12x07 - Trans Athletes

[bunniefuu]

Welcome to "Last Week Tonight"!

I'm John Oliver, thank you for
joining us. It has been a busy week.

Cory Booker spoke for over 25 hours,

Elon Musk tried and failed to buy
an election in Wisconsin,

and of course, this happened.

President Trump dramatically
escalating his global trade w*r,

announcing his most sweeping
set of tariffs yet,

on goods from every country
that trades with the United States.

This will be indeed the golden age
of America. It's coming back.

Okay, if you mean "golden age"
the way we tend to describe

the last decade before
an old person dies, then yes,

it feels like we are very much
in the golden age of America right now.

Thank you.
Now, to explain his tariffs,

Trump helpfully brought along
a fun visual aid.

I think you can,
for the most part, see it.

Those with good eyes,
with bad eyes.

It's very windy out here. We didn't
want to bring out the big charts,

'cause it had
no chance of standing.

Fortunately, we came armed
with a little smaller chart.

Well, that is smart!
And it shows they really thought

of everything that might go wrong
while announcing their plan

to sh**t the economy in the d*ck.

Although, I will point out,
if wind was a problem there,

and we checked with experts on this,
White House does have an inside part.

Unfortunately, that chart is ridiculous
for a number of reasons.

For one thing, it features an estimate
of "Tariffs Charged to the USA"

by other countries,
that no one could figure out,

until a financial journalist realized

it was how much
we export to that country,

minus how much we import
from them,

divided by how much we import,
which is just stunningly dumb,

because those things
have nothing to do with tariffs.

It'd be like trying to figure out
the square footage of your home

by dividing your phone number
by your dog's age.

Or taking your temperature by measuring
your head's distance to the sun.

It's not gonna get you the answer
that you're looking for!

Now, the White House
disputed that claim,

releasing this more complicated
looking equation they said they'd used.

But people quickly pointed out that
one symbol meant "exports",

one meant "imports", and the other
two numbers were variables

set at four and one-quarter,
so they canceled each other out,

meaning it's the same stupid equation
everyone said it was in the first place.

And look, we all knew
it was a matter of time

before this show became
me literally teaching you math.

I'm just surprised
it took us 12 seasons.

But wait, because somehow,
it gets even dumber.

Every country on the list
faces at least 10% tariffs,

even small, remote places like
the Heard and McDonald Islands.

They are near Antarctica
and are covered in glaciers,

home to many penguins
but no people.

Oh, my God!
Imagine going back to 2015

and telling your younger self:

"President Trump will enter a trade
w*r with a remote island of penguins."

They'd have a lot
of understandable questions

like, "What are you talking about?"

and, "Is this really what we look
like in just 10 years?"

"Do we drink water at all?
Because we should!"

The market immediately crashed
after the tariffs were announced

and maybe the best reaction came
from the CEO of Restoration Hardware,

who was actually on an earnings call
later that day.

This is him discovering
what was happening to his stock price,

in real time.

Where's our stock now?
I mean, I guess, you know,

the stock went down, based on some
of the numbers we reported,

and then it got k*lled
because of…

Really? Oh, sh*t. Okay.

Yeah, that sums it up pretty well.

In fact, I'm not sure there's
a better encapsulation

of what it feels like to live through
this Trump presidency

than those five words: "Oh, really?
Oh, sh*t. Okay."

There'll clearly be more to say
about these tariffs going forward.

But for now, we're actually gonna
start with our main story this week.

And it concerns an absolute
fixation of the right.

Because even as the market crashed
in the wake of Trump's tariffs,

Fox News spent a lot of time
on this.

A women's fencer is defending
her decision to take a knee

to protest her trans opponent despite
getting disqualified for her forfeit.

A female fencer who's devoted
years of her life to the sport

was just disqualified.

This is the civil rights issue
of the hour: women's sports.

Here's the story that everybody's
going to be interested in:

a female fencer stands up
for fairness in women's sports.

Wait, that's the story that everyone
is going to be interested in?

Are you sure about that?
The story about fencing,

and not the one that's caused the stock
ticker in the corner of your screen

to go bright red
like an inflamed hemorrhoid?

Also, I challenge those anchors
to tell me one thing about fencing

besides "Lindsay Lohan did it against
herself in 'The Parent Trap'".

I don't think you can do it!

The issue of trans athletes
has become very important

to conservatives in general,
and Donald Trump in particular.

He talked about it at length
in his address to Congress

and signed an order titled
"Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports",

which promised to rescind all funds
from educational programs

that allowed trans women
and girls to compete.

And at the signing ceremony,

he ad-libbed the creepiest
compliment possible.

We're defending the rights and safety
and pride of the American people,

including our great,
great female athletes.

