Kristin Froehlich is a resident of Wilmington.
Transgender girls are girls. They sense themselves to be girls. Their brains recognize that they are girls. They take medications (sometimes) to help their bodies be more consistent with their essential girlness. No matter how much folks like Sen. Bryant Richardson, R-Seaford, insist that they are not girls, transgender girls are girls. History confirms it. Science confirms it.
Not only are transgender girls girls, but they are safe. They are safe to be friends with, safe to go to the bathroom with and safe to play sports with. They can be smart, fun, silly, kind, brave, creative and athletic, just like all girls can. They want to go to school, spend time with friends, have fun with their families and play sports just like lots of girls do.
Transgender girls deserve to play girls’ sports, to try to excel and to win if they can, just like cisgender girls. They deserve to engage in the rough and tumble of girls’ sports, just like cisgender girls do.
Sen. Richardson’s claims that transgender girl athletes prevent cisgender girls from being safe or getting ahead do not hold water. The stories about a handful of transgender girls around the country winning against cisgender girls never mention the many times cisgender girls have won against transgender girls. The stories about a handful of transgender girls injuring cisgender girls never mention the many times cisgender girls have injured other cisgender girls. It happens in sports. Cisgender girls vary in size, strength, coordination and athletic ability, too.
Sen. Richardson pretends to support cisgender girls’ safety. However, he is harming not just transgender girls but all girls. He is thinking small, trying to exclude. That’s how things were before Title IX. Girls were excluded from funding, from opportunity, from play. It’s not transgender girls who are preventing cisgender girls from playing, excelling and winning. It’s the same stingy attitude of exclusion that we had before Title IX. If Sen. Richardson really wants to support cisgender girls, then he should promote policies that support opportunities for all girls. Give all girls the resources they need to play, excel and win. Give all girls the resources they need to feel safe, strong and independent. Think big, Sen. Richardson. You need to fight for those funds and opportunities for all Delaware kids, not stingily exclude transgender girls.
To support girl athletes, both cisgender and transgender, we need to give all of them good training, good opportunities, good education, good funding and good health care. We need to promote women’s sports, so opportunities open for all women and girls. Let’s root for all women and girls, fund scholarships for all women and girl student-athletes, pay all women athletes what they’re worth and be wild fans of all women’s sports teams.
Let transgender girls play! Won’t it be fun to cheer them and their teammates on?
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
