Back in March 2025, I wrote a post called “Why the conversation about trans women in sports isn’t about sports.” The TLDR version is that the “fairness in sports” angle is actually a wedge issue — a way for people to feel comfortable with one form of “justifiable” discrimination, so that the wider discrimination that follows is tolerable.
Kansas is the first US state to move into the next phase of active assault on trans rights. Read the story in the Guardian here.
The TLDR version of that is that anyone with a driver’s license with a gender marker different from the marker they were assigned at birth no longer has a valid driver’s license. People are also banned from using bathrooms that don’t match their birth assignments, and — here’s the kicker — gives people the right to sue trans people for $1000 for being “in the wrong washroom.” For “damages.” To their purity, I guess?
The language of the notification from the state is chilling to anyone with the slightest acquaintance with the language of authoritarianism: “Pursuant to the new law, if the gender/sex indication on the face of your current credential does not match your sex assigned at birth, you are directed to surrender your current credential to the Kansas Division of Vehicles.”
In other words, a subset of citizens are having their basic rights revoked.
So yeah, getting everyone all riled up about the very very very few trans people competing in sports? That’s not about sports. And if you truly believe your beliefs are “only about sports”? Speak out about what’s happening in Kansas. Because it won’t stay in Kansas.
And everyone? Your trans friends are not okay. Be present, be gentle with them. And be loud with your politicians. And if you think “oh, I’m Canadian, that’s the US” — well, have a look at what’s happening in Alberta.
Now is not the time to waffle.
Fieldpoppy is Cate Creede-Desmarais, who hasn’t crossed the border to the US since 2016.
Photo by Raphael Renter | @raphi_rawr on Unsplash