What athletes you are, too!

I'm not allowed to say this politically,
it could end my career,

they're really beautiful people.
These are beautiful people.

But, you know, like everything else,
it's a little bit different today.

You're not allowed to say that,
because if you call a woman

or a girl beautiful,
that's the end of your career.

But let's take a chance on it, Mike.
Let's take a chance.

Okay, to be completely fair to Trump,
I will say,

his understanding of women's issues
is comparable to his understanding

of foreign policy, domestic policy,
trade, the economy,

the concept of consent,
human empathy

and all but one
of his children's names.

Trump leads every conversation with
a psychosexual energy

that makes "The White Lotus"
look like the Teletubbies.

I'm sorry, did the incest
storyline bother you?

Donald Trump joked about dating
his own daughter on "The View"!

He said that
on a f*cking morning show!

At least "White Lotus" has
the decency to air in the evenings,

right here on the Incest Network.

Trump's order has already prompted
the NCAA to institute a ban

on trans athletes participating
in women's sports.

But he is not done. He's also trying
to pull 175 million dollars in funding

from UPenn for allowing one trans
athlete to compete three years ago

and when Maine indicated
it'd resist his ban,

he threatened to cut off
all its federal funding,

despite the whole state apparently
having just two trans girls, total,

competing in girls' sports.
Two!

And I know
you might be thinking,

"Okay, but in Maine, two kids
is, like, half the kids, right?"

But it's actually not!
They've got more!

This issue is an obsession
for Republicans.

Last year, they spent over 116 million
on TV ads featuring trans athletes.

And the relentless focus
on this over the years

has had a meaningful impact,
with one poll showing

more than six in 10 adults
say trans girls and women

should not be allowed to compete
in girls' and women's sports,

including high school
and youth levels.


on them competing in schools.

Even Gavin Newsom, pictured here as
the villain in a Ryan Murphy production,

recently said he thought trans athletes
being allowed to participate

in women's sports is "deeply unfair",

without really elaborating
on what he meant by that.

And for trans kids
impacted by these bans,

who just want to play sports
with their friends, it's been hard,

as this 15-year-old girl
in New Hampshire explains.

It's been stressful and difficult.

It's been annoying.

I felt very annoyed and upset
that this has been happening

and that it's been happening towards
a vulnerable community

like the trans community.

Yeah. And honestly, "annoying"
is an understatement there.

"Annoying" is what you say
when your friend is late,

or your Wi-Fi is spotty, or when you're
a chicken minding your own business

and suddenly you're on the news.

You're hanging out, eating dirty snow
with seven or eight close friends

and then boom, all of a sudden,
AP is doing a close-up of your feet?

That is annoying!

But I know people have strong opinions
on this subject.

In our post-election show, I said:
"There are vanishingly few trans girls"

"competing in high school sports
anywhere and even if there were more,"

"trans kids, like all kids,
vary in athletic ability"

"and there is no evidence that they
pose any threat to safety or fairness."

After that show aired,
J.K. Rowling herself

issued the single longest tweet
I've ever seen in my life,

in which she claimed,
among other things,

that I'm "happy to watch females
suffer injury, humiliation,"

"and the loss of sporting
opportunities to bolster"

"an elitist post-modern ideology."

And honestly, it feels a bit weird
to catch that much heat

from the creator of Harry Potter,
especially when I clearly look like

what would've happened to him

if they'd just left him in
that cupboard for the rest of his life.

Now, I stand by everything
I said in that episode.

But I will concede that this subject
is more complicated

than "people should just use"

"the bathroom that corresponds
with their gender identity."

Since trans participation in sports
seems for some reason to be

at the center of our politics now,

it felt like tonight might be a good
time to talk about it at real length.

And in doing so, we're gonna try
and explain a few things:

what the facts can actually tell us

about trans athletes
regarding competition and safety,

where much of this
seems to be coming from,

because it didn't crop up
out of nowhere,

and where it looks like
things might be going.

And let's start by acknowledging:

many people do have
good-faith questions about this,

even if they're asking them
a little clumsily.

Here is an example of one of those
questions about fairness,

coming from
a less-than-ideal source.

Let's say Serena's in her prime.

And a tran… and who knows,
you make up the person, right?

So, you know,
let's not make up the person.

Let's say that Rafael Nadal has
some issue or wants to transition…

And wins the Wimbledon final,
or you know,

somebody wins the 100-meter
dash at the Olympic…

I think that's a net negative.

Clearly, when it comes to questions
of right and wrong in sports,

Lance Armstrong might be
the last person you'd call,

just after
the 1919 Chicago White Sox

and the ear chunk
that Mike Tyson bit off.

