I write with concerns about Leo Morris’s column (March 30) opposing Governor Holcomb’s vetoing of the Indiana legislature’s discriminatory bill (House Bill 1041). The bill bans transgender girl athletes from participating in K-12 sports.
Morris seems confused by the issue, and his opinion piece ends up a logical and ethical mess.
Whether boys or men who transition to becoming girls and women should be allowed to participate in women’s sports is a complex issue. I agree with Morris that all who wish to participate in sports should be treated fairly — the “cis” (biologically born female who identifies as female) and trans women (born biologically male who identify as female). And I also agree when he concludes by saying that “the .6 percent of the population [who] identify as transgender … deserve the same right as anyone else to find their own way without fear that any of us are threatened by it.”
So why does the rest of his essay argue against his fair conclusion? Why does he align himself with those who are, in fact, threatening transgender individuals? I wonder if Morris or any of the legislators who voted for this bill know any trans individuals, or if they have real knowledge of the subject? We must all learn more about this issue before we can judge. The moving piece by one of our local librarians about her trans son in the March 31 issue of the Journal Review offers a number of excellent sources for such knowledge.
When I taught a class at Wabash to freshmen on Men and Masculinity, I invited a Wabash graduate, Andrea James, to speak. Yes, Andrea was a male student of mine in the late 1980’s. She had been a top student, a leader of her fraternity and a varsity swimmer. She answered every question my students asked, explaining that she knew from her earliest boyhood years that she was meant to be a woman. She had no doubts. The experience changed my students, and it changed me.
Morris talks about our “essential sexuality,” that someone merely “self-identifying” as male or female, when they are born into a body that feels alien to them, may be just self-deluded. But people do not go through the arduous and expensive process of gender reassignment just to gain an advantage in a sport. As Andrea showed us, the impulse to transition runs deep.
The Indiana High School Athletic Association already has a rule in place that recognizes the right of transgender girls to participate in girl’s sports if they have taken hormone therapy and have transitioned for a year. (We are talking about a miniscule number of athletes here.) House Bill 1041 vacates that rule. The legislators who proposed this bill, and supporters like Leo Morris, are hurting an extremely vulnerable and misunderstood group in our society. They should be ashamed.
Warren Rosenberg
Crawfordsville
