OPINION: Let the girls play — all of them

As a lifelong female athlete, I’m adamantly opposed to the recent trend to try to deny transgender females the opportunity to participate in girls’ sports. Thanks to Title 9 and the opportunities I got to play sports growing up, I started playing organized soccer at age 5 and have played soccer, basketball, softball, rugby, lacrosse and track, all through school sports. I continue to play sports to this day because of the strong foundation school sports gave me. It has benefited my health, career and relationships.

Realistically, very few student athletes are going to the Olympics, and those who are on that track have plenty of opportunities to hone their craft outside of school. While there’s definitely a thrill to crossing the finish line first or being on a championship team, for most kids, playing a school sport isn’t about winning or losing. It’s about developing healthy habits, learning how to work as a team, and learning grit and grace under pressure — life lessons that we should be introducing to as many kids as possible.

In my 40 years of playing sports, I’ve never had an issue with a transgender female athlete unfairly winning a competition, so I have a hard time relating to people who say that transgender female athletes are hurting girls’ sports. Women and girls come in all shapes and sizes — some of those shapes and sizes have advantages in certain sports and some have disadvantages. Should we ban all tall girls from basketball because they have an unfair size advantage over short girls? Should we ban right-handed tennis players to make an even playing field for left-handed players? It’s not like we have LeBron James putting on a wig and trying to play in the WNBA. Female transgender athletes identify as females throughout their daily lives, so they should be given the opportunity to carry that same identity into their athletic activities.

It seems to me that most of the people complaining about this made-up issue have very little experience with girls sports, so it’s hard to believe that they actually know what they are talking about. If they really cared about fairness in girls’ sports, they would fight to ensure that girls’ teams are given equal access to quality uniforms and field times. That is where the real disservice is to female athletes. Growing up, the third-string football team always got better field locations, playing times and uniforms than even the varsity girls soccer team. And what about the kids who have no access to sports because their schools are underfunded and their families don’t have money for private lessons? That is where the real inequality is in sports, and where I hope we can all focus our efforts moving forward.

Finally, I want to point out that the Alaska School Activities Association board, the most recent governing body in Alaska to weigh in on the issue of transgender females in sports, is made up of seven men, one woman and one female student representative. If the board is at all interested in the issue of fairness and equality in girls’ sports, it would be a worthwhile activity for them to diversify their board.

Clare Ross lives in Anchorage and, for a few more days before the snow melts, is a cross-country skier. Her summer sports are biking, running and soccer.

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