But to be fair, I can see how,
at the most elite level of sports,

an instantaneous switch like that
would confer an advantage.

It hasn't happened.
And, for what it's worth, in tennis,

the WTA already has guidelines
for trans inclusion, requiring athletes

maintain strict hormone levels for at
least two years before competing,

with processes for dispute
resolutions if necessary.

They're already thinking about this,

and I presume,
will continue to do that.

The thing is, hypotheticals like that
circulate constantly,

and often center around someone

transitioning solely to gain
a competitive advantage.

But as this trans researcher points
out, that is an absurd proposition.

Trans women don't transition
for sports.

No one has ever said,

"Yeah, I think I'd like to be a woman
so I can do well in women's sports."

When you go
through a gender transition,

you lose so many things
in life.

My own mother said she never
wanted to speak to me again.

I lost friends, family, got divorced.

You'd go through all of that
just to win a medal in sports? No.

Trans people transition because it's
the only way that we can live happily.

Right! No one says, "I'm gonna
transition just for the sake of sports",

the same way no one says,

"Could you send me more messages
about two-factor authentication?"

or, "When I walk down the aisle,"

"I'd like a solo violin cover
of 'Bawitdaba' by Kid Rock."

That is just a made-up person.

Still, let's engage with the underlying
premise of that question

from the world's most
famous sports cheater:

that those assigned male at birth
are automatically going to have

certain,
immutable physical advantages.

That gets raised constantly.
Which is why

we're going to spend most of our time
talking about trans women and girls,

even though, in these five states,

these bans impact
trans boys in schools too.

It is obviously true that, on average,
cisgender men and post-pubescent boys

have some specific
athletic performance advantages.

Though the relative size
of that advantage also depends

on the sport and the event.

In swimming, for instance, male
athletic performance advantage

is 13% in the 50-meter freestyle,
less than 6% in the 1,500-meter free.

Which is still clearly significant.
But in general,

there's a lot of overlap in the average
performance ranges of men and women.

Basically, it is not the case that any
man is going to be stronger,

or more athletic,
than every woman.

Which is sometimes what gets implied
here, including by Donald Trump,

who brought Riley Gaines,
the former college swimmer

who's become one of the most
prominent voices on this issue,

on stage to say this.

Just to show you how ridiculous
it is… Look at me.

I'm much bigger and much
stronger than her.

There's no way she could
beat me in swimming.

Do we all agree?

Thank you.

I don't agree.
But I would like to see it.

I would like to see
the 78-year-old president

try to swim in water
against a former D1 swimmer.

I'd like to bear witness to that event

and whatever happens after it
as a result of it occurring.

But crucially, when it comes to trans
athletes who've medically transitioned,

studies of cis athletes
are not necessarily relevant.

A lot of medical gender-affirming
treatments, like hormone therapy,

have a meaningful impact
on body and hormone composition.

So, the question then becomes,

what do those impacts mean
for athletic performance?

We spoke to scientists
on all sides of this issue,

and the one thing they actually
agree on is that,

in part because the number
of trans athletes is so small,

the body of research specifically
about them is extremely limited.

There are a bunch of studies comparing
specific anatomical features

like muscle mass
in women who transition,

but which don't directly speak to their
impact on athletic performance.

But we were only able
to find 12 studies

that actually tested trans adult
women's physical fitness

in a lab
or other performance scenario.

Eight have a sample size
of less than 20,

and two are of a single athlete.

I don't have any scientific experience,
even though I look

like a cross between a scientist and
the profoundly sick mice he's studying,

but you probably shouldn't draw broad
conclusions off a sample size of one.

Those 12 studies generally find that
medically transitioning

does impact
trans women's performance,

but disagree on how,
or by how much.

That researcher you saw earlier
actually published

the only longitudinal study
to date of multiple athletes,

studying the impact of transitioning
on eight long-distance runners.

She found, after at least a year
on hormone therapy,

their race times turned out to be
more athletically similar

to those of cisgender women
than cisgender men.

But she herself will tell you,
the study was limited,

and its conclusions were nuanced.

Here she is explaining what we do
and don't know at this point.

It is undoubtedly true

that trans women will maintain
advantages in some sports,

probably not so much
in endurance sports,

but in size and strength sports.

Trans women will also have
some physiological disadvantages.

Our larger frames are now being
powered by reduced muscle mass

and reduced aerobic capacity,
and that can lead to disadvantages

in terms like quickness, recovery,
endurance,

things that maybe aren't quite as
obvious as being bigger and stronger.

Right! Bigger and stronger bodies

are not automatically advantaged
in every scenario.

Put The Rock in a pure barre
class and see what happens.

