As a cisgender competitive amateur adult athlete I have so many thoughts on why the erasure of trans people from sporting life upsets me and nowhere to put them so lucky you, here you go.
This is not to say that people can't learn these things through other hobbies, but these are things I, specifically, as an adult, have learned through amateur competitive swimming that affect the rest of my life outside the pool:
take criticism gracefully
do not abandon a new skill because you're bad at it; practice it
race your own race. the person in the lane next to you is irrelevant.
what my body can do for me is more important than how it looks
practice being resilient during physical pain
rarely can you reach your goals without some kind of discomfort, physical or emotional
learning and practicing a new skill because it benefits the team
And then of course there's just the physical pleasure of endorphins and the mental health benefits of exercise. To which one might say, well, can't someone get those benefits and learn those skills swimming on their own at the pool, and not with a team?
To which I say, I grew up in the second wave feminism of 90s "girl power!" and "girls can do anything!" while simultaneously attending a school that actually, specifically, said "girls can't be faith leaders." And you know what? I left that faith.
When an organization tells you they value you, but you are not welcome in the highest levels of, in this case, competition, what is the point? I used to say I left the church because I didn't want to be a part of an organization I couldn't be in charge of, even if I don't actually want to be in charge, and I think the same thing applies here. Why would a transgender person join a team or compete if they are not welcome at the highest levels of competition? If there is an artificial ceiling built out of transphobia?
Master's swimming is, at it's core, about getting people to the pool. A small percentage of masters swimmers compete in meets. But meets are still an important part of the culture of masters and where I learned (or why I learned) many of the things I listed above. If I were trans, why would I join an organization that claims inclusivity but then gatekeeps a core part of their system?
I want everyone to love swimming like I do. I want them to have the same opportunities to grow as a person outside the pool because of what they learn in the pool. I don't want a single person to feel like they're not welcome at the pool. And yet, people are so caught up in other people's lives instead of their own, they need to make trans people miserable to make them feel better about themselves. I can't relate.
And not to mention, don't we want to see the best the human body has to offer, when we watch competitions? Simone Biles can do what she can because she's so short. Brittany Griner is almost seven feet tall. Michael Phelps basically has flippers for feet. And yet, no one is whining they were defeated by those individuals because of their physical bodies.
This whole thing just pisses me off, and makes me sad, and I feel so stupid and useless about it. I am trying to figure out how to best stand in solidarity with my transgender swimmers (there are some options to swim in an "open" category, rather than women, at masters meets) but since I live in California it's almost a non issue. It fucking sucks, though.
I'm not trying to make this some kind of manifesto, I just wanted to articulate why, as a cis person, transgender sports bans upset me so much and have it written down somewhere. Anyway if you have ideas for how to support transgender athletes I'm all ears.
