Listen to our new show: "Hearsay From the Sidelines", a place where law, sports and culture intersect​ and is brought to you by Culture in Sports and Seton Hall Law School’s Gaming, Hospitality, Entertainment and Sports Law program."

This brief prologue explains a bit about who I am as host and creator of Season 1 of Hearsay from the Sidelines. You can learn more about me as a professional via my Seton Hall Law faculty profile. My interest in creating a podcast focused on the issue of transgender youth inclusion in scholastic sports grew out of a forthcoming article I wrote on podcasting as a medium for legal scholarship (draft available on SSRN). As I explain, I am not a civil rights, gender, or sports law scholar and I have not previously written about transgender issues in any form.  My approach to this season’s focus is framed by my personal beliefs that trans rights must be protected in all aspects of life and that access to sports and physical activity is important for all people, especially kids. Given the progress we have made, both socially and legally, in formalizing legal protections for LGBTQ+ people in many aspects of public life, I struggle to understand why sports, particularly youth sports, has unearthed such ambivalence about this specific aspect of civil rights for trans people. An organized campaign of lawsuits, state legislative action, and media punditry is the most obvious culprit. Bu the sentiment against trans inclusion runs deeper and certainly implicates a national history of gender inequity, general acceptance of misunderstood science about sex differences, and the cultural elevation of youth athletics to a level of significance not seen in previous generations. This is the tangled knot I want to dive into and start to pull apart. I certainly don’t think I have specific solutions to offer, nor am I confident I can even add anything entirely novel to the conversation. But I hope others will benefit from an exploration of the scholarship, legal issues, and historical context interwoven throughout the debate, and find themselves better positioned to engage with this topic more thoughtfully.  The theme song for Hearsay from the Sidelines Season 1 is “Splendor Dysphoria” by SuperKnova. I want to express my gratitude to the artist for permission to use the song. You can hear more from SuperKnova on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you stream your music.

In Episode 1, I start to introduce you to some of the legal scholars and advocates I interviewed in my research. Their remarks all come from recorded interviews that are available in full via provided links. I excerpted these specific portions to frame my approach to discussing the significance of excluding transgender youth from playing sports with their peers. In addition to causing direct harm to individuals, participation bans create broader social harms that we should find extremely concerning. If we value the provision of a well-rounded and robust primary educational experience to all children, then it strikes me as […]

Episode 2 looks at the recent legislative push to ban transgender kids from scholastic sports across the country in the context of the anti-trans bathroom bans that preceded it. I also dive into the Soule v. Connecticut case that is so frequently referenced as an example of trans athlete exceptionalism despite the actual facts. There will be more later in the season on the organizations encouraging the passage of sports bans and supporting their defense in court, but my guests in this episode start to shed some light on who they are and what motivates their actions. I extend my deepest thanks […]

To better understand how and why sports are a part of education, this episode goes back to where they started. Although the culture of youth sports has certainly evolved, the purpose of interscholastic athletics really has not. Today, just like 100 years ago, educators value the role of sport in preparing kids for success in life. But the structures governing competition have always limited who can participate and how they are recognized. Many thanks to all the guests who contributed their thoughts.

This episode picks up where the last left off – about 50 years ago – when Title IX’s enactment changed education and athletics for women and girls in some big ways. But this 50 year old statute and implementing regulations were not created with trans and non-binary students in mind. Messaging on how schools must create and adapt policies with these students in mind, including rules about athletic participation, has been inconsistent and confusing. To help address this, amendments to the regulations have been proposed. If these changes are finalized, there will certainly be improvements for trans kids in school, […]

One of the most commonly expressed objections to the inclusion of trans athletes is that it is fundamentally unfair, particularly to cis women and girls, to compete against trans women and girls. While this cultural belief may be ubiquitous, the science behind it is far from black and white. Without any substantive, multi-sport studies that include trans youth, much of the “evidence” of unfair advantage is merely inferred from other studies of biological difference. But with so much on the line for an already-marginalized community, we should be wary when anyone tries to justify exclusion solely on loose correlations between […]

When I started thinking about how to address the issue of trans exclusion from youth sports, I knew I needed to include the culture/industry of youth sports as part of the discussion. The pressure to compete and perform at a high level in athletics is reaching kids earlier than ever before, facilitated by parents who see success in sports as the ticket to success in life. This episode explores the relationship between the increased parental investment in kids’ athletic achievements and the social acquiescence to the exclusion of trans kids from sports.

In this episode, I explore the various factions who, despite their different general ideologies, have united in advocating for the exclusion of trans kids from sports. We discuss why this presents such a challenge when working to educate and advocate around this issue. I also provide some additional details on one of the largest and most powerful organizations on the side of exclusion.

This final episode of our first season closes with some final thoughts from most of this season’s guests where transgender youth in K-12 sports currently stands, where it could be headed, and what we should be doing with our concerns in the meantime.