We know what would happen,
he'd take a video of himself,

caption it, "Mad respect to these
mamas. Everyone go see 'Moana 2'",

and try to use it to sell his tequila

before eating 13,000 pancakes
and drinking a cow.

We know what would happen!
The degree of difference here matters,

because we expect a certain amount
of difference in athletics.

Taller basketball players are expected
to compete against shorter ones.

Faster soccer players
compete against slower ones.

Michael Phelps was allowed
to compete with other swimmers

despite being part dolphin.

And crucially, none of the studies
I've mentioned so far

bear much relevance
to what these new laws target,

which is youth sports,
usually of all ages.

And the research there
is even more scant.

We have no research about
how being trans or undergoing

gender-affirming treatment,
impacts athletic performance in teens.

And when it comes to kids before
the onset of puberty,

I could talk about the studies

showing the subtle performance
differences between boys and girls,

but I'd argue when you're talking
about seven-year-olds,

as a practical matter,

that's a point where lots
of school sports are coed anyway,

and a key difference between
competitors on a field

can come down to whether
a kid was born in October or April.

And at this point,
you might be saying,

"Well, I don't need to wait
for scientific research."

"This is all common sense, and I know
what I've seen online."

But a lot of what you've seen may
not be quite what you think it is,

both when it comes to trans athletes'
impact on competition, or safety.

And let's start with competition,

because there's a big number
you tend to hear a lot.

Listen to this: a shocking report
from the United Nations states

over 600 female athletes
have lost close to 900 medals

to transgender opponents.

Female athletes have lost nearly


You have the United Nations study
come out not long ago

about 900 medals for females

that ended up going
to transgender athletes.

Yeah, 900 medals.
That is a go-to statistic.

It was even cited on the floor
of the Senate

during their debate
over a trans sports ban,

and featured prominently
in J.K. Rowling's latest tome.

But we got curious about that number,
so we looked at that report,

and it turns out, first,
it wasn't produced by the UN.

It was submitted to it by a special
rapporteur, who herself said

its findings "do not necessarily
represent those of the UN."

And if you go online to the footnote
that it cites and click on it,

you get sent to this website,
She Won,

where anyone can submit
an instance of a cis woman

losing to a trans woman,
anywhere in the world,

in any competition, big or small.

The author of that report
insisted to us,

"I did not rely only
on this source,"

but I will say, the numbers she cites do
match what was on the site back then

and they included competitions
all the way back to 2001,

and down to the level of a fun run
in Topeka, Kansas,

and an Irish dance competition,

as well as activities where gender
confers no advantage, like poker.

Also, over 100 entries on the list
are in the field of disc golf.

Which, if you're unfamiliar,
involves frisbees being thrown

into this thing, some kind
of Guantanamo for birds.

And as if that weren't enough,
the way they got to that 900 number

has to do with
how they counted the wins.

Because on the list,
one trans woman finishing first

counts as three denied medals.

The logic being, the second-place
finisher should've come first,

the third-place finisher
should've come second,

and the fourth-place finisher
should've come third.

And look, some will argue it doesn't
matter how minor the competition,

the women on that list were all unfairly
deprived of their rightful place.

But even some of those women
don't feel that way.

This one, a disc golfer,
has publicly stated

she's "happy to see
trans people in disc golf."

And an amateur cyclist named
Kristen Chalmers

is actually on the list twice,
because for some reason,

a single race she lost is on there under
two different spellings of her name.

She came in third,
behind two trans women,

but she has made it clear
they are her friends,

and she has no problem
competing with them.

I think that it would be ridiculous
to say that my life is being ruined

by getting third in this.

It would be ridiculous to sacrifice
other people getting to have fun

in a sport that they love
on the weekends

so that I could say
I was the state champion.

Yeah. You can tell she's not upset,

because, A,
she's giggling through that interview,

and B, that is a very
happy-looking photo.

I have, and this is true, never
once smiled that freely in my life.

Look how joyful they are!
That looks like an ad for cycling,

or for having friends,
or honestly just for mud!

So, for all the talk of how trans
women are so dominant

they'll spell the end
of women's sports,

the number people keep citing
to prove that has, I would argue,

a pretty big thumb on the scale.

And even the famous individual cases
are sometimes missing a lot of context.

You may have seen this photo

of two trans high school runners
in Connecticut

coming first and second
at a state track meet.

They were the subject of a lawsuit
claiming, among other things,

their participation wasn't just unfair,

it threatened to deprive
their competitors of scholarships.

But you should know,

one of the plaintiffs
actually beat one of those girls twice,

just two days after
the suit was filed.

Also, most of the plaintiffs ended up
getting scholarships,

while these two did not.

But the most famous example
is probably Lia Thomas.

