Chris Mosier (center), an athlete with Team USA and an advocate for transgender rights, competed in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials on Jan. 25, 2020 as the first transgender athlete to compete in a category different than their sex assigned at birth. (Courtesy of Javier Dias Martos)
As the first transgender athlete to compete for Team USA, Chris Mosier credits his confidence as a professional athlete and trans man to his participation in sports since childhood.
“There is no opportunity now for some young persons who love sports to be themselves and play the sports that they love at the university level,” Mosier said. “It’s deeply disappointing, and while it’s going to impact just a handful of athletes, it’s going to impact them and their teams profoundly.”
Sponsored
One day after President Donald Trump signed an executive order seeking to bar transgender athletes from participating in school sports, the organization that regulates college sports changed its participation policy to align with Trump’s directive. Transgender advocates warn the changes could have serious repercussions for both transgender youth and cisgender women.
Under the NCAA’s new policy, athletes assigned male at birth or those receiving testosterone treatment are barred from competing on women’s teams. However, all athletes may practice with teams that align with their gender identity. The policy for men’s sports remains unchanged.
“We strongly believe that clear, consistent, and uniform eligibility standards would best serve today’s student-athletes instead of a patchwork of conflicting state laws and court decisions,” NCAA President Charlie Baker said in a statement last week. “To that end, President Trump’s order provides a clear, national standard.”
Mosier, a competitive runner who first competed for Team USA in 2015, said it’s frustrating that the NCAA was so quick to comply with Trump’s order when it could have found other ways to continue allowing transgender students to participate, especially when the trans community is underrepresented in sports.
During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last year, Baker testified that there are only 10 transgender athletes that he was aware of in the NCAA. He noted that there are over 500,000 athletes in the association. Mosier said the decision to target transgender athletes despite their small numbers was a political one that hurts both the transgender community and other marginalized groups looking to participate in college athletics.
“This is not about banning a handful of trans athletes from participating in sports,” Mosier said. “Trans identity has been politicized and weaponized… It’s a strategy to try to legislate away transgender people from public life. Sports is just one of the pieces of that.”
The San José State Spartans volleyball team greets their opponents, the University of New Mexico Lobos, before playing their home game on Nov. 2, 2024. (Natalia Navarro/KQED)
Female athletes face many barriers to success, but transgender people being allowed to participate in women’s sports is not one of them, said A.T. Furuya, director of education at nonprofit Athlete Ally. In the NCAA, there have been zero reports of transgender women assaulting teammates in locker rooms or bathrooms, and it’s been proven that transgender women do not have a considerable advantage over their cisgender counterparts, Furuya said.
“Sports were created to build community and foster social growth and a better sense of self worth,” they said. “To take those opportunities away from transgender kids — it says if you don’t fit and follow the guidelines we create, you will be bullied and harassed, and we will celebrate that harm to you.”
The NCAA already enforces strict policies for transgender athletes in women’s sports, including requiring them to undergo testosterone testing before competing, Furuya said. With the new policy, Furuya noted even more women and girls will be vulnerable to invasive scrutiny when it comes to their sex, whether they’re transgender or not.
“It’s a major loss for everybody, and we will continue to see the impact for years,” Furuya said.
Eliza Brown, an associate professor of sociology at UC Berkeley, said policies restricting transgender athletes assume sex and gender are binary categories, which can create challenges for women and girls who do not conform to traditional expectations, regardless of their sex at birth. Some cisgender women take testosterone treatments to address medical conditions that have nothing to do with a gender transition, and the NCAA’s policy could affect them as well, she said.
“If you see somebody who has a naturally higher level of testosterone, which has happened for decades in terms of Olympic investigations, there’s suspicion,” Brown said. “There is a broader goal here to terrify queer and transgender people, and to police women more broadly.”
The California Interscholastic Federation, which governs high school athletics, said it follows state law allowing students to compete on sports teams that align with their gender identity.
The NCAA has faced public backlash for allowing transgender athletes to compete alongside cisgender women and access facilities such as women’s bathrooms and locker rooms.
San José State University has been at the center of a nationwide debate since a women’s volleyball player and others sued last year, seeking to bar a player they said was transgender. Federal officials are looking into whether the school discriminated against female athletes, and the lawsuit is still ongoing. The Department of Education also announced Thursday that it is investigating San Jose State University and two other institutions for alleged Title IX violations.
Several athletes and coaches, including those from the University of Pennsylvania, have sued the NCAA over alleged Title IX violations related to transgender women in sports.
Mosier, who helped change the International Olympic Committee’s policy on transgender athletes, said he wants to see more transgender youth participate in sports because it can be an affirming experience. He said it is heartbreaking that new policies and federal orders could make it even more difficult for transgender people to thrive in athletics.
“I am being who I needed when I was younger so that young people can look at me and see that it is possible to be your authentic self, to play the sports that you love and to live a happy and awesome life” Mosier said. “Our greatest form of resistance is to remain joyful.”
Sponsored
lower waypoint
Stay in touch. Sign up for our daily newsletter.
To learn more about how we use your information, please read our privacy policy.
The show goes back on the hunt to track down answers to the big little questions. Who owns the organs in an organ donation? What if the Earth was made of blueberries? How does one flirt with a Neander...
