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Democracy Dies in Darkness
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By Jerry BrewerColumn


THE FIERCEST POLITICAL CLASH IN SPORTS


IN THE FIGHT OVER TRANSGENDER PARTICIPATION IN U.S. SPORTS, THE RIGHT TO PLAY IS
SIMPLY AN OPENING ACT.

June 6, 2024 at 9:30 a.m.

(Illustration by Victoria Cassinova for The Washington Post)

(Illustration by Victoria Cassinova for The Washington Post)
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Read by the author|Listen to Jerry Brewer21 min

Before the hate, she changed in peace, transforming out of her body and into
herself. She started to look the way she felt. She saw it in her breasts, hair,
skin, muscles, fat, bones. She knew the person in the mirror.

Then she would go to the track — her refuge — and experience a different
reality. As she ran, her legs would not fire the way they once did. She could
not shift gears. She did a standard 150-meter acceleration drill, progressing
from jog to stride to sprint every 50 meters. Her calf muscles begged her to
stop. After the workout, she struggled to walk. She did not know this person.

“I could feel how abysmally slow I was,” she said. “It started to take a mental
toll.”

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So she did what athletes do. She spent more than a year adjusting to the effects
of the gender-affirming hormone therapy. She relearned her body — every
movement, every twitch — amending a lifetime of instincts. She dared to compete
again. In December, at a college invitational, she had the nerve to win again.

Immediately, the success thrust her into the fiercest political battle in
American sports. Sadie Schreiner became the latest exception made to seem like a
widespread threat: a transgender women’s sports standout.

Sadie Schreiner, second from left, wears a transgender flag in her hair after
finishing third in the 200 meters at the NCAA Division III outdoor track
championships. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)

Over the past few years, there has been no better way to fuel division in sports
than to target the few Sadies and characterize them as nefarious gender
interlopers. Schreiner prepared for it as best she could. For months, she had
feared two outcomes. She would either run slow, which she could not bear, or she
would become the unbearably fast impostor. She knew she was about to live a
dilemma, no middle ground. She became herself, and at the same time, she
rediscovered herself. Now Schreiner, a sophomore at Rochester Institute of
Technology in Upstate New York, is forced to defend herself.

The social media outrage arrived on cue: Biological male. Pathetic. Disgusting.
Revolting. Fraud. Cheater. Coward. Bully.

And then came a more venomous and telling sentiment.

Sadie does not deserve respect.

Such extreme reactions represent more than overflowing passion. The topic of
transgender sports inclusion is not isolated to fair play. Conservative
politicians have used it as an emotional thruway to a sweeping anti-trans
movement that seeks to erode fundamental human decency. The right to play is
simply an opening act. The right to exist is the discriminating headliner.

Sadie Schreiner embraces her boyfriend, Ace Quiampang, during the week of the
Division III outdoor track and field championships. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The
Washington Post)
section break


It is a vexing problem that cannot be solved in a single essay. Actually, the
words solve and problem are the real issue. This shouldn’t be about fixing
something as much as it should be about understanding, but angst, fear and
resentment impede that search. Transgender sports participation has emerged as a
flash point mostly for the sake of being a flash point. We are not a tomorrow
away from some kind of trans takeover. But rather than delving into the
complexity and wrestling with how to create fair competition as gender norms
shift, we are succumbing to a panic that forces us to choose between the
extremes of firm exclusion and full inclusion.

The level of indignation is disproportionate to the minuscule number of known
trans athletes at all levels of sport. Yet a preemptive war rages, threatening
to complicate the lives of even nonelite athletes, who simply seek access to the
social, emotional and health benefits of organized activities.


GRIEVANCE GAMES

Washington Post columnist Jerry Brewer has used athletics to chronicle the
successes and failings of American society throughout his three decades as a
sportswriter. Over the past three months, he interviewed dozens of people to
explore an unnerving trend: the splintering of sports along ideological lines.
Grievance Games is an in-depth look at how the promise of sports as a national
unifier has buckled under the pressures of grievance and division.

Read the series:

 * How grievance splintered American sports
 * The contested legacy of Jackie Robinson
 * The fiercest political clash in sports

PreviousNext

In 2020, Idaho became the first state to restrict transgender sports
participation, and in the past several years, half the country has passed
similar laws. Many of them are blanket bans that fail to accommodate any nuance.
The success of those measures has created momentum for states to pass
legislation limiting gender-affirming health care.

