(Logos via GLAAD and the Human Rights Campaign’s Facebook pages)
Since the start of Donald Trump’s second term, LGBTQ rights have faced a string of setbacks, with the debate over transgender athletes in competitive sports marking a sharp institutional, legal, political, and social shift away from inclusion.
Two of the nation’s leading LGBTQ advocacy organizations, however — GLAAD and the Human Rights Campaign — are refusing to compromise on the stance that no restrictions should impede the ability of transgender people, including transgender women and girls, to play.
In recent months, the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee and the National Collegiate Athletic Association have reversed course on policies that were once inclusive, imposing new restrictions on transgender athletes in apparent anticipation of the enforcement of an executive order from the Trump-Vance administration that would bar transgender women and girls from competing in sports. That order has not yet taken effect and may not withstand legal scrutiny.
“First and foremost, what we’re seeing from organizations like the USOPC and the NCAA is pre-compliance with Trump’s executive order,” said Shane Diamond, GLAAD’s director of communications and advocacy. “It’s notable here that the executive order isn’t actually a law or a policy. Most of the executive orders coming from the administration are glorified press releases.”
Diamond, a transgender man and former collegiate athlete, described the policy shifts as “disheartening” and “frustrating.”
“These are organizations that have spent so much time, historically, crafting fair and inclusive policies,” he said. “To seemingly overnight shift their stance on the inclusion of trans athletes, and specifically trans women, is incredibly disappointing.”
The stakes are more than symbolic. Last week, Pete Buttigieg, one of the most influential leaders in the Democratic Party, argued for compromise — a reversal of the position held by the Biden-Harris administration in which he served as transportation secretary.
“I think the approach starts with compassion,” Buttigieg said in an NPR interview. “Compassion for transgender people, compassion for families, especially young people who are going through this, and also empathy for people who are not sure what all of this means for them. Like, wondering, ‘Wait a minute. I got a daughter in a sports league. Is she going to be competing with boys right now?’ And just taking everybody seriously.”
To many LGBTQ advocates, such statements signal a disturbing shift in Democratic messaging. Diamond, for instance, took issue with the argument that fairness issues are raised by inclusive policies. Pressed on the significance of the gay Democrat’s statements, he said, “I don’t know why Pete Buttigieg is talking about trans inclusion in sports,” adding that the way politicians talk about these matters can have profound consequences on LGBTQ people, especially youth.
Laurel Powell, communications director for the Human Rights Campaign, called it “heartbreaking that we’re in an era in which the right wing has toxified empathy and inclusion and used vulnerable kids to try and divide the American people.”
Both Powell and Diamond rejected any suggestion that LGBTQ organizations should recalibrate their approach or soften their demands for full inclusion in sports.
“It’s never a winning strategy to sacrifice vulnerable communities,” Powell said. “It’s time to be bold, stand up to bullies, and say unequivocally: we refuse to compromise on freedom.”
‘A solution in search of a problem’
For Diamond and Powell, the current backlash is not the result of widespread public discomfort or legitimate debate, but rather the product of a right-wing strategy, years in the making, that seeks to use transgender athletes as scapegoats in the service of a broader agenda.
“It has been said for the past four or five years that conservatives’ and Republicans’ obsession with prohibiting and banning trans people from sports is actively a solution in search of a problem,” Diamond said. “There is not a takeover of trans people in sports.”
The numbers bear that out. Despite more than two decades of policies allowing trans participation in international competition, the International Olympic Committee has documented only two openly transgender Olympians. “Between 2003 and 2021, there were maybe 50,000 Olympians,” Diamond said. “Two of them were openly trans. This idea that trans women are coming in and dominating women’s sports is a myth.”
And yet, bans are proliferating. Twenty-nine states have passed laws restricting transgender athletes’ participation in school sports. In several cases, these measures were supported by legal settlements brokered by the Trump administration’s Department of Education with universities like the University of Pennsylvania.
The White House, Trump himself, and Education Secretary Linda McMahon celebrated these agreements, which in the case of U Penn included a provision revoking titles and awards won by transgender swimmer Lia Thomas while barring trans athletes from competing in the future.
