The Importance of Sports Participation for Transgender Youth

S. Goldberg, T. Santos

Fifteen states and Washington, D.C., currently have trans-inclusive state athletic association guidance, and years of open participation by transgender students in those places have produced no evidence of purported harms to cisgender people. Meanwhile, sports provide opportunities to learn leadership, teamwork, self-esteem, discipline, and community-benefits that should be available to every young person, regardless of their gender identity. CAP's research shows that denying transgender students these opportunities harms this already vulnerable population and does not demonstrably benefit cisgender youth.