Florida Disguises Transmisogynoir as New Bill Passes That Excludes Transgender Women from Sports
- Kennice Wong
- Oct 30, 2021
- 2 min read

Why do people always feel the need to police women’s bodies? In particular, laws frequently targeting the bodies of transgender and BIPOC women.
One example of this emerges in the passing of Florida’s recent bill, which Florida’s Republican Governor, Ron DeSantis, signed at the beginning of June 2021.
Unfortunately, Florida has officially prohibited transgender women from participating in women’s sports.
In addition, this occurred on June 1st, the first day of Pride Month 2021, an annual spotlighting of the 2SLGBTQIA+ rights movement and its remarkable history.
Schuyler Bailer was the first transgender athlete to compete for an NCAA D1 men’s team. Today, he is an inspirational speaker and advocate for diversity and inclusion.
In his article, The Inclusion of Transgender Athletes, Bailer states that “the first argument against trans women in sport is usually about testosterone levels.”
However, it is not only transgender women’s bodies that are policed.
Bailer introduces the narrative that Black and Brown cisgender women athletes, like Olympic Gold Medalist Caster Semenya, are often criticized for their biological traits as well.
When rumours began circulating that she had “intersex traits,” Semenya was stripped of her medals. Moreover, after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) conducted a test, it was announced that she was “forced to reduce her natural levels of testosterone to compete.”
On the other hand, renowned Olympic swimmer, Michael Phelps possesses a biological advantage that entails that his body produces “half the lactic acid levels” compared to the average cisgender male athlete. This genetic trait allows Phelps’ muscles to get exhausted far less easily than his typical competitors.
Michael Phelps, a cisgender and heterosexual white man, faced no backlash for the discovery of his biological advantages. Instead, his genetics were praised and celebrated.
Furthermore, Caster Semenya, a Black and queer woman, was severely punished for biological factors that were out of her control.
In Bailer’s article, he shares that in order for trans women to compete in elite-level sports, their testosterone levels “must be strictly regulated.”
In fact, the argument that transgender women will unfairly dominate the Olympics because of their biological traits is utterly incorrect, as “not a single out trans woman has ever qualified or competed in the Olympics, despite the IOC allowing trans women to compete.”
When referring to the attacks on transgender children athletes, Bailer says that there are “no differences in circulating testosterone between those assigned male at birth and those assigned female before Tanner stage II of puberty,” and that children’s sports mostly do not involve any sort of high-level competition.
Additionally, he adds that in cases where children do “get to an elite level where such examination might be more relevant, the regulations are already in place.”
Therefore, the policing of women’s bodies does not just harm and invalidate the trans community, but also women of many other marginalized communities.
Centering the opinion that the possession of certain biological traits invalidates someone’s gender identity is not only transphobic, but it also does not take into consideration the diverse genetics of people of different backgrounds, especially when talking about ethnicity and race.
Celebrating people of all gender identities means that athletes of other marginalized communities will receive more recognition for their achievements, as well.
Properly representing transgender athletes in sports will benefit everyone.
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