Those Who Support Trans Sports Bans Are Also More Likely to Be Sexist, According to New Research
Researchers found that those with the worst views on women and gender equality were the most likely to support banning trans people from sports.
New research out of the University of Massachusetts Amherst has found that sexists are most likely to support anti-transgender sports bans.
Writing in The Conversation, UMass Amherst researchers wrote that a survey they conducted found there’s a lot of opposition by the public about trans players playing on teams that best match their gender identity.
It comes after trans students’ participation in sports has become a common target of conservatives. President Donald Trump and others, like
the WNBA’s Sophie Cunningham, have specifically claimed banning trans girls from these teams would protect cis girls from unfair or unsafe play, often using transphobic language in discussing trans girls and trans women.
What the researchers found complicates this argument.
Related: 15 Women’s Pro Athletes And Coaches Who Support Trans Athletes
They say that when respondents were asked if they “support or oppose a bill that prohibits transgender youth from joining school-sponsored sports teams that match their gender identity,” around half of them said they did support the restriction.
However, the researchers found that those with the worst views on women and gender equality were the most likely to support banning trans people from sports.
“Among respondents with the most positive views of women, 45% supported restricting transgender sports participation; among those with the most negative views of women, 58% supported restrictions,” the researchers write.
In order to measure sexism, the researchers said they asked respondents if they agreed or disagreed with these statements: “Women seek to gain power by getting control over men,” “Women are too easily offended” and “Women exaggerate problems they have at work.”
“Among the least sexist respondents, 28% supported banning transgender people from sports matching their gender identity; among the most sexist, 79% did,” wrote the researchers.
They found that those who disapproved of Title IX, which, in part, requires schools and colleges to provide equal athletic opportunities, scholarships, facilities, and treatment for student-athletes, regardless of gender, were also more likely to approve of the bans.
“The debate over transgender athletes is often framed as a matter of protecting women,” the UMass Amherst researchers wrote. “Our findings complicate that narrative: People with the most negative attitudes toward women – and toward policies that protect women’s sports – are the most supportive of banning transgender women from women’s sports.”
