Ten people.
The number of players on a basketball court at one time. The number of players on a baseball lineup card with a designated hitter added. The number of players on either side of a football line of scrimmage minus one.
Ten people. That’s the number of transgender women taking part in collegiate athletics. That’s out of over 500,000 athletes in the NCAA.
Ten out of 500,000. Hardly seems worth worrying about, right?
Yet, there is plenty of worry in certain circles of the American populace, so much so that Donald Trump, surrounded by tens of girls and young women in the White House last week, signed an executive order barring transgender athletes from participating in girls and women’s sports.
To be specific, the order prohibits schools that receive federal funding under Title IX from permitting transgender girls and women from competing with cisgender girls and women.
The move, which came, not so coincidentally, on National Girls and Women in Sports Day, was hailed in many corners as a great day for women’s sports.
That’s precisely the wording Lacie Litz DeCosta, the wife of Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta, used in a social media posting.
According to the Baltimore Sun, Litz DeCosta, a former All-American lacrosse player at Randolph-Macon College and a Maryvale Prep alum, said, in her post, that the matter for her was not a trans issue but a fairness issue, adding quote I will always fight for fairness when it comes to girls in sports unquote.
To her credit, Lacie Litz DeCosta appears to walk the walk, giving towards a scholarship at her high school and to her college lacrosse team.
That gives her far more credibility in the matter than many who decry transgender participation but do little financially or otherwise to decrease the chasm in funding for women’s and girls sports in this country.
But, let’s put the funding matter aside for now and deal with the matter at hand, transphobia, which is undoubtedly at the core of this faux battle in the culture wars.
People on the political right, some of the same folks who would in one breath tell electorally active athletes to shut up and dribble, have, in the next breath, with this attack on trans athletes, sanctioned and championed the persecution of people who are different.
Despite the absence of substantive evidence that a trans athlete has a biological advantage over a cis woman, the transphobic crowd continues to float that false narrative, as well as others regarding locker room and bathroom usage.
Indeed, there’s more evidence to suggest that trans athletes are in greater danger of having violence perpetrated against them than cis athletes are of being harmed by having to share facilities with a transgender woman.
The International Olympic Committee and the Women’s Sports Foundation have supported the inclusion of trans athletes in women’s sports.
And, until last week, the NCAA did too. But the college athletics governing organization knuckled under, declaring that trans athletes can’t play in women sports.
Trump declared that with his signature, the war on women’s sports was over. Hmm. Five hundred thousand versus 10. Hardly seems like a fair fight, does it?
And that’s how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads, BlueSky and X at Sports at Large.
Until next week, for all of us here and for producer Lisa Morgan, I’m Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.