Culture

In the Face of Hate, Trans Athletes Just Want to Play


 

Sarah Huckman knows anyone who ran cross country in high school will understand this story, but that doesn’t stop her from getting excited while she’s telling it.

During a meet in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire her senior year, Huckman found herself in the middle of the pack as she neared the halfway point of the race. But instead of starting to tire, she felt like she could push the pace a little bit. As the race continued, she found herself passing more people. She ran faster. The finish line was close.

Huckman was by no means the best runner on her team, but in that moment, it didn’t matter. She had reached the point where guts mattered more than raw skill.

As she approached the finish line, she looked around and saw she was alone.

“I passed this one girl, and I was like, ‘Where is everybody? Why is nobody here? Am I just, like, dead last?’” Huckman tells them. “No, I was in first place. I don’t know how that happened.”

Huckman turned on the jets during the last stretch of the race and won.

“For somebody who does mediocre in cross country as a trans athlete, I think that moment of realization that I just came in first place for the first time in my entire career was just so, so empowering for me,” she recalls.

After graduating from high school as a two-sport athlete — cross-country running and cross-country skiing — Huckman went to the University of New Hampshire. Knowing that she was not fast enough to be a Division I athlete, Huckman decided to explore new fields in college instead of devoting most of her time to athletics. Still, Huckman’s mind doesn’t miss a beat when asked to share that standout story from her time on the cross-country team.

Nearly all athletes have that one memory that will stay with them for a lifetime. Huckman may have moved on from cross country in college, but she will always remember finishing first. However, if Republican lawmakers across the country have their way, young trans athletes in many states may never get the chance to have their own opportunity at glory.

In 2021, at least 31 states have filed pieces of legislation that would force transgender students to compete on sports teams with the sex assigned to them at birth, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. So far, six states — Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, and West Virginia — have passed such laws, while others continue to advance bills through their respective legislatures. In March, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem signed an executive order banning trans athletes after twice vetoing a bill passed by the state legislature.

These measures, along with those that ban gender-affirming care for trans minors and would force trans people to use bathrooms that don’t match their gender, represent a record-breaking blitz of attempts to roll back the rights of trans Americans.

But as politicians debate the competitiveness of high school sports in legislatures, they are overlooking how vital it is for trans youth to simply get on the playing field. Research from The Trevor Project has shown that have access to affirming spaces, such as sports, is a major driver in reducing suicidality in transgender and nonbinary youth.

“I don’t think I would be here if it wasn’t for sports and the friendships that I’ve made over the years,” Huckman says.

Trans athletes continue to compete in high schools across the U.S. with almost no fanfare. Most lawmakers who want to ban these students from competing can’t even name an example of a transgender young person playing sports in their state, and media coverage often overlooks them. A recent report from Media Matters found that 62% of local news coverage on Arkansas’ anti-trans legislation in 2021, which also included a bill banning affirming health care for minors, failed to include trans voices. The experiences that transgender people have on the playing field — stories like Huckman’s — are being lost.



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