Thread by @CourtneyCare

Six years ago, @mzamoraphoto and I published the #TransinIowa series. Back then, we largely celebrated a state that truly prized liberties. Today, Iowa passed a bill (awaiting Gov signature) that prohibits transgender athletes from playing sports with their gender.

@mzamoraphoto One story featured Iowa's first openly transgender athlete, a transman. He ran on men's cross-country in Cedar Falls; the coach actively sought him out to run on the team.

Story here. 👇 desmoinesregister.com/story/life/liv…

“I was surrounded by guys, and half of them didn’t even know I wasn’t always a boy, and to look down and see ‘men’s’ on my shirt, there was nothing better,” he said.

“I didn’t think that would happen for me in high school.”

"For this population of young transgender people, sports are a lifeline. They are a place to feel solid and play and use their bodies and participate and have teammates and leave the world behind," one expert said.

“Our transgender youth really need that.”

“Just think about the profound way people bond over professional sports teams,” said another.
“I’m a Cubs fan and regardless of background or job or religious affiliation, if I find another Cubs fan, we immediately have something in common....

...Sports are the great equalizer, and by talking about trans inclusion in athletics, we can talk about what it means to be trans in America right now and, I hope, break down barriers.”

To our knowledge, in Iowa, there have never been any problems with transgender athletes participating in sports. (Am I wrong? email me at [e-mail].)

And in Iowa, the Civil Rights Act has an exemption for athletic programs, and the girls' and boys' athletics associations have guidelines for respectful treatment. The girls' athletic director told me back then that they look at issues on a case-by-case basis.

They also had not had a transfemale athlete request to play/play back then.

“If a trans woman has been on testosterone blockers, keeping their level of testosterone below the amount recommended by the International Olympic Committee, for a year, they will be hormonally a woman no different than (biological) women," said one #Iowa specialist.

((Sorry some of the language in this story is, well, six years old. Apologies.))

Questions to consider re: this law: What's the NCAA to do?
They recently watered down their policies, but current says: "transgender participation for each sport to be determined by the policy for the national governing body of that sport."So follow the gov. body policy or law?

Also says: "The Board of Governors urged the divisions to provide flexibility to allow for additional eligibility if a transgender student-athlete loses eligibility based on the policy change provided they meet the newly adopted standards."

And continues: "The report assists ongoing membership efforts to support inclusion, fairness, and the mental and physical health of transgender and non-binary student-athletes in collegiate sport."

Link: ncaa.org/news/2022/1/19…

It also refers to the IOC guidelines, which along with having rules around hormones and the like, clearly says: "No athletes should be precluded from competing, or excluded from competition on the exclusive ground of an ...

unverified, alleged or perceived unfair competitive advantage due to their sex variations, physical appearance and/or transgender status."

Link: stillmed.olympics.com/media/Document…

There are medically sound ways to ensure fairness. Those deal with hormones, with how one lives and perceives. But the undercurrent of both of these policies is let them play.

In a society that is increasingly sedentary, increasingly overweight and sick due to lack of motion, should we not encourage play? At all levels? By all peoples? At all costs?

Just want to repeat this for the people in the back: In a society that is increasingly sedentary, increasingly overweight and sick due to lack of motion, should we not encourage play? At all levels? By all peoples? At all costs?

Two other stories from the #TransinIowa series: desmoinesregister.com/story/life/201…

“As soon as we figured it out, we started transitioning because I knew I wanted him to experience life as the right gender,” said one mother of a transmale, “to date and go to prom and graduate as a boy, as himself.”

“His goals didn’t change because his gender did. And I was — I am — going to do anything in my power to help him achieve those goals.”

Different child: In the second grade, a family member told Bryan — out of earshot of his mother — that God made him a girl, so he should act like a girl. It was the first time anyone had said anything that direct to his face, and it was humiliating.

“I tried to be a girl for a year after that,” Bryan remembered. “I didn’t want to be different. But every time I wore girls’ clothes, I felt like I was doing something bad, something really bad.”

That year, Bryan would write his mom oft-misspelled notes in bold, black Sharpie that read, “I feel like I’m a boy, but I don’t know what to do,” or “I’m a girl on the outside, but a boy on the inside.” He’d deliver them to her as she soaked in the bathtub, then run away.

“It crushed me to see my child that unhappy,” his mother said. “But I just kept telling him it would be OK. We would figure it out. I loved him no matter what.”

Bryan just finished the fourth grade, and it was his best year of school so far, he said, because he went as a boy. His mother agreed. Sometime in the past 12 months, she watched her shy, angry girl grow into an outgoing class clown.

She has never seen her child as happy as he was this year, she said, and his school's accommodation to his needs was a large part of why.

And then the intro to the series that features trans adults: desmoinesregister.com/story/news/201…

Here's a link to the bill, btw: legis.iowa.gov/legislation/Bi…

One other thing, birth certificates can be changed: transequality.org/documents/stat….