Elizabeth Warren condemns cruel law that would stop trans kids competing in sports as their true gender
Elizabeth Warren is a vocal trans ally. (Getty)
Elizabeth Warren has spoken out after an Arizona Republican introduced a bill to ban trans kids from competing in competitions correlating to their true gender.
The Democrat intervened after Nancy Barto, a Republican member of the Arizona House of Representatives, launched a bill designed to force trans children to compete under the gender assigned to them.
Under the bill, all interscholastic and intramural sports leagues would have to define sports as co-educational, male or female based on “biological sex”.
These measures would apply to students at all public and private schools and colleges in the state, forcing trans kids to either compete under the wrong gender, or not at all.
Elizabeth Warren – who has pledged to put trans rights at the centre of her education platform if elected president – condemned the bill on Twitter.
“Trans athletes are not a threat,” she wrote.
“We need to protect trans kids – and all LGBTQ+ kids – and ensure they feel safe and welcomed at school.
“I urge the Arizona legislature to reject this cruel bill.”
Trans athletes are not a threat. We need to protect trans kids—and all LGBTQ+ kids—and ensure they feel safe and welcomed at school. I urge the Arizona legislature to reject this cruel bill. https://t.co/9ALVjeIBiv
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) February 20, 2020
School sports bill ‘is just about attacking trans kids’.
LGBT+ groups have linked the proposal to the many “bathroom bills” that have been used as a weapon against trans people across the US.
“There’s a reason these bills are popping up simultaneously,” Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, told The Arizona Republic newspaper.
“There have been no problems with this issue in Arizona. This isn’t responding to an issue that students are having in Arizona. This is a national campaign to use this issue — sadly — to just polarise and divide people.
“This is just about attacking transgender kids for political reasons.”
Barto has argued that trans inclusion discourages cis women from participating in a athletics, “and worse, can result in women and girls being denied crucial educational and financial opportunities”.
She did not provide any evidence for these claims.
The Republican also pointed to “inherent physiological advantages” possessed by trans women, an oft-cited excuse for anti-trans policies in sport that has been refuted by the LGBT+ sports advocacy group Athlete Ally.
“There is no evidence at all that the average trans woman is any bigger, stronger, or faster than the average cisgender woman, but there is evidence that often when athletes lower testosterone through hormone replacement therapy, performance goes down,” Athlete Ally said in 2019.
