OPINION | The problem isn't trans athletes. It's America's politics of division
FILE – Liv Y. , center, holds a transgender pride flag as people gather to protest against the Trump administration and Project 2025 near the Washington State Capitol building, Feb. 5, 2025, in Olympia, Wash. . . .
FILE – Liv Y. , center, holds a transgender pride flag as people gather to protest against the Trump administration and Project 2025 near the Washington State Capitol building, Feb. 5, 2025, in Olympia, Wash. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File)Did you march onPride Dayover the weekend? Then you must reject the discriminatory ruling by the U. S. Supreme Court. It ruled Tuesday that states maybar transgender girls from competingin girls’ school sports, stating that such laws do not violate the Constitution or Title IX. The decision upholds laws like those in Idaho and West Virginia and gives legal support to similar laws across more than two dozen states. Now watch America do what America does best. Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again. Your subscription has been successful. Turn a handful of kids into the biggest threat facing the Republic. Forget inflation. Forget housing. Forget climate change. Forget whether Congress can pass a budget. The real emergency?A teenager running the 400 meters. America’s newest Rorschach testAs a Filipino American, I know something about becoming a political symbol. We’re never just people. We’re “the immigrants. ”“The foreigners. ”“The nurses. ”“The model minority. ”“The cheap labor. ”Somebody else gets to define us before we get a chance to introduce ourselves. Now transgender Americans have become America’s newest Rorschach test. Half the country sees predators. The other half sees victims. Almost nobody sees kids. Here’s the uncomfortable part. Many people supporting these laws are not motivated by hate. They honestly believe girls’ sports exist because biological differences matter and that Title IX opened doors for generations offemale athleteswho deserve fair competition. That argument persuaded six Supreme Court justices. That’s a legitimate debate. But here’s my problem. America has become spectacularly bad at debating. We don’t just disagree anymore. We recruit mascots. One transgender teenager in a high school becomes proof that civilization is collapsing. One heartbreaking story becomes proof that biology no longer exists. Everybody is auditioning for cable news. Nobody is coaching Little League. Or kids soccer. (I have). Weaponizing trans youthAB Hernandez, center left, shares the first-place spot on the podium with Kira Gant Hatcher during a medal ceremony for the triple jump at the California high school track-and-field championships in Clovis, Calif. , Saturday, May 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)The fact is, we’ve allowed the situation with trans youth in sports to explode in our faces. There are just 2. 8 million trans people in the U. S. aged 13 and older. Youth (ages 13-17) number about 724,000, according to the Williams Institute report. We are dealing with such a small problem. And yet, it is being blown out of proportion because it arouses emotions and can be used by politicians who feel the only way to win these days is by polarization and division. Was there a simpler solution than to make a federal case that goes all the way to the Supreme Court?Of course, there was. But no one is looking to solve the actual problem. It’s just an emotional grenade to rile up voters. Watch how many times Trump brings up trans in women’s sports or says his pet phrase “transgender mutilizations. ”He “others” innocent trans kids for his political benefit. It’s sick and discriminatory. The real problem is transgirls often – not always, but often – are better in open competition. Solution? Why not have just have two leagues: rec league rules for the casual athletes, and a premier league for the best, all girls. Why coddle girls and restrict who they can compete against. It’s protectionist, discriminatory toward trans girls, and just plain wrong. We could have dealt with the small handful of cases that come up. Instead we have okayed this wrongheaded approach. The Supreme Court played the label gameRevelers attend the annual Pride Parade in San Francisco, Sunday, June 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Nic Coury)As a Filipino kid growing up, I wanted to play baseball. Nobody checked whether I had the proper chromosomes. They checked whether I could hit a curveball. Granted, I usually couldn’t. But I struck out on my own merits. That’s the way it should be today. My daughter played with the boys years ago in baseball. Just last week, I met another girl who was the best pitcher on her team. The Boys Team. She didn’t get stuck playing with girls who weren’t as good – playing softball. She played hardball. That’s the way it is. Let people play to their competitive level. That means letting their talents dictate placement. Let trans girls play with other girls. What the Supreme Court did today was just wrong because it gives in to politics and playedthe label game. America used to celebrate individual stories. Now, we manufacture categories. The same country that tells kids how unique they are spends every election cycle sorting them into boxes. Red. Blue. Citizen. Immigrant. Male. Female. Trans. Straight. Useful. Disposable. We’re becoming the world’s angriest label maker. Symbolic victories are much cheaper than real solutionsThe Court’s ruling settles an important legal question. It doesn’t settle a moral one. How do we protect opportunities for girls while making sure transgender students are treated with dignity?How do we recognize biological differences without declaring certain children unworthy of compassion?Those aren’t questions judges can answer. Those belong to the rest of us. Because here’s what worries me. Politicians love symbolic victories. They’re much cheaper than solving real problems. It’s easier to hold a press conference about one transgender runner than explain why a public school has no track, no coach, and no money for uniforms. Culture wars are inexpensive. Governance is hard. The problem isn’t transgender athletesAs a Filipino American, I keep thinking about another time America convinced itself that a tiny minority represented a gigantic threat. Chinese exclusion. Japanese internment. Muslim travel bans. History doesn’t repeat exactly. But it rhymes loudly enough that we ought to recognize the tune. That doesn’t mean every law is born of prejudice. It does mean every majority should be careful when legislating about a minority it barely knows. The Supreme Court has decided what states may do. It has not decided who we should be. We can and should protect women’s sports. We can and should respect transgender people. Those ideas are not mutually exclusive unless politics insists they are. If America can’t manage both, the problem isn’t transgender athletes. It’s that we’ve become a nation that values polarization and division. So here we are nearly250 years old, and the court is allowing Donald Trump to demonize a group of innocent kids who just want to be true to themselves. That’s just not American. Emil Guillermo is an award-winning journalist, news analyst, comic stage performer and former host of NPR’s “All Things Considered. ” He writes for the Inquirer. net’s US Channel. He has written a weekly “Amok” column on Asian American, race and social justice issues for more than 30 years. Find him onYouTube,patreonand substack. Don't miss out on the latest news and information.