Welcome to episode 10 of The Spectrum. This was recorded on February 12, 2025. In this episode we will look at Donald Trump’s continuing effort to erase transgender people from existence. This is about his fifth executive order targeting transgender people. This one is focused on transgender athletes.

Donald’s fifth transgender ban was issued of February 5, 2025 and is titled, “keeping men out of women’s sports”. It, like his education ban, seeks to use the threat of withholding federal funding from organizations that allow transgender women to compete.

It appears to be aimed at schools and athletic governing bodies like the NCAA, but the only organization specifically mentioned was the International Olympic Committee. It’s also solely targeting transgender women or girls. Project 2025 doesn’t seem to think men need protecting from transgender men.

I’m not sure what to say that we haven’t already looked at in the first four bans. This is obviously based on the same flawed understanding of biology and psychology that the others are. So, if the premise is false then any conclusion drawn from it are also without merit.

But, let’s take a look at just how insane this order is by looking at the population it targets. According to Charlie Baker, the NCAA president, there are fewer than 10 college athletes who publicly identify as transgender out of a total population of 510,000.  That is less than 0.2% of the entire population of college athletes. 

Compared to the general population where about 0.6% of people identify as transgender this is far below average. But, even if the transgender college population suddenly flocked to sports, it would account for less than 30 students based on those averages. 

Numbers at the high school level are not known but it is certain to be very, very small. If a high school has 500 students then, speaking statistically, maybe 3 are transgender and whether any have come out is unknowable.. How many of those are going to try out for a sports team?

Looking at the entire country, there are probably less then 100 students competing and almost certainly less than 1,000.

Donald’s order is absurd. It threatens school funding and attempts to coerce them into discriminating against a small group of students who want nothing more than to participate in a part of school life that literally hundreds of thousands of other students do.

Let’s look at the bias present in this order and what Trump thinks is the reason that transgender students would even want to participate in athletics.

First, he claims these women are men. As has been pointed out over and over, these are not men. They are women. That Donald and the people surrounding him don’t believe that they are women does not change the fact that they are. 

He also claims it isn’t fair to women that these “men” complete with them. This is an argument that many of us might think is reasonable, except for calling trans women “men” thing. If a transgender woman transitioned after puberty she might be larger and stronger than many women. But, not all are. And any who transitioned at a younger age and took puberty blockers are probably not going to be any different than cisgender women. But, it is important to remember that the spectrum of the human condition is wide. There are tall, fast and strong cisgender women. Many have been unfairly scrutinized or even disqualified from competition because their natural testosterone levels were higher than average for women and this would be higher than most transgender women who are under hormone replacement treatment. Some women were found to be genetically atypical. Should they be disqualified? By Donald’s definitions, yes, everyone who is not the average, typical woman is not a woman. Through his animosity to transgender people he targets anyone who happens to not be at the center of the bell curve.

If Trump thinks transgender women are flocking to women’s athletics because they want an easy victory then he’s mistaken on many counts. First, nobody would put themselves through that for such a shallow and idiotic reason. 

Second, and even more importantly, cisgender women are no slouches in the athletics department! They can hold their own just fine. Sure, there might be the occasional standout transgender athlete just like there is the occasional standout cisgender athlete. Shouldn’t we celebrate that and not persecute it?

Finally, the small number of students competing prove this is a ridiculous fear

He all but says that transgender women are “infiltrating” the women’s locker room to prey on women. As has been pointed out many times before, transgender women are not predators. They, along with cisgender women who look too masculine are too often the ones abused in single sex spaces. Trump projects his own behavior onto transgender women

The result is that this is yet another illegal executive order unfairly targeting transgender people and seeking to eradicate them from American life. We must not allow this to happen. Trump must not be allowed to use the power of the presidency to make he lives of people he does’t like a living hell of persecution. We can be sure that if he succeeds, he will turn his attention to another group and then another. We must use all legal means to protect our transgender and nonbinary siblings. They have done nothing wrong and Donald’s attacks on them are the lowest form of politics. 

You can find the text of the order here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/keeping-men-out-of-womens-sports/

NCAA president's comments on the number of transgender athletes: https://thehill.com/homenews/lgbtq/5046662-ncaa-president-transgender-athletes-college-sports/

How many people identify as transgender: https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/trans-adults-united-states/