SOME QUESTIONS ON TRANSGENDER WOMEN IN SPORTS
Today, the Supreme Court issued their ruling on the rights of states to institute bans on allowing transgender women to participate in women’s sports. The decision did not decide whether transgender women are allowed or banned from participation, it only decided that individual States COULD legislate such bans. Of course, this leaves other states the open option of legislating that transgender women MAY participate in such sports.
As of today, there are 21 states that have bans on transgender women participating in women’s sports, and 20 states that have laws and regulations that allow that participation.
There are also 26 states that have laws that require people to use bathrooms based on the sex assigned to them at birth. 20 states have bathroom laws AND a ban on transgender women in women’s sports. Only one state, Virginia, has a bathroom law but does not ban transgender participation. Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Missouri, Nebraska, and North Carolina have bans on transgenders but do not have bathroom laws.
Here are two questions that I have.
I do not have answers to them. I pose them for discussion purposes.
First Question: How do sports teams handle competition across state lines?
The “Full Faith and Credit” Clause of the U.S. Constitution requires states to honor each other’s “public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings”. In Article IV Section 2, it continues that “The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.”
Although Driver’s Licenses and Car Registrations generally have been found to lie outside of the “Full Faith and Credit” Clause, they are honored across the country due to mutual reciprocity agreements between states. The Supreme court has found that the “right to travel” is an unenumerated right supported by the 14th Amendment and the Commerce Clause.
Therefore, if you receive a driver’s license in Idaho, Maine, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Alaska, Arizona, Kansas, New Mexico, North Carolina, and South Carolina when you are 16 years old, you are still allowed to drive in the 20 states that require you to be at least 18 years old before you can get a driver’s license there.
So, what if you live in a state that has passed a law permitting transgender women to participate on the Women’s Tennis team. For example, assume that you are a transgender female playing tennis for UConn, in Connecticut. You are in the Big East Conference. Your team travels to Ohio to play Xavier, in Ohio, another Big Eash Conference team. Ohio has a ban on transgender women participating in women’s sports, but the team you are on is legally allowed to have a transgender woman on it based on your home state’s laws. Should you be allowed to compete in the match at Xavier?
Second Question: Where should transgender women shower if forced to play on Men’s teams?
Transgender women who have undergone hormone therapy, or gender-affirming surgery have the physical characteristics of women: breasts, lack of body hair, vaginas, changes in fat distribution and qualities of hair. Let’s assume you are a transgender female with those physical attributes, and you are athletically gifted and want to play tennis on the college team; but you live in a state like Kansas that bans transgender women from participating in women’s sports, and from using bathrooms assigned to people whose sex was listed as female at birth. Are you, therefore, forced to join the Men’s Tennis team, to use the Men’s locker room with the rest of the Men’s Tennis team, change, and shower with them?
Again, I don’t have answers to these questions. What do you think?