Pride is here and the US is celebrating in the worst way

The Republican Party, apparently now a staunch defender of women’s rights, is now making sure trans kids can’t play sports with their friends, writes Harriet Sinclair

Energy secretary Jennifer Granholm and Department of Energy chief of staff Tarak Shah raise the Pride flag in Washington on Wednesday (AP)

LGBT+ Pride month is upon us once again, and this year the US is celebrating in style with the rollback of trans rights on a state level.

Not content with a long-running obsession with who’s using which bathroom, those well-known women’s rights defenders the GOP have picked up the baton of “protecting” women’s sports, with numerous Republican governors signing bills banning trans women and girls from participating in school and college sports.

These are the same governors (I’m looking at you, Ron DeSantis, Kristi Noem and Bill Lee) who have all quietly signed bills restricting abortion access for the women whose bodies they so vehemently defend when it comes to participating in sporting activities. 

Some of those governors have also backed voting restrictions that will affect those women they care so deeply about, and have signed into law anti-protest bills that aim to limit people’s right to assembly. Sorry, ladies (and indeed gents), no demonstrating for you.

Missouri father Brandon Boulware’s stunning testimony (delivered in March) about his transgender daughter’s wish to participate in her volleyball team served as a stark reminder that decisions taken by these governors, with all their bravado about championing cisgender women’s rights, have real consequences for real people.

No volleyball, then, for Mr Boulware’s daughter, no sports for trans kids in Mississippi, Montana, Tennessee, West Virginia. No “joining in” for transgender children in Arkansas — who have to play on the team that reflects their biological sex from kindergarten onwards. Phew. Those kindergarten kids were set to give Megan Rapinoe a run for her money, so best not to let them play at all.

And of course, of course, there is a nuanced and legitimate discussion to be had about playing sports at a competitive level and what that means for trans and cisgender athletes. But the dream panel of people I’d assemble to discuss this topic with balance would be unlikely to include the handful of Republican governors who have bulldozed ahead with restrictions that make life worse for a minority group already facing discrimination.

Just like the homophobic laws that came before it, the trans sports ban doesn’t actually aim to improve things for cisgender women. Instead, it uses them as a pawn to squash progress and opportunity for transgender people – and it does so with a bold disregard for anyone who identifies as female.

Yours,

Harriet Sinclair

West coast US news editor