{"id":16071,"date":"2019-10-16T12:28:51","date_gmt":"2019-10-16T16:28:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/2019\/10\/16\/student-athletes-fight-transphobia-and-racism-in-connecticut\/"},"modified":"2019-10-16T12:28:51","modified_gmt":"2019-10-16T16:28:51","slug":"student-athletes-fight-transphobia-and-racism-in-connecticut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/2019\/10\/16\/student-athletes-fight-transphobia-and-racism-in-connecticut\/","title":{"rendered":"Student athletes fight transphobia and racism in Connecticut"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Oct.
Terry Miller, from Bloomfield High School. (Mark Mirko \/ Hartford Courant)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By ROZWELL SIMMONS<\/strong><\/p>\n

In central Connecticut, two high school students are confronted by foes all too familiar\u2014transphobia and racism.\u00a0The students, Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood, from Bloomfield and Cromwell respectively, are both young trans women of color who enthusiastically participate on their schools\u2019 track teams with the support of the majority of their teammates.\u00a0Suddenly, after several years of athletic accomplishment, Miller\u2019s and Yearwood\u2019s right to compete alongside young cis women on their respective high school track teams is being brought into question.<\/p>\n

On June 24, the Alliance Defending Freedom filed a Title IX Discrimination Complaint to the U.S. Department of Education on behalf of three cis high school runners who claim that the participation of trans girls on their teams infringe on their civil rights. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Alliance Defending Freedom is a hate group that\u00a0 \u201chas become one of the most influential groups informing the administration\u2019s attack on LGBT rights working with an ally in Attorney General Jeff Sessions.\u201d<\/p>\n

This lawsuit comes as no surprise in the larger contexts of the United States and of a capitalist world. The Trump administration attacks trans people and their rights week after week. On April 12, the ban on transgender troops was put into action. The next month on May 2, the Department of Health and Human Services published documents encouraging health-care providers and insurance companies to deny health care to trans patients based on \u201creligious beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other forms of care that trans folks rely on were threatened as the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced plans to roll back anti-discrimination protections for trans people in homeless shelters on May 22. Aug. 14 saw the proposition of a rule that would allow refusing to hire and firing employees based on their LGBTQ+ status. Just two days later, on Aug.16, the Department of Justice issued a statement saying that federal law \u201cdoes not prohibit discrimination against transgender persons based on their transgender status.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear that the two young athletes have an uphill battle ahead of them, but they\u2019re prepared to fight.\u00a0Terry Miller pledges to \u201ccontinue to fight for all trans people to compete and participate consistent with who [they] are. There is a long history of excluding Black girls from sport and policing our bodies.\u201d According to the Hartford Courant<\/em>, Miller insists that she is \u201ca runner and she will keep running and keep fighting for her existence, her community and her rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andraya Yearwood told the Courant <\/em>that she hopes \u201cthat the next generation of trans youth doesn\u2019t have to fight the fights\u201d that she has and that \u201cthey can be celebrated when they succeed, not demonized.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the next generation,\u201d she said, \u201cI run for you!\u201d In response to critics who imagine that trans girls face the challenge of competition differently than cis girls, Yearwood explained to the Courant<\/em>, \u201cI am lucky to live in a state that protects my rights and to have a family that supports me. This is what keeps me going. Every day I train hard\u2014I work hard to succeed on the track, to support my teammates, and to make my community proud.\u201d<\/p>\n

Connecticut does have more protections in place for trans people than many other states, but it wasn\u2019t always this way.\u00a0It is one of at least 17 states that allow trans high school athletes to compete without restrictions, and these rules were put in place due to the tireless work of activists across the state over decades.<\/p>\n

In 2002, after several years of building a grassroots coalition of trans rights activists, It\u2019s Time Connecticut and over 20 other groups organized the state\u2019s first Transgender Day of Remembrance vigil in Hartford. Attended by 100 trans people, allies, and community members, the success of this vigil helped shape ITCT into the CT Trans Advocacy Coalition (CTAC).\u00a0Since then, the CTAC and other organizations have continued to fight for and win protections and freedoms for trans people across the state.<\/p>\n

In 2015, a birth certificate law was passed in Connecticut, allowing a trans person\u2019s gender marker to be changed to align with their gender identity without requiring surgery. Guidelines for homeless shelters and schools detailing gender identity and expression were created. The work has made it easier for trans high school students to avoid overt bigotry and related trauma in adolescence.<\/p>\n

Seventeen years of grassroots collaboration in defense of trans rights in the state meant that when Miller and Yearwood became the victims of the Alliance for Defending Freedom, 16 Connecticut rights organizations\u2014including New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut Alliance to End Sexual Violence, Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and National Abortion Rights Action League\u2014put out a letter in their support, saying, \u201cTogether, we reject unfounded fears about transgender athletes in our state and reject the suggestion that cisgender women and girls benefit from the exclusion of women and girls who happen to be transgender. Instead, we recognize that all women and girls are harmed when some are denied opportunities to participate in sports because of stereotypes and fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Right-wing groups, like the Alliance Defending Freedom, however, continue to try to divide cis and trans women by claiming that trans inclusion will destroy the modest protections for equality of the sexes that is codified in Title IX. The National Women\u2019s Law Center has put the lie to this claim. Neena Chaudhry, the general consul for the National Women\u2019s Law Center, in a recent editorial for the Washington Post, <\/em>argues that in terms of the law, \u201cgender\u201d is treated as \u201csex,\u201d and protections against gender discrimination do nothing to change the protections available under Title IX for cis women. Gender rights do \u201cnot change Title IX or the landscape that schools face, because courts have already found that Title IX protects against gender-identity discrimination,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

