Being a professional athlete in the public eye often means navigating advocacy on top of the competitive aspect. For Chicago Sky Power Forward and VIS Mentor, Brianna Turner, this means using the platform that is embedded into the WNBA to speak up for the causes that she believes in. One of these causes is the necessity of inclusion for transgender girls in athletics and the damage that transphobia is doing to women’s sports. Turner’s advocacy shows us how to practice LGBTQ+ allyship in the public eye and the need to preserve sports as a safe place for transgender youth.
Inclusion Means More
A 2023 study by the Trevor Project found that transgender women experienced anxiety and depression more than cisgender women, along with being four times more likely to attempt suicide. For many of us, sports are an escape from our stressors and a way to express who we truly are, or even what’s kept us going through the toughest parts of our lives. For trans youth, the outlet and escape of athletics becomes even more important. Allowing trans athletes to practice and compete alongside their peers breeds a sense of acceptance, community, and validation for a group disproportionately affected by depression, suicide, and discrimination.
Turner emphasizes the importance of sports as a place of normalcy and safety for trans girls. “The inclusion of trans girls in youth sports matters because trans youth deserve an opportunity to just be kids,” Turner says. “Sports can create a safe space for trans girls to participate and feel a sense of normalcy in a life where others, particularly politicians, make it their mission to intervene.”
The Real Threat? Transphobia
In the past few years, transgender women and girls have been labeled as a “threat” to women’s sports, while real issues such as participation, opportunity, and Title IX are ignored. Some media outlets and politicians have clung to the idea that women’s sports need to be protected from transgender athletes, often without evidence or the input of professional women athletes themselves. This calls into question whether the concern is about the so-called integrity of women’s sports or an excuse to police trans women’s bodies and put political stake in a divisive issue.
For Turner, she notices this discrepancy in these arguments and calls it out. “Trans individuals are [being] used as pawns for political gain,” she says. “Some people only speak on women’s sports when trans women are the subject, which shows it was never about caring for women’s sports.”
So while many are worried about the implications of allowing trans girls to play the sports that they love, Turner views the threats to women’s athletics quite differently. She says that we should be focusing on the disparities and discrimination all women are up against, like “inadequate coverage, professional facilities, and travel arrangements, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, [and] racism.”
To redirect this conversation away from harmful misconceptions about gender identity, Turner recommends that women athletes instead “[highlight] the true disparities and [call] out the hypocrisy of those who only speak about women’s sports to disparage trans women athletes.”
“[Trans women and girls] are a small and vulnerable population. I think it’s unrealistic to expect trans people to do all the work themselves. It all takes cis people to speak up and advocate for the trans community.”
Keep Discrimination Out of Women’s Sports
Anti-transgender legislation and rhetoric interfere with women’s sports, ignore the true issues targeting women athletes, and create a culture that unfairly analyzes women’s bodies. And this isn’t a problem that affects only trans women. Transphobia, misogyny, and racism are deeply entwined, making recent outcries against trans women and girls damaging to the culture of women’s sports as a whole.
Turner says she’s witnessed her cisgender teammates and WNBA counterparts “accused” of being transgender. “I’ve also seen masculine-presenting cis women questioned about their gender identity,” she says. “People sometimes expect women athletes to be petite and feminine, when that certainly isn’t always the case.”
Turner also feels that her opinion as a professional athlete isn’t always considered by the same people who claim to care about women’s sports. “I believe that it’s valued by those in favor of the trans community and disregarded by those who oppose trans athletes,” she says.
What Can We Do As Allies?
It can be confusing, as cisgender women athletes, to know how to help and support transgender women. There is a lot of misinformation and deliberate propaganda surrounding transgender girls and women in athletics, so it’s important that we seek out information that relies on transgender voices and scientific or legal evidence for education. Turner says one thing every cisgender woman can do to be a better ally to the trans community is to “become more knowledgeable about gender identity.”
“Know the difference between gender identity and sexual identity, respect the pronouns of others, call out transphobia if [you] witness it, [and] advocate against politicians seeking to limit gender-affirming care,” Turner says.
So why is it so important, as cisgender women and athletes, to educate ourselves and advocate for trans women? For Turner, who has been learning about gender identity for the past decade, it’s because we all need to work together for our VOICE to be heard. “[Trans women and girls] are a small and vulnerable population. I think it’s unrealistic to expect trans people to do all the work themselves,” she says. “It all takes cis people to speak up and advocate for the trans community.”
Turner uses her experiences reading and learning about gender identity to give us a list of resources that can help allies be better allies and provide trans youth with mental, emotional, legislative, and financial support:
Athlete Ally: An LBTQ+ athlete advocacy nonprofit with chapters at schools across the country.
Human Rights Campaign (HRC): The largest LGBTQ+ lobbyist group in the United States with a large anthology of educational resources for transgender youth and allies alike.
Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD): A media monitoring organization that protests unfair coverage of LGBTQ+ individuals in movies, television, and the news.
The Trevor Project: A nonprofit organization that researches and educates mental health in LGBTQ+ individuals, with call and text hotlines and an online community.
Thanks to incredible women athlete-advocates like Turner, the conversation around trans girls in sports can change to one of empathy, acceptance, and VISibility. Her activism models how we can use our platforms for positive change, and reminds us that every girl and woman in sports, including transgender youth, belongs in sports.
