Transgendered student-athletes have recently become the subject of a vicious national debate, one that pits students against ideologues.
Nobody disputes that talented student-athletes should be allowed to participate in any high school or college sport that they qualify for. But because there are no “transgendered” sports teams at any level, we need to make room for the few athletes who are brave enough to play as their identified gender. They have every right to exist in that competitive space as anyone else, as long as they earn their way on the team.
Right now, San Jose State’s women’s volleyball team has become a political target because of the existence of one transgender athlete on its roster. One of the athlete’s teammates, Brooke Slusser, joined a class-action lawsuit claiming that transgender athletes pose a safety risk for players.
Ironically, Slusser’s decision to out her teammate has led to far higher safety risks, and has predictably unleashed more hate-filled rhetoric against both the player and team. Sadly, several opponents in the Mountain West Conference have chosen to forfeit or cancel their games against San Jose State, rather than compete.
Unlike Slusser, most of the San Jose State women’s volleyball team has had the courage to show support for their trans teammate. I believe we should celebrate these brave women and the majority of their coaches, who have embraced and stood behind their teammate. These Spartans are demonstrating the best of our society. Though I’m not a volleyball fan, I now follow their team because of the character they are demonstrating through this challenging time.
I am an administrator at Lowell High School and one of the coaches of the national champion San Francisco BaySox Girls Baseball Team, which gives girls an opportunity to play a traditional boys’ sport. All three of my daughters have played baseball since they were little kids, all through high school. Until they joined BaySox, they always had to play on teams with only boys. They constantly got questioned for playing a game that they love, but that supposedly wasn’t meant for them. “Why are you here?” people have asked each of them. “Shouldn’t you be playing softball?”
Some people looked at them as a novelty — at least until they’d earn a starting spot over a boy. Then the whispers would start, and the narrative became that this girl was taking a spot from a “deserving” boy. My daughters’ love of the game had to be earned every time they took the field. To parents who apparently thought their son was one of the 0.5% of youth baseball players who might be drafted by a Major League club someday, I would say, “Sorry, neither of our kids are going pro. But don’t tell my child that she can’t have the same dream your kid is entitled to.”
Similarly, if you are standing with the teams and athletes who are refusing to play against trans athletes, then you forfeit your right to claim you are protecting anyone. You missed the whole lesson of team sports. To these people, I say stop the hate, the othering, and the fear. Trans people will continue to be a part of athletics whether you try to stop them or not.
If you believe they are simply playing the sport in order to gain some type of an advantage — I would counter with, “Are you kidding me?!” According to the Trevor Project, students who attend schools with at least one anti-LGBTQ+ policy report poorer mental health and higher rates of suicidal ideation. If you think trans athletes chose this path because it would be easier, well, you’ve never been a girl on a boys baseball team. Or a Black player on an all-white team during the 1950’s.
To the Spartan volleyball players, you are setting the right example for other athletes who may be playing beside transgender athletes. You can show grace and compassion both to Slusser, and to your trans teammate. Your acceptance of them both shows that it is possible to coexist.
To those of you who fear trans athletes because you don’t know if they’re a boy or a girl, or what to call them, or where they should go to the bathroom: get over yourself. Your narrow view of the world is endangering people who are causing you no harm.
If my teenage daughters could continue to play baseball, even when the coaches and fans declared, “Let’s go, boys!,” I think your players are going to live, too. We need to let these young people play the sport they love for as long as they can. You never know how they might transform the game, or show us how we can be better people.
Isaac Alcantar is a vice principal at Lowell High School, a coach of the San Francisco BaySox, and the father of three baseball-playing daughters.