‘Save Girls Sports’ Signs Promote A Baseless Lie About Trans & Nonbinary Kids

Dear Editor,

All around Putnam County and beyond, signs reading “Save Girls Sports” have begun to pop up. Those who research the issue will find that it has to do with a broad campaign pushed by groups like Moms for Liberty to deter voters from voting Yes on Proposition 1, “The Equal Rights Amendment,” which will be on the back of your ballot in New York this November.

But the signs are also promoting a baseless lie about trans and nonbinary kids that will result in real trauma and is likely to escalate already-high rates of physical harm.  

The false implication of the Save Girls Sports signs is that Prop 1—along with another now-tabled proposal by the New York Board of Regents to allow mixed-gender sports—will somehow threaten cisgender girls, since it would let trans and nonbinary kids play on school sports teams that align with their gender identity. First, this is an imaginary problem. As the Human Rights Campaign notes, trans and nonbinary kids “are a small part of the overall population in schools, and only about half of trans youth identify as girls (opponents don’t seem as interested in trans boys, who they assume will not be able to compete with cisgender boys - a sexist assumption).” Of that half these opponents are concerned about, far fewer are actually even interested in playing school sports, since, like the general population, very few people are athletically inclined or interested in the commitment school sports takes. Thus, with the law in New York already mandating that kids should be allowed to participate on the team of their gender identity under the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA), the real-world instances of it happening are exceedingly few. To suggest there is some overwhelming epidemic of trans and nonbinary athletes infiltrating school sports is absurd. It’s not happening.

Ironically, both Prop 1 and the delayed Board of Regents proposal would actually protect girls who want to play sports where there are no equivalent girls’ teams by ensuring their right to play on existing boys’ teams. Opponents suggest these measures would result in an onslaught of boys pushing girls out of traditionally “girls’” sports like field hockey and softball, when in fact it would overwhelmingly benefit cisgender girls.

Secondly, what the Save Girls Sports signs mask is that Prop 1 is about far more than this one issue. It would chiefly codify access to abortion services in the New York State Constitution so that they could not be rolled back in the post-Roe era, and it codifies anti-discrimination laws that already exist under GENDA, making it harder to overturn protections for LGBTQ+, elderly, disabled and minoritized populations. Enshrining these laws in the Constitution would protect them from future political attacks. Across the United States, 76% of people believe abortion should be legal in most cases, so Proposition 1 is a no-brainer.

Lastly, and most importantly, this blatantly political vilification of trans and nonbinary kids will lead to real life harm. The rate of attempted suicide for transgender people in the United States is 41%, and half of those attempts are by people under the age of 25. These signs may be merely a political candidate’s tactic for winning a campaign, but by perpetuating such dangerous lies they are causing extreme trauma and harm to real people—particularly children.

Anti-trans lies and legislation are literally killing kids around the country. Don’t contribute to the problem by falling for these transphobic ploys. Please vote YES on Proposition 1 this November.

-Anthony Arrien, Putnam Valley; Gina Sanchirico, Putnam Valley; and Eileen McDermott, Brewster