As you probably know, she's a swimmer
who initially competed

on the University of Pennsylvania
men's team, including one year

while undergoing hormone therapy
as part of her medical transition,

as per the NCAA's rules at the time.

She made national headlines after
she won the NCAA championship

in the women's 500 freestyle.

She got a good time in that race,
her best of the season,

although it was also a full nine seconds
behind the record set by Katie Ledecky.

It's also the only race
she won at that meet.

She came in eighth in the 100 freestyle.

And, in what's weirdly
her most consequential race,

she tied for fifth in the 200 free
with Riley Gaines,

who catapulted to conservative stardom
off the back of that race.

And I will let Riley herself
tell you the story

of how Lia Thomas and
the NCAA wronged her.

I look up at the board.
Before I even looked at my name,

I looked at Thomas' name,
and I saw the number five.

And I look beside my name
and there's a five.

The NCAA official looks at Thomas
and myself and says,

"Great job, but you guys tied,
and we only have one trophy,"

"so we're going
to give this trophy to Lia."

Thomas held the trophy for fifth place.
Gaines held the one for sixth.

They told me when
pictures were being taken,

Thomas had to have the trophy,
which reduced it down to a photo op.

I felt so belittled.
I felt so betrayed.

Okay, so a few things there:

first, that's a story about how
Lia Thomas prevented Riley Gaines

from getting fifth place
instead of fifth place.

Second, those trophies
look absolutely identical.

Third, yes, it was a photo op,
in the sense that everybody

arranged themselves for the purposes
of taking a photo.

And while we're talking about
photo ops, I don't know, man,

you were on stage at CPAC
so an objectively drownable man

could announce that he'd beat you
in a race.

That's about as photo-oppy
as it's ever gonna get.

So, just so we are clear:

Lia Thomas didn't take
anything from Riley Gaines.

In fact, you could argue,
she gave a lot to her,

as Gaines later decided
to forgo dental school

in order to be an activist
and speaker.

She now has her own advocacy center

and has personally lobbied
multiple state legislatures for bans,

all to address the threat
posed to women's sports

by a woman who swam exactly
as fast as she did,

to the literal hundredth of a second.

So, from the "900 medals" to the
scholarships these girls did not get,

to the most famous
fifth-place finisher in human history,

the competition argument is a lot
weaker than it tends to get presented.

So, what about safety?
Well, first, in plenty of sports,

like track and swimming,
there is no safety threat,

because they're not contact sports.

But in others,
like basketball and volleyball,

there clearly is some amount
of contact,

either with another body,
or with a ball.

But even there, the big anecdotes
that get thrown around

tend to be more complicated.

The most famous example
concerns Payton McNabb,

a three-sport high school athlete

who was hit in the face by a spike
during a volleyball match.

She suffered injuries including
a concussion and started speaking out

against the policies that allowed trans
player who spiked the ball to play.

The video of her getting hit often
makes the rounds in these debates

and she told her story to
the North Carolina state legislature

before they implemented their ban.

She also attended
Trump's address to Congress,

and appeared
in a video about the incident,

produced by an activist group

for which she and Riley Gaines
are now ambassadors.

A couple of years ago,
I was severely injured

in a high school volleyball game
by a male on the opposing team,

leaving me with permanent injuries
that the doctors don't know

if I'll ever be able to recover from.

Because of my career-ending injury,

I was no longer able to perform
the way I had in the past.

Progressive gender ideology
being pushed so harshly

is exactly the root of why
this was allowed to happen to me.

If it wasn't pushed so harshly,
this could have been 100% avoided.

Unlike holding up a trophy
with a six on it for 40 seconds,

a concussion is genuinely traumatic.

Though, for what it's worth, she did
go on to play softball in the spring

and did pretty well, judging
by her school posting this image

about her making
the All-Conference team,

and her local paper pointing out

she helped her team
to a five-and-oh start.

And I'm not saying
she wasn't injured,

or that it didn't have some
impact on her performance.

But a lot of the groups heavily
pushing this story

seem to be overselling it, including
choosing to title that video

"k*ll Shot: How Payton McNabb
Turned Tragedy into Triumph."

Because "k*ll Shot" is not a good
title for a teenage girl

who is very much alive
and talking to camera.

"k*ll Shot" is either a movie where
Keanu Reeves and Ana de Armas,

opposing spies and devastating
marksmen, fall in love,

or a hunting reality show that
gets canceled after its host,

Donald Trump Jr., is mauled
by a moose in heat.

And that is not the only volleyball
related story that's been oversold.

Last year, there was a controversy

over a trans player for San Jose
State University.

Other teams forfeited games rather
than compete with her,

and one of her own teammates joined
a lawsuit to stop her from playing.

