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Over the weekend, a photo of transgender swimmer Lia Thomas went viral. In it, a smiling Thomas stands on a podium, having won the 500-yard freestyle at the NCAA Division I Championship. Her opponents—all biologically female—stand together on the other end in what many interpret as a show of solidarity.
The photo was like a Rorschach test: To some, it symbolized a grave injustice to girls' and women's sports. For others, it represented a triumph for transgender acceptance and rights.
Unfortunately, no robust conversation is taking place between the two sides, because one of the sides is refusing to even debate this important issue. Too many activists on the Left have adopted a "no debate" mentality. This is not only undemocratic, but it is unhealthy for the movement for trans rights. The Left must allow a robust debate over this issue, one that is brand new to many Americans and which presents real questions and conundrums. And LGBTQ activists should welcome it as a chance to once more change hearts and minds.
As a gay Appalachian, I am well aware that what I am asking is easier said than done. Asking people to engage with those they view as their oppressors is asking a lot, especially at a time when they are being vilified, as trans people are; this week, NBC News reported that across the country, nearly 240 anti-LGBTQ bills have been filed since January 1. Actions such as Texas Governor Greg Abbott's directive for the state's Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate the parents of trans children for child abuse are clearly transphobic and cruelly discriminatory. To pretend otherwise is naïve at best.
But when it comes to trans women in sports, it's simply not fair to call everyone questioning the issue a bigot. Far from simply being anti-trans, many Americans believe there is a conflict of rights at play here, on a host of issues from women's single sex spaces to sports. The conflicts are many and they are varied, including those between cis women and transgender women, between religious groups and LGBTQ rights organizations, between radical feminists who believe sex is immutable and gender oppressive and queer theorists who believe sex is changeable and gender an identity.
The polling reflects these conflicts. Last year, a Gallup poll found that only 34 percent of Americans support trans athletes playing on a team that aligns with their gender identity. A 2021 YouGov poll found that only 33 percent believe transgender people should use public restrooms matching their gender identity. And yet, an NPR/PBS Newshour/Marist poll from February complicates the picture; it found that 63 percent of Americans support the Equality Act, 66 percent oppose laws prohibiting gender transition and even related medical care for minors, and 67 percent would oppose state laws banning transgender participation in sports that match their gender identity.
These numbers should be encouraging to transgender people, because they show an effort on the part of the American people to grapple with what is a relatively new issue to them (fewer than half of Americans even know someone who is transgender) and to square the circle of how to be fair to transgender people and other stakeholders in this debate.
Rather than shutting down debate, this is the time when transgender activists should be making their case to the American people. This is the time to win hearts and minds.
After all, LGBTQ Americans have done this before. In 2004, a majority of Americans supported a Constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. That was the year George W. Bush was reelected using gay marriage as a wedge issue. 11 states passed constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage that year. In my home state of Kentucky, I campaigned against our amendment, knocking on doors and engaging in difficult and uncomfortable conversations with voters who thought my right to marry would destroy the American family.
It wasn't fun, but it was necessary. And the work paid off: Less than 20 years later, 70 percent of Americans support same-sex marriage.
We did not accomplish that by refusing to debate these issues or vilifying those who disagreed with us. We did it by engaging with our opponents in good faith arguments, understanding that for many of them, this was a new issue, and recognizing the grace, humanity, and goodness in those with whom we disagreed.
We felt confident our arguments were not only right but just, and that we would one day prevail. And we did.
LGBTQ activists accepted debating then, and they should accept it now. Stakeholders, including feminists and conservative women, must be allowed to have their say without being assaulted, fired, or run out of polite society. No one should be pilloried for politely expressing a different conceptualization of gender or for raising concerns about conflicts of rights.
I will not pretend this was always easy, fun, or even fair. Debates around gay marriage often felt incredibly personal, and those opposing gay marriage often seemed to forget they were talking about real people with real feelings and real lives. We must never forget the humanity of transgender people—or the real pain these debates cause; we should seek ways for transgender people to live their authentic lives and flourish in an inclusive society.
But the way we get there is by having the conversation. The time for it is now.
Skylar Baker-Jordan writes about the intersection of identity, politics, and public policy based. He lives in Tennessee.
The views in this article are the writer's own.
