"The continual and increasing proliferation of anti-trans policy, along with the negative portrayal of trans people, has dire outcomes beyond sports. For one, policies not only impact how groups of people are viewed, but they also have the power to redistribute resources and set political agendas. In creating a problem that isn’t there, these policies redirect resources that could be used to actually promote fairness (e.g., to fight for equal scholarship dollars for collegiate sports) to groups that are instead fighting to legislate away the existence of trans people.
But policies don’t simply redistribute resources that could be spent better elsewhere. Public policies are 'crucial inputs that feed back into the political system by affecting the attitudes and behavior of citizens,' Cornell University professor Jamila Michener writes. These policies help perpetuate the attitude that trans people deserve punishment, with violence being the resulting behavior. Last year, amid the worst year on record for the murders of trans people (the majority being Black trans women and femmes), Dominique Lucious was murdered after a date found out she was trans. A statement from the GLO center, a community organization in Missouri, where Dominique was from, stated, '[Dominique’s] murder and the other senseless slaying of trans folks must be contextualized within the anti-trans rhetoric and actions taken by too many.'"
Read the entire article in INSIDE Higher Ed
