Hey Marjorie Taylor Greene: Get Your Mind Out of My Daughters’ Pants

This piece is anonymous to protect the safety of the author and the author’s family. 

When I was in high school, my cross-country coach was something of a Ted Lasso-esque legend. He taught me lessons that I still lean on. For example, the hardest part of the race is when you are about three-fourths of the way to the finish line and no one is cheering you on— that is the time when you have to run your fastest. He encouraged us to constantly push ourselves a little harder, and give our all to the race.

While we would stretch at the end of an exhausting practice he would charm us with stories with heartfelt lessons—like the time when a former teammate was a little too enamored with her state championship trophy and he reminded her: “That and 25 cents will buy you a cup of coffee.” (Side note: Even way back when I was in high school, 25 cents felt way too cheap for a whole cup of coffee, but we took the point to heart).

It was because of his legacy that when I became a parent, I challenged my daughters to find the sports that they are passionate about. It took them some time. Throughout elementary school they would have a sudden infatuation with a sport. We’d sign them up and get the gear, only to have to force them to finish the season to honor their commitment to their teammates.

We even tried non-traditional options like pole vaulting, rock climbing, and capoeira before we found the sports they’ve stayed passionate about for more than a season. Now they are both in middle school and weekends are filled with shuttling to games and practices and cheering them on as they stretch themselves and give their all to their teams.

I hope they both stick with sports through high school so they can continue to grow and learn the lessons of team spirit, hard work, persistence, and joy that I cherish. But in this bizarre universe that we now occupy, I am sad to tell you that decision isn’t only up to them or my husband and me, as their parents.

For some reason, Congressmember Marjorie Taylor Greene thinks she has a say in whether my daughters can continue to thrive and enjoy the sports they participate in.

Why, you ask, does a two-term Member of Congress from Georgia think she has a say in what my middle school daughters several states away choose as an extracurricular?

Well, it’s because one of my daughters is transgender.

It is laughable to think that the congressmember is using her platform to intimidate, isolate, and shame girls like my daughter from joining teams in the name of protecting people like my other daughter. If you were to meet them, you wouldn’t be able to tell which of my daughters was which. But for some very creepy reason, Marjorie Taylor Greene wants to know.

So let me be clear. Congressmember Greene: You have no business knowing what is beneath my daughters’ underpants. And you have no business deciding who should get to play which sports.

Let’s trust the experts with this one, Marjorie.

The research does not show that transgender athletes possess an inherent advantage over cisgender athletes. The argument that trans girls should be banned from sports is rooted in harmful myths that womanhood entails being weaker and less athletic than men. But there are girls everywhere disproving this myth—take the two cisgender high school girls who defeated cisgender boys in high school wrestling championships in Maine and Arizona.

Bodies come in all shapes and sizes that have nothing to do with birth sex including: Genetic advantages, metabolic differences, physical characteristics, height, not to mention socioeconomic differences that can provide better access to nutrition, better coaching, better training equipment and facilities.

There are proven ways to reduce injuries in sports—banning an entire class of people is not one of them. In the states where sports bans have been implemented, there is no evidence that injuries have been reduced. There are numerous tragic examples, however, of girls being shamed when their body type doesn’t match a coach, parent, or politician’s perception of what a “typical girl” should look like. For example, take this (not transgender) Olympic athlete. And it goes beyond shaming: Some lawmakers are actually encouraging “genital checks” of children trying to play sports.

The real dangers to women’s sports are systemic. Pay inequities, underfunding, sexual harassment, and barriers like racism are well-documented and require our advocacy and attention. Focusing on trans athletes distracts from those actual dangers.

The finish line for this fight is far from sight, but I have a message for my late coach: Mr. Simon, I’m giving this race my all.