Science remains inconclusive about the extent to which transgender women have
physiological advantages over cisgender women. Some studies support the
assumption of an inherent edge. Other research shows areas in which transgender
women are at a competitive disadvantage. But to many, further study sounds like
punishment.

The most aggressive people own the messaging, and culture-war politicians have
leeched onto the tension. It might be the most effective wedge issue in their
arsenal.

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For as much as she dislikes the tactic, Jules Gill-Peterson cannot think of a
more brilliant political strategy. Gill-Peterson, a Johns Hopkins professor and
author who specializes in transgender history, sees how the message is framed
with succinct urgency: Save women’s sports. It does not present the rare
dominant trans athlete as a complicated anomaly that warrants deep thought but
rather as an existential threat that must be eliminated to protect the sanctity
of our sex-segregated sports structure.

“If I were creating an issue in a laboratory, I couldn’t come up with something
better than trans people in sports,” Gill-Peterson said. “It’s the deployment of
a grievance made in the name of supposedly defending women and girls who are
under attack.”

The strategy makes an oversimplified nod to science, but it’s an approach that
appeals to common sense: She was born a male, period. It also repurposes old
anti-gay rhetoric to stir the least tolerant people by emphasizing the most
extreme cases.

“If you disagree, you have a woke view of science and reality,” Gill-Peterson
said. “How do you respond to that? By offering some incredibly dry, complicated
academic science? Sports and the depiction of girls as vulnerable creates
powerful emotional politics. The approach dares you to come up with something
better that’s logical and easy to translate. It’s been a large failure that the
progressive side can’t articulate anything pro-trans.”

Schreiner, who just finished her second year at RIT, was one of the fastest
runners in the 400 meters in Hillsborough (N.J.) High history. (Jahi
Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)
section break


When Schreiner broke her Division III school’s 300-meter record during an indoor
race in December, the social media account Libs of TikTok posted a graphic of
her triumph on top of some old high school results.

“Before he pretended to be a woman, he competed on the men’s team in high school
where he was ranked in 19th place,” the post read in part.

But it was a misrepresentation of the graphic. Schreiner had run the
19th-fastest 100 meters in the history of Hillsborough High in New Jersey.
Schreiner is a long sprinter who focuses on 400 meters, so she competes in the
100 on occasion for speed training. Do a simple search of Hillsborough’s track
records, and you find that Schreiner is No. 2 in school history in the boys’
400.

But those annoying details don’t lead to headlines such as the one Breitbart
used in aggregating the news: “Mediocre Male Athlete Switches to Women’s Team,
Breaks College Track Records.”

Schreiner with aunt Jenn Reynolds, mother Sasha Armant, boyfriend Ace Quiampang
and RIT track coach David Warth at the NCAA Division III championships. (Jahi
Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)

The Daily Mail, a British tabloid, sank deeper into inaccuracy when it wrote:
“Schreiner reportedly competed at the same meet a year ago in the men’s category
of the 100m, where she came home in 19th place.”

But the facts can’t bend the narrative. Schreiner is always the shameful,
enhanced swindler doing things she couldn’t as a man. Every victory earns her a
fresh put-down. In early May, she won at 200 and 400 meters during the Liberty
League championship meet. A story on the Fox News website discredited the
results, pointing out correctly that she ran times that “would’ve been in last
place among men.”

“I always knew news could be warped,” Schreiner said, “but I didn’t realize how
it works until now.”

Press Enter to skip to end of carousel



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The media characterizations bother Schreiner. She takes six pills a day,
suppressing her testosterone levels. She spends a few hundred dollars per lab
visit for testing and submits the results to the NCAA at least twice per indoor
and outdoor track season to stay eligible. In addition, she gets tested as much
as she can afford to be certain she remains in the permitted range of estrogen
and testosterone.

Schreiner transitioned during her final month of high school, and to comply with
NCAA guidelines, she didn’t compete during the first year of her
gender-affirming hormone therapy.

“I’m not a good athlete because I’m trans,” Schreiner said. “It’s because
running has been my entire life.” (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)

In middle school, she ran the 400 meters in 55 seconds. In high school, she set
a personal-best time of 50.49. In college, she’s back at 55. The medication has
made a clear impact. Before transitioning, Schreiner was a good boys’ high
school runner. Division III schools do not offer scholarships, but Schreiner
committed to RIT as one of the best male track athletes in the incoming freshman
class. After hormone therapy, she’s slower — and in the women’s category, she is
fulfilling the expectations she already had.

