[Trans Preacher]It was never about sports
don bryant
If this fight were really about women’s sports, we would be talking about equal pay, better facilities, and the fact that women still receive only a fraction of sports media coverage. Instead, a handful of transgender athletes have become the focus of a years-long political and media campaign.
A 2025 Media Matters analysis found that Fox News aired at least 424 weekday segments mentioning transgender athletes in just four months following President Trump’s executive order on sports. At the same time, lawmakers across the country introduced hundreds of bills banning transgender girls and women from participating in sports. Yet NCAA President Charlie Baker testified before Congress that there are fewer than 10 transgender athletes among more than 500,000 NCAA student-athletes. Hundreds of television segments. Hundreds of bills. Fewer than ten athletes. The outrage has never matched the reality.
The evidence has never matched the rhetoric either. Multiple scientific reviews have found no evidence that transgender women retain an unfair athletic advantage after gender-affirming hormone therapy. Researchers continue to recommend sport-specific policies based on evidence rather than blanket bans driven by political ideology. This was never about sports. It was about fear. It was about finding a vulnerable group small enough to demonize but visible enough to mobilize voters. When politicians claimed they were “protecting women’s sports,” they made transgender people into a symbol of cultural decline rather than addressing the real challenges facing girls and women in athletics. Fear became campaign strategy. Scapegoating became public policy. Jesus rejected that way of wielding power. He refused to build community by turning the vulnerable into enemies. Again and again, he stood with those society feared, welcomed those pushed to the margins, and exposed the lies that divided neighbor from neighbor. The church is called to do the same. We are called to tell the truth even when fear is louder. We are called to defend those who are scapegoated. And we are called to remember that every transgender athlete, every transgender child, and every transgender adult bears the image of God. It was never about sports. It was always about power. You're currently a free subscriber to TransPreacher. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.
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