But watch as this story mentions
something at the end

that puts a bit of an asterisk
on that teammate's argument.

When asked about how and
why she felt unsafe, Slusser said…

The height that the person
can jump is so much higher,

and honestly,
higher for a man. It's insane.

And then the strength behind
the ball when they're swinging

is also just so much more powerful.

But her transgender teammate's stats

don't appear to give the Spartans
a dramatic upper hand.

San Jose State women's volleyball
team is ranked 119th nationally.

You must be
in a very competitive league,

since it sounds like you've got
one of the Avengers on your team,

and yet somehow,
you're only ranked 119th.

That lawsuit initially claimed that
the player's "spikes were estimated"

"to be traveling upwards
of 80 miles per hour",

a speed, by the way, that would
"make her as powerful as some"

"of the hardest-hitting men's
volleyball players in history."

But when ESPN used camera
calibration software

to analyze video of five of her spikes,

including ones
that went viral for being "dangerous",

they averaged around


But it's also a full speed limit
in the suburbs slower

than what the lawsuit
initially claimed.

And look,
they've since amended that lawsuit,

deleting the "80 miles per hour" line,
telling us that it was a mistake,

and that they meant
to say 60 instead.

Though, notably, they only did that
after ESPN published its report.

The point is, her spikes were
nowhere near record-setting,

which may be why she didn't rank
in the top 150

in hitting percentage
in the NCAA.

And look, some trans kids are going
to injure their opponents,

the same way any kid will.

And concussions are horrible,

although they're also
not that uncommon in youth sports,

given between one to two million
of them happen every year.

Even in the wake
of Payton McNabb's injury,

two coaches whose team had played
against the trans player

for the previous four years
spoke up at a school board meeting

to say they were happy
to keep doing so.

One apparently told the meeting,

"Every time a student plays,
there's an inherent risk of injury,"

and that she'd seen cis girls hit the
ball harder than the one in the video.

And the other coach asked,
if they're slated to play a team

with a player who is "100% girl"
and she hits the ball harder

than the player in question,
should that game be forfeited?

And that's the thing,

the standard can't be
"no trans kid ever injures someone",

because
that's an impossible standard.

And yes, if trans kids were injuring
cis kids at much higher rates,

then we could have safety
concerns to address,

but there's no evidence
that's the case.

And at this point, it is worth asking,
what is really behind all this vitriol?

Because, again, I do believe that some
speaking against trans participation

are just talking
about women's sports,

and the truth is, at the elite
levels of competition,

this isn't a cut and dry issue.

But in many other cases,

the opposition comes
from a much more toxic place.

It is not just about denying
trans women the right to play,

it's about denying them
the right to exist.

Mike Johnson basically said as much
after the House passed its ban

on trans athletes,
when he said this.

We know from scripture,
and from nature,

that men are men, women are women,
and men cannot become women.

That's right, Mike.
As scripture tells us:

men are men and women are women,
and God is his own son,

and some mothers are virgins,

and some mothers-in-law
are pillars of salt,

and some daughters are sex partners,
and colorful coats are dream-tellers,

and brothers are murderers,

but also brothers are backup
husbands for wives,

babies can be for splitting in half,
and water is wine, and also, with you.

Sorry, and with your spirit.

Now, the anti-inclusion camp
objects to being called hateful,

bigoted, or intolerant,
usually right before or after

saying something
most would consider qualifies.

Here is Riley Gaines
doing just that.

I don't want to be considered a bigot
or a transphobe or all of those labels.

There's no hate in my heart,
but me, myself, personally,

I don't actually think this person
is a woman.

I don't actually
think this person is a female.

Therefore, when I say "she", I feel
I'm going against my moral compass.

Yeah, but it turns out,
there is a lot of distance between

"I don't want to be considered
a transphobe"

and "I don't want to be
a transphobe."

Even greater than the distance
between you and first place

in that race you make
such a big deal about.

The thing is, this current uproar

is rooted in a very intentional
political strategy by the right

to find a new issue after losing
the w*r over same-sex marriage.

Conservatives' embrace of this
came after the failure

of so-called "bathroom bills" around
the country, which were criticized.

The president
of the American Principles Project,

a socially conservative advocacy
group, has openly said,

"We pivoted to the sports issue,
and it's been wildly successful."

He even explained the reason
for that, arguing,

"what it did was, it got opponents
of the LGBT movement comfortable"

"with talking about transgender
issues."

And he's kind of right
about that.

Because it does seem like right now,

you can basically say
anything you want about trans people,

as long as you tag on
"in sports" after it.

"I don't think trans women should
be allowed… in sports."

"I don't think trans women
are women… in sports."