“I’m not a good athlete because I’m trans,” Schreiner said. “It’s because
running has been my entire life.”

Sometimes she wonders how her life would be if she hadn’t transitioned. She
entertains a few what-ifs and then decides the hypothetical isn’t worth her
time.

“Who knows where I would be if I never let myself be myself,” Schreiner said.
“Transitioning has had such an immensely positive impact on my life. My only
wish is that I could’ve done it sooner.”

Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe have been outspoken supporters of transgender
athletes. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
section break


Megan Rapinoe grew tired of people speaking for her. She did not appreciate the
notion that women’s sports needed protection, especially if politicians and
others who hadn’t shown interest in them before were suddenly the protectors. In
the transgender discussion, she sensed female athletes were being used — by the
same people who so often had been contemptuous about women’s sports.

Rapinoe, a soccer legend, decided to lend her voice to another fight for
inclusion.

“We as a country are trying to legislate away people’s full humanity,” she told
Time magazine before she retired last year.

“We as a country are trying to legislate away people’s full humanity,”
since-retired U.S. forward Megan Rapinoe told Time magazine. (David
Zalubowski/AP)

She and fiancée Sue Bird are among many prominent sports figures who have become
allies for transgender athletes. It has led to some intense disagreement in the
women’s sports community. Martina Navratilova, the tennis luminary who does not
support transgender women competing as females, once responded to Rapinoe’s
views with a simple, dismissive word: “Yikes.”

Riley Gaines, a former all-American college swimmer and a vocal proponent of
excluding trans athletes from women’s sports, often rails against Rapinoe and
other advocates. She considers their stance virtue signaling. But Rapinoe
doesn’t care about the criticism.

She and Jessica Clarendon, the chief operating officer of Rapinoe Ventures, have
spoken often about the effort to exclude transgender women. They share a similar
view. They have worked to refine how Rapinoe and those representing her brand
talk about the issue.

Jessica Clarendon, the chief operating officer of Rapinoe Ventures, is married
to Los Angeles Sparks guard Layshia Clarendon, the first openly nonbinary WNBA
player. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

“It’s such a farce,” said Clarendon, who is married to Layshia Clarendon, the
first openly nonbinary WNBA player.

Later, she elaborated: “We are telling you that we are not under attack from
trans women. If you want to know the things we are protecting ourselves from,
there is a really long list, and trans women are not on it.”

Clarendon worries that some people are acting in bad faith to manufacture a
disturbance in a women’s sports enterprise that is thriving, breaking free of
misogyny, making strides in long-sought equality and showing a full range of
inclusion along the way. Athletes from the past and present often celebrate a
spectrum of femininity. They don’t always agree, but their alignment has been
powerful. To some, it makes them a threat.

“I think it’s by design, creating a wedge issue to disrupt a really unified
group of people,” Clarendon said of conservatives campaigning against trans
participation in sports. “They were losing the narrative on gay people and gay
marriage, and the backlash has found a new target. It’s absolutely designed to
divide people like Megan and Martina on ideological lines.”

From left, Brittney Miller, Paul Salas and Joe Ho celebrate a Puget Sound
Pronouns win. (Sarah Hoffman for The Washington Post)
section break


Sports seem really simple at the participatory level. Whether it’s youth sports
or adult recreation, the spirit is to include. “I don’t think our right to
participate is a debate,” Brittney Miller said.

In Seattle, Miller leads the Puget Sound Pronouns. It is an LGBTQ+ advocacy
organization that emphasizes sports participation. The Pronouns have an adult
softball team that plays in the Emerald City Softball Association. It’s a team
where you can belong, where the four transgender players on the current roster
are just players.

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“We’re every stripe of the rainbow, essentially,” Miller said.

The transgender conversation changes shape at every level. Before puberty, it’s
barely worth considering. Then the stakes start to rise, and physiological
differences become a consideration. Once college scholarships, Olympic medals
and professional careers become factors, it gets complicated. But at the elite
levels, there are also governing bodies deciding and constantly reevaluating
what’s fair.