According to Powell, right-wing legal organizations like the Alliance Defending Freedom “used sports participation as an on-ramp, then moved on to banning access to public spaces, restricting access to health care for transgender people of all ages, banning books, and censoring curriculum.”
“In the face of that limitless assault on equality,” she said, “we will continue to advocate for freedom—the freedom for everyone to learn, play, love, and live without apology.”
Diamond stressed that the arguments about fairness do not hold water and rely on assumptions that do not stand up to scrutiny.
Opponents of trans inclusion often cite fairness as their primary concern, arguing that cisgender women should not have to compete against athletes who were assigned male at birth. But Diamond said such arguments rest on faulty assumptions and pseudoscience.
“It is deeply sexist and misogynistic to assume that anyone who is assigned male at birth is going to be inherently better, faster, stronger than anyone who’s assigned female at birth,” he said. “Do you know tall people who are uncoordinated? Do you know strong people who are not fast? Different sports, different bodies, have different assets.”
Pointing to a photo of two athletes on the U.S. Women’s National Rugby Team—one 4’11” and the other 6’3”—Diamond said, “not one body type is the best body type for all success in all sports.”
The media’s role
Both Diamond and Powell pointed to the media’s outsized role in shaping the narrative around transgender athletes—often in ways that perpetuate harmful myths.
“A lot of the news that Americans are consuming is coming from right-wing or conservative outlets,” Diamond said, “in part because those outlets are not behind paywalls. So the loudest and most consistent messaging about trans athletes is coming from those who oppose inclusion.”
Diamond said GLAAD’s media watchdog work is more critical than ever, particularly in an environment flooded with misinformation.
“It is scientifically inaccurate and categorically false to say that trans women are men competing,” he said. “Trans women are women. Trans men are men. And they deserve to be treated and included as such.”
That message is the foundation of GLAAD’s public education campaign “Here We Are,” a partnership with Ground Media designed to increase public empathy for trans people by highlighting the ordinariness of their lives.
“When we communicate to people that being trans is real, we’re able to see more empathy and support for policies that affect trans people,” Diamond said. “Trans people are out here trying to buy eggs and afford mortgages, just like everybody else.”
Like GLAAD, the Human Rights Campaign is investing in public education efforts grounded in storytelling. Last week, HRC launched the “American Dreams Tour,” a “multi-city journey through mostly ‘red’ and ‘purple’ states to amplify LGBTQ+ stories, address HIV and healthcare realities for the community, and chart a powerful path forward toward equality.”
Powell emphasized that the path to restoring support for transgender rights runs through personal connection and shared humanity. “When people know a trans person or have heard a trans person’s story, they are more likely to support full equality—and be willing to fight and vote for it,” she said.
“History and data tell us that the best disinfectant for right-wing lies is our humanity,” she said. “When people know a trans person or hear a trans person’s story, they are more likely to support full equality—and to fight and vote for it.”
A movement under pressure
Despite their resolute tone, both Powell and Diamond acknowledged the weight of the moment.
“We are in a very interesting media and political landscape,” Diamond said. “And so much of the airtime given to trans inclusion in sports is actually coming from those who oppose it. But as an organization dedicated to the full lived equality for LGBTQ people, of course we’re going to fight back.”
Still, Powell cautioned against allowing political expediency to drive the movement’s strategy.
“The path to winning is built on the courage to refuse to let the right wing pit us against each other,” she said. “We don’t win by compromising on who deserves freedom.”
Diamond, too, warned against framing the issue as a political liability for Democrats.
“If only trans people care about trans rights, we are going to lose,” he said. “We want everyone—especially politicians—to speak from a place of inclusion, understanding, and acceptance. The way they talk about trans people has real-world consequences.”
In 2024, The Trevor Project released the first study of its kind establishing a causal link between anti-trans rhetoric and suicide attempts among LGBTQ youth. Diamond said that study underscores the importance of how leaders talk about transgender people, even in debates over sports policy.
“This is one of those ‘not about us without us’ moments,” he said.
The National LGBT Media Association represents 13 legacy publications in major markets across the country with a collective readership of more than 400K in print and more than 1 million + online. Learn more here: NationalLGBTMediaAssociation.com.