But it is noticeable just how fast
the "in sports" part can drop off

once people feel that permission
has been granted,

to the point that some
leading voices in this movement

are now circling
back to bathroom bans,

an issue that, a decade ago,
people felt was a bridge too far.

Last year, for instance,
Payton McNabb tweeted a video

of her confronting a trans
woman, with the caption,

"A man using the girls bathroom
at Western Carolina University. Unreal."

Which is really nasty.
And for the record,

ambushing strangers
just minding their own business

is not what girls' bathrooms
are for!

Girls' bathrooms are for
gassing each other up,

making best friends in 30 seconds,
complimenting tops,

tucking in tags, and zipping up
dresses while one girl says,

"OMG, that lipstick looks
so good on you",

the other says,
"30% off at Sephora right now",

and the first girl says,
"Like now, now?"

And she responds,
"Yeah! I went yesterday!"

And she says, "You're my hero."

I've been looking for a nude that goes
with my blotchy skin tone."

And the other says, "Girl, stop it!
I would k*ll for those freckles!"

"You know people are buying
them now!"

And the first one's like, "You're
right. We gotta be loving ourselves."

And the other one is like,
"We absolutely do!"

That is what girls' bathrooms
are for… I am told. I have no idea.

Put your f*cking phone away
and build some community, Payton!

And the reason this has been
an easier sell for the right

is that it's possible
to frame all of this

as being about
"protecting women and girls."

Although if that is truly the aim,
there is reason for them to feel

a lot less safe thanks to these bills,
as, in practice,

they can encourage adults to police
the bodies of literal children.

That has happened. In Florida,
a trans kid was kicked off a team

after an investigation which resulted
in a report about her

that was more than 500 pages long
and included investigators

asking 3 girls on her volleyball team
if they'd ever seen her undressed.

And in Utah, the parents of a girl
who was not trans were horrified

when a local member of
the State Board of Education

felt empowered to do this.

Utah State Board of Education
member Natalie Cline

posted this picture with the caption,

"'Girls' basketball,' dot, dot, dot."
The couple describes their daughter,

whose image KSL is blurring,
as a tomboy.

She cut her hair short because
that's how she feels comfortable.

She wears clothes a little baggy.

She goes to the gym all the time,
so she's got muscles.

They said their family is rallying
around their daughter.

They have a message to other
families experiencing bullying.

And I want all the kids to know that
it's okay to just be who they are.

That is awful. And I hope
it goes without saying,

but random adults should not
be publicly interrogating

the gender of children
on Facebook.

People really shouldn't be
on Facebook at all unless they're,

A, locked in a bidding w*r for
a barely-used set of end tables,

or B, trying to figure out
if a family friend died

or if they're just intermittently
posting about praying.

Those are the only two acceptable
uses of Facebook left.

But obviously, the bulk of the damage
here is being done to trans kids.

Because one thing we know
for sure is that, for all kids,

the benefits, physiological, social,
and emotional,

of participating in school sports teams
and athletics are wide-ranging.

And to hear trans kids
themselves tell it,

participation can be
especially important

to their feeling
of community and sense of self.

I love track because I feel like
I'm a part of a second family.

It's like another bond
that you experience.

This has helped me so much.
Being able to be part of a sport

and part of a team is an incredible,
amazing experience for me.

Without football, I don't quite
know if I would still be here,

because it's given me
a sense of belonging.

It's taken away the spotlight on
the fact that I am transgender,

and it's just allowed me to be a boy,
and it's allowed me to be a kid.

That is a really moving
thing to hear.

And if you're experiencing
a weird sensation after that clip

that you can't quite place,
it's because it was nice.

It was happy kids talking about how
they're able to be themselves,

and you don't usually get
nice things on this show,

which at this point is honestly
mainly dense statistics and facts,

and occasional Pikachu porn.

Being trans can mean seeing
your body as a barrier

to living life as your authentic self,
especially when you're young,

and especially in social situations.

And it's not even necessarily
about being good at sports.

Because for all the focus on
a handful of high-performing athletes,

it is helpful to remember:
lots of trans kids, like any kids,

are f*cking terrible at sports.

That teenager you just saw,
Ember, was a backup catcher,

who's said,
"I'm mediocre, at best."

And her mom goes even further.

How would you describe Ember's
athletic prowess?

- There really isn't much.
- How about any home runs?

No, she's never hit
a home run in her life.

That is a supportive mom
making it very clear

that she will "protect trans kids",
but only to a point.

And I love the honesty there.

Athletic prowess?
That'd be a negative.

Home runs? Hard no. I'm going
to answer your question

with a direct, accurate hit,

something my daughter
could frankly only dream of.

