Trans players in women’s sports are not the problem.

As we cheer on our favorite teams and athletes in the March Madness tournaments here in Texas, I can’t help but think of the transgender kids in our state who will never get the chance to play the sport they love. 

In 2021, upon witnessing the absolutely unequal treatment between the women’s and men’s teams during the NCAA’s March Madness tournament, I reached a breaking point. I could not believe what I was seeing: The men had access to a massive gym with fancy equipment, while the women had free weights and yoga mats. The women received less food, and of a lower quality and variety, than the men, and the men even received outside sponsors for catering that were not extended to women’s teams. The men had access to outdoor space at the height of a pandemic, the women did not  —  the list goes on and on and is outlined in painstaking detail by the law firm commissioned to do an external audit of all of the NCAA’s gender equity practices. 

At the same time this was happening, dozens of states across the country — including Texas — were working to ban kids from playing sports with their friends, all under the banner of “protecting women’s sports.” I was floored. I actually think I laughed out loud. Keeping transgender women and girls out of sports is not protecting me or helping any women athletes.

It’s not helping the incredibly talented women in the NCAA tournament achieve food, lodging, sponsorship or media coverage that’s equal to the men’s teams. It is not doing…