The Puget Sound Pronouns are an LGBTQ+ advocacy organization that emphasizes
sports participation. (Sarah Hoffman for The Washington Post) “I don’t think our
right to participate is a debate,” Brittney Miller said. (Sarah Hoffman for The
Washington Post)
Coach Sara Fetters, center, gives a pep talk before a Puget Sound Pronouns
softball game. (Sarah Hoffman for The Washington Post)
The Pronouns, who have four transgender players, compete in the Emerald City
Softball Association. (Sarah Hoffman for The Washington Post) “We’re every
stripe of the rainbow, essentially,” Brittney Miller, right, said of the
Pronouns. (Sarah Hoffman for The Washington Post) (Sarah Hoffman for The
Washington Post)

The decision to segregate sexes in sports was made long before significant
contemplation of gender fluidity. It remains the most logical way to create
meaningful competitions and acknowledge the inherent biological advantage that
men possess. But the binary system is starting to fray as society changes. While
transgender participation is still too small to create another sports category,
the hysteria has elevated the importance of more creative and inclusive
counter-policies. If we believe sport has a greater purpose, then we tarnish its
value if we cannot find a better solution than to banish those we don’t quite
understand.

In 1887, French Prime Minister Jules Simon said during a speech: “The right
which I demand for our children is the right to play.” It planted a seed that,
over 137 years, has grown into an essential premise of the Olympic charter.

It is spelled out clearly in a section labeled the Principles of Olympism: “The
practice of sport is a human right.”

In human rights, the default is inclusion. The burden of proof is on exclusion,
and it is an extreme standard. Banning away fears and prejudices does not meet
that standard.

“I often feel like I’ve completely lost a voice,” Sadie Schreiner said. (Jahi
Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)
section break


For a photography class assignment, Schreiner took a self-portrait and overlaid
some of the nastiest social media comments about her. In the image, she aches in
black and white, head lowered, comforting herself. The taunts crawl over her
face, neck, arms, hands and torso. One word stretches across the top: CHEAT.

“I wanted to represent how internally painful it can be to have so much hatred
thrown at you,” Schreiner said. “Cheat is the most common word used. I can’t
count how many times I’ve been called that today alone. It’s an incredible slap
in the face to me. With everything that’s happened, I often feel like I’ve
completely lost a voice as people more famous and powerful than me speak for and
about me.”

She ran every race this season wondering whether it would be her last. The NCAA
is under pressure to ban transgender athletes from women’s sports, a policy the
National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, a smaller federation, adopted
in April. Schreiner concluded a successful spring season by earning all-American
honors after finishing third in the 200 meters during the Division III outdoor
track and field national championships. She advanced to the final in the 400 but
came in last. She and her coach now dream of a national title. But the more she
wins, the more ridicule she will endure.

quote marks

With everything that’s happened, I often feel like I’ve completely lost a voice
as people more famous and powerful than me speak for and about me.
— Sadie Schreiner, a sophomore competitive runner at Rochester Institute of
Technology

“Racing is stressful enough as is. It only doubles when every race you’re
worried could be your last,” Schreiner said. “At every meet I go to, in the
crowd, there’s always at least someone taunting. It’s impossible to escape
something so personal and persistent like that. At nationals, I was in such a
constant state of fight or flight that, by the time I finally got home, I just
collapsed.”

In the top right corner of her self-portrait, there’s a silhouette of an
“omnipotent watcher that I can’t control.” It is Schreiner’s signature. She uses
it when making illustrations about her transition.

Someone is looking down at her. It is not the same as being seen.

Schreiner, who earned all-American honors this season, said she ran every race
wondering if it would be her last. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post) (Jahi
Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)

ABOUT THIS SERIES

Columns by Jerry Brewer.

Photography by Jahi Chikwendiu. Photo editing and research by Toni L. Sandys.
Video editing by Joshua Carroll. Video graphics by Sarah Hashemi. Illustrations
by Victoria Cassinova. Design and development by Brianna Schroer. Audio
production by Bishop Sand.

Editing by Dan Steinberg and Akilah Johnson. Copy editing by Brad Windsor.
Additional editing by Brandon Carter, Nicki DeMarco, Courtney Kan, Jason Murray,
Matthew Rennie and Virginia Singarayar. Additional illustration reference images
by iStock and Pexels.

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Share
Jerry BrewerJerry Brewer is a sports columnist at The Washington Post. He joined
The Post in 2015 after more than eight years as a columnist with the Seattle
Times. @JerryBrewer


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