I've asserted that laws targeting transgender kids will eventually be turned against cisgender kids and this story is a perfect example of not only that but also of a solution in search of a non-existent problem.
Conservative lawmakers who say we should ban transgender girls from participating in youth sports programs say it's necessary because transgender girls have a physical advantage over cisgender girls. But that's not true. An exceptionally large cisgender girl could prove more beneficial to a basketball team, for example, than a smaller transgender girl who is taking medication that literally nullifies her supposed advantages. And no one saying we should ban tall kids from sports as they're actually a hot commodity.
You don't have to take it from me as a transgender woman, however, and simply consider the fact that there literally no examples of transgender girls easily dominating any given sport.
There are no examples of that happening so conservative activists in Arizona presented a fake example.
Grace Waggoner told lawmakers in February 2020 that her team had lost the first state tournament game it had played in decades to an opponent with a transgender player.
She blamed an “unfair” Arizona Interscholastic Association policy that allows students to join teams consistent with their gender identity after going through a review. Waggoner offered few details on the athlete’s impact on the game, but bill sponsor Rep. Nancy Barto accepted it as evidence of a problem in her state.
“I had read stories about this happening in other states,” Waggoner told lawmakers, “but I never expected it would happen at my school.”
The game Waggoner referenced in her testimony turned out to be a state tournament play-in game in 2019 that Scottsdale Christian Academy lost to Heritage Academy, 16-6. Heritage Academy coach Steve LaDrigue said his team did not have a transgender player.
What Waggoner didn’t say is that she’s the daughter of Kristen Waggoner, general counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom – a conservative, legal nonprofit that has pushed transgender sports bans in states across the nation.
Now, this is the part where discriminatory standards are eventually turned against cisgender girls simply because they don't look sufficiently girly.
When pressed for details about the game, an ADF spokesperson said in an email, “The widespread understanding on the team – including the coach, parents, and players – was that the athlete was male.”
LaDrigue guesses the suspicion fell on the team’s catcher, his daughter, because she has short hair.
A cisgender girl who did not meet their standards of femininity was ridiculed and used as an example against transgender girls.
There is no hell that is hot enough for these people.