This legal logic is also codified in the Equality Act, which passed the House in May and which, Chaudry says,\u00a0\u201cmakes clear that discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity is illegal sex discrimination, and it closes long-standing gaps in some civil rights law by adding protections from sex discrimination.\u201d The use of the threat of loss of Title IX protections by the right to limit trans inclusion is just the old divide-and-conquer technique with new language.<\/p>\n

Despite these clear analyses by feminist legal advocates like Chaudry, Selina Soule, a teammate of Miller and Yearwood and one of the three young women who are complainants in the Alliance Defending Freedom suit against them, remarks: \u201cGirls should never be simply spectators in their own sport, they deserve to compete on a level playing field.\u201d (CT Mirror<\/em>) What level playing field is she referring to here? Certainly not one that is based on actual fairness, one that truly allows all <\/em>girls to succeed.<\/p>\n

Aside from this blatantly transphobic push to exclude trans girls from their sports teams, this complaint is also problematic in its reduction of the two girls to being scholarship thieves.\u00a0In a recent issue of OutSports<\/em>, Robin McHealen, Executive Director of True Colors Inc., a Hartford-based support and advocacy organization for LGBTQ+ youth, explained just how ludicrous was Soule\u2019s claim that trans girls were denying her an athletic scholarship.\u00a0 \u201cAround 100,000 athletic scholarships are awarded by the nation\u2019s colleges and universities, and 98% of high school student-athletes will not earn one,\u201d she was quoted as saying. \u201cIs this a realistic concern because of these two girls running?\u201d<\/p>\n

The idea that the road for more financial aid for students wishing to attend college runs through trans-exclusionary policies for high school sports is ludicrous on the face of it, but this illogical assertion will die a hard death given its value to reaction.<\/p>\n

Also worth noting is the role that race is playing here: As people of color are pushed aside and ignored, so are their talents, passions, and achievements. Devaluing women of color in sports is a common thread in the attacks on trans athletes of all ages.\u00a0Caster Semenya, an Olympic runner from South Africa, has received constant berating and backlash from people who label her as a man due to her body naturally producing more testosterone than what is \u201ctypical.\u201d Contrast Semenya\u2019s case with Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps and it\u2019s clear that, in the eyes of society, not all bodies are created equal. Due to genetic mutations, Phelps\u2019 body is almost made<\/em> for swimming. His arm span is greater than his height, enabling him to make greater strokes and his body naturally produces less lactic acid, meaning it takes more for him to become fatigued. These traits give him a clear advantage over other swimmers, but are praised as biological blessings.<\/p>\n

Yet Semenya is attacked left and right and dehumanized for her higher-than-average testosterone levels, which do not definitively give her an advantage. Aside from the fact that this type of thinking only serves to perpetuate the policing of women\u2019s and Black bodies, this is problematic in that it serves to oppress women and reinforce damaging stereotypes. It also creates a context for the effort of the far right to roll back gender discrimination legislation and discipline the population to perform only as two distinct, mutually exclusive gender groups.<\/p>\n

The stakes in the Connecticut struggle to support Miller and Yearwood are huge. On the one side are queer and women\u2019s advocacy groups defending progressive rules won through struggle.\u00a0On the other is an ultra-conservative think tank and action group whose leaders speak of uniting the church and state, recriminalizing homosexuality and abortion, and otherwise turning back the clock.<\/p>\n

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Alliance Defending Freedom, \u201c[u]ses its international platforms, works with policymakers and other organizations to outlaw abortion, deny equality and marriage to LGBT people worldwide, and continue to push for a hard-right Christian theocratic worldview that is reflected in legislation and policies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Could such a firm actually be an aid to reinforcing sex equality? Of course not! The firm is predatory in its use of students across the country; it seeks out and capitalizes on any instances of homophobia, transphobia, and sexism with legal potential. Clearly, the ADF did not pick up this case to protect women\u2019s rights or defend Title IX but to lead an offensive on trans folks by pushing for rollbacks in protective legislation. Soule and the two others girls on whose behalf the ADF is supposedly working are not truly being defended; they are being exploited. The law firm is using them as tools to drive a wedge between different oppressed groups within the working class.\u00a0The welcoming of the ADF into the White House as a consultant demonstrates that powerful sections of the U.S. ruling elite share this agenda and modus operandi.<\/p>\n

Only a united movement in defense of transgender and cisgender women\u2019s rights will be powerful enough to slow and reverse this offensive. The defense of\u00a0Miller and Yearwood is a key step in building such a movement. The history of the fight for women\u2019s liberation and the end of LGBTQI+ oppression demonstrates that no rights won are safe from reversal.\u00a0Offensives, like the current wave of government attacks on trans people, will not cease until the capitalist system is replaced with one not economically dependent on the subordination of women and the oppression of LGBTQI people that is the corollary of this social set-up.<\/p>\n

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By ROZWELL SIMMONS In central Connecticut, two high school students are confronted by foes all too familiar\u2014transphobia and racism.\u00a0The students, Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood, from Bloomfield and Cromwell respectively, are both young trans women of color who enthusiastically participate on their schools\u2019 track teams with the support of the majority of their teammates.\u00a0Suddenly, after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13882114,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[28990,30851],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lgbtqi","category-racism"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"es","enabled_languages":["en","es"],"languages":{"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"es":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdQxqk-4bd","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13882114"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16071\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}