kids in sports is a bad compromise like “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.” A ban on excluding trans kids from playing on sports teams of their identified gender sounds good but when you look at the exceptions to the proposed ban, you could drive a truck through them. It would only really apply to elementary schoolers and not to older kids who may be on puberty blockers or hormones (which, by the way, may be inaccessible in states with GOP governments). The exceptions to the ban take it as a given that trans kids receiving gender-affirming treatment are substantially different than their cis peers, which is a common myth but not true at all. Basically the message is that trans kids are okay but once they hit puberty it’s okay to exclude them. That’s total baloney! What kind of protection is that supposed to be? So this supposed ban on discrimination and exclusion is a lot like the old “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy in the military: it gives a lot of concessions to bigots and doesn’t really protect the population it’s touted as protecting. Nobody should get credit for this.