Here’s how the NCAA and others are responding as states across the country pass bills excluding the LGBT+ community from participating in sports

Photo Credit: NCAA / Facebook

In response to discussions of elected state officials passing bills aimed at excluding transgender athletes from participating in sports, the National Collegiate Athletics Association’s (NCAA) Division III LGBTQ OneTeam Program released a letter on April 5 denouncing their actions.

There are 93 anti-transgender bills introduced so far across the country in 2021, “the vast majority of which attempt to ban transgender women and girls’ participation in girls sports or ban transgender youth from accessing medically necessary, gender-affirming health care,” according to a Human Rights Campaign press release.

Many LGBT+ advocates are pushing the NCAA to boycott and pull away from having championships in these states.

Arkansas is just one of the many states that have passed these bills into law.

“This law simply says that female athletes should not have to compete in a sport against a student of the male sex when the sport is designed for women’s competition,” Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said in a press release. “As I have stated previously, I agree with the intention of this law. This will help promote and maintain fairness in women’s sporting events.”

Testosterone is a hormone that males have a higher level of in contrast to females and is tied to lean body mass and muscle, which leads to an advantage in athletic performance, according to Dr. Carol DeNysschen, the chair of The State University Of New York College at Buffalo Department of Health, Nutrition and Dietetics. However, the NCAA takes measures to ensure fairness in sports.

“Our approach — which requires testosterone suppression treatment for transgender women to compete in women’s sports — embraces the evolving science on this issue and is anchored in participation policies of both the International Olympic Committee and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee,” the NCAA Board of Governors said in a statement.

The NCAA Inclusion of Transgender Student-Athletes handbook argues that any athletic advantages that a transgender woman arguably has "as a result of her prior testosterone levels dissipate after about one year of estrogen or testosterone-suppression therapy."

However, DeNysschen says that hormone therapy to lower levels depends on the individual and that there are are multiple factors to consider such as baseline levels, physiology and physical activity.

She also addressed her concerns for the LGBT+ community’s health and opportunities being limited as a result of these states’ actions.

“What I worry about as a professional is that sports play such a significant role. Physical activity is good for mental health and physical health and there are some instances where transgender youth are struggling with various things to begin with and then we remove that opportunity to get their balance from sports and interaction,” she said. “It’s really denying them opportunities to deal with depression or being able to socialize with people.”

The professor of health also pointed out how it denies them scholarship opportunities as many of them may apply for sports scholarships.

Charlie Ingwersen-Rowe, a senior at SUNY Buffalo State, said that he’s been reflecting on this topic at a personal level as a transman himself. He played for the JV volleyball team in high school and currently plays in summer leagues. 

“This of course is hard with covid and I did drop out for several years because of my gender identity,” he said. “I didn’t want to play with women, and I didn’t know if I could keep up or be accepted by the men.”

Ingwersen-Rowe acknowledges that there are strength differences between men and women, but questions if it may discourage women from achieving their highest potential. He also mentions how the focus appears to be on women’s sports only and, in his opinion, there appears to be no concern for fairness in men’s sports such as if a transman were to join a sport designated for men.

His proposed solution is to have co-ed teams for those who wish to participate in athletics, but don’t want to be gender conformed.

“Of course, this could come with its own set of problems, [yet] co-ed leagues exist outside of educational institutions and they are doing just fine,” the philosophy major said.

Ingwersen-Rowe argues that these acts of legislation are “formulated on social views and not practical views of engagement in sports.”

“The binary is fine, however, people ought to be able to participate in things as their most authentic self,” he said. “If this cannot happen in the binary system we have, then it needs to happen outside the binary, but our legislators aren’t ready for that conversation.”

In a sports communication discussion forum with SUNY Buffalo State, Bob Williams, the senior vice president of communications of the NCAA, said that the NCAA Board of Governors will meet on April 27 to continue discussing whether they will hold championships in the states that are excluding transgender athletes from sports. He presumes that it will continue for several months.

"We're really trying to work with those state legislators so they understand what we're trying to do and how we approach it," he said.

(this story was last updated on April 19)