Republicans are waging war against an imaginary problem, but real trans children will be hurt | Opinion

Next week, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives will likely vote on a bill that would effectively ban transgender children from participating in sports. This measure — like similar legislation signed into law in Iowa and Oklahoma and vetoed by Republican governors in Indiana and Utah — would marginalize and scapegoat trans children in the name of protecting girls’ athletic opportunities.

The Pennsylvania sponsors of this harmful legislation are right about one thing: We absolutely are failing our female athletes.

HB 972′s sponsors claim that girls’ chances to play sports are somehow blocked by trans girls taking spots on elite teams. But they can’t point to any local examples of this happening. Trans girls are not dominating sports, and their teammates and even opponents are not asking lawmakers for help.

In fact, only the tiniest sliver of children will ever participate in elite and college-level sports, and the institutions governing these top-level games — not Harrisburg politicians — are the appropriate bodies to make the rules for their competitors, guided by doctors and researchers. Elite transgender athletes like Lia Thomas and Chelsea Wolfe, famous just because of how rare they are, spent years taking suppressive hormone therapy before they could compete, and they are required to keep their hormone levels within approved ranges.

The vast majority of the people who would be affected by HB 972 are little kids who want to try softball or learn basketball or audition for dance team with their friends.

Imagine telling a joyful fifth grader who wants to join her friends on the soccer field: “You don’t belong here.”

Research tells us that the consequences of blocking that trans child from participating in activities with other girls can be dire. Study after study has shown that transgender youth have a heightened risk of depression, self-injury, and suicide.

And what does the research point to as the solution? Let trans kids be themselves. A 2018 study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health found that transgender youth who are simply allowed to use their chosen name everywhere in their lives experienced 71% fewer symptoms of severe depression, a 34% decrease in reported thoughts of suicide, and a 65% decrease in suicidal attempts.

Refusing to honor kids’ gender expression isn’t just ignorant of the diversity of human biology — it’s also dangerous and invasive. Forcing transgender girls into boys’ locker rooms creates a deleterious potential for bullying and abuse. And nobody has explained how students who are suspected to be transgender are going to be checked to make sure they are playing on the “correct” team. Should all girls have to prove that they are girls? Are you willing to have your daughter questioned about her gender or subjected to a physical exam?

If we are worried about girls getting the chance to win at sports, the real answer is to give them more chances to play.

» READ MORE: What trans athlete Lia Thomas teaches us about fairness | Opinion

Fifty years after the enactment of Title IX protections against sex discrimination in sports and other activities, girls still don’t have a fair shot at playing sports. Pennsylvania Department of Education data aggregated by the Women’s Law Project (WLP) show that the “Title IX gap,” calculated by subtracting the percentage of athletic opportunities filled by female students from the percentage of female students enrolled, is trending in the wrong direction. This gap has inched upward each school year since 2014, standing at 4.33% in 2018, the last year for which data was available.

And those numbers are based on schools that submit the required questionnaire each year. Dozens of schools submit incomplete surveys or nothing at all.

“The bill further stigmatizes an already vulnerable group of children and fails to address in any way the very real lack of support provided to girls’ sports in Pennsylvania.”

Indeed, WLP checked the data from districts of HB 972′s original sponsors and found that they are no exception. Schools in their districts had Title IX opportunity gaps as high as nearly 18%. If those lawmakers talk to female athletes attending public schools in their districts, they are likely to hear about underfunded programs, inadequate facilities, and a lack of equipment. They aren’t likely to hear anything about trans kids on teams.

HB 972 doesn’t protect anyone, and it doesn’t fix any problem. Rather, the bill further stigmatizes an already vulnerable group of children and fails to address in any way the very real lack of support provided to girls’ sports in Pennsylvania.

If it comes up for a vote this week, I hope my colleagues will choose the welfare of children over another attempt to divide voters.

Let the kids play.

Dan Frankel represents the 23rd District of Pennsylvania and serves as the cochair of the LGBTQ+ Caucus.