Ember is not great at softball.
But she wanted to play anyway

and she met all of her state's
requirements to do so,

including undergoing at least
a year of hormone therapy.

But as soon as she was approved,
the state started moving

to implement a ban and
when she testified against it,

she dropped in
a little extra piece of info.

Others have said that I should
just play baseball with the boys.

In many ways, this would be easier.
I wouldn't have to go through

the time-consuming
and embarrassing process

of submitting intimate medical
details to the state.

Also, the boys at my school have
two beautiful fields to play on.

Most years, our softball team
has to cancel half of our games,

because our old field
has no drainage.

But the fact is that, for me, playing
on a boys' team would be a lie.

Yeah, that makes sense.

And, you know, it says something
that people seem more concerned

about a trans girl on the field
than they do about the field itself

turning into a swimming pool
half the time.

I realize I'm taking a risk by saying
the words "swimming pool" out loud,

because if you say
that phrase three times,

Riley Gaines shows up,
ties for fifth,

and then deadnames
everyone in a 50-mile radius.

Unfortunately, though, Ohio
banned trans athletes anyway.

And that insistence
on aggressively legislating

around a handful of trans kids,
while neglecting much bigger,

systemic issues around
youth sports just isn't a one-off.

Take Kentucky. Three years ago,
they passed one of these bans,

even though, at the time, there was
just one known trans athlete,

a 12-year-old,
competing in schools there.

The governor, to his credit,
vetoed it.

But the legislators
would not let it rest,

because on the second-to-last
day of the session,

they voted to override his veto,

with one member doing so
with real regional-theater energy.

Veto to Senate Bill 83.
The gentleman from McCracken.

Mr. Speaker, I move for
final passage of Senate Bill 83,

the veto
of the governor notwithstanding.

They felt so strongly about
"protecting young female athletes"

darkest-timeline Drew Carey here
was willing to step in.

But the urgency on display there
notably didn't seem to apply

to other issues
concerning youth athlete safety.

Because last year, an investigation
revealed a longstanding pattern

of sexual abuse in youth sports
in Kentucky.

It pointed out a bill that might've
helped prevent that was this one,

which would've made it harder
for school personnel, including coaches,

who'd been accused of misconduct
to move from district to district.

It's called the "most comprehensive
bill" to address the issue.

Unfortunately, it stalled out in the
legislature, for an infuriating reason.

Because it made it through
both chambers

and only needed a procedural vote
to be sent to the governor to sign.

But it just sat there.
And on the last day of the session,

it still hadn't passed
and then this happened.

The members are hungry,

and we quite possibly have considered
the last bill of the session.

However, I'm not
a 100% that that is the case.

So, out of an abundance of caution,

we're going to recess until
the call of the chair.

Yeah! They f*cked off
to dinner, and guess what?

They never came back to vote.

So, it seems this is how
the Kentucky State House works:

when there is one kid
who wants to play field hockey,

it's Pearl Harbor.

But when there's a longstanding
pattern of sexual abuse,

it's, "Sorry, we've got a 6:00 PM
reservation at the Cheesecake Factory."

And for those
who've played girls' sports,

this sudden interest from lawmakers
is a little hard to take,

given, for so long,
it's meant having to put up

with constant slights and indignities,
from worse playing fields,

to smaller locker rooms, to creepy
coaches no one will do anything about,

to always having to play
your games early

while the 8:00 PM boys' game
gets treated like the main event.

I cannot tell you how many times
writers who worked on this story,

and who played women's sports,
brought that last point up.

And now we seem to be hell-bent
on adding to all that the fear

that if girls get too short a haircut,
or go to the gym too much,

a stranger on Facebook is gonna
start "just asking questions."

And look, this is the part of the show
where I usually talk about what to do,

but a lot of this is currently
out of our hands.

When it comes to state-level bans,
thankfully,

court orders are blocking enforcement
of them in all of these states.

And courts are also gonna have to
weigh in on Trump's executive order,

which some states have
admirably resisted,

none more memorably than Maine,

whose governor had
this standoff with Trump.

I understand Maine… Is Maine here?
The governor of Maine?

Yeah, I'm here.

Are you not
going to comply with it?

I'm complying
with state and federal laws.

We are the federal law.
Well, you better do it.

Because you're not gonna get any
federal funding at all if you don't.

You better comply because otherwise,
you're not getting federal funding.

See you in court.

Yeah! Yes, you get him, Maine!
You get him!

And you know what?

I take back everything mean that
I've ever said about you, Maine.

Like that you're lobster-stuffed
lighthouse perverts

that the rest of the northeast
loves to forget.

I still broadly think that to be true,

but I'm not gonna be saying it
out loud anymore,

because that is honestly
heartening to me.

As is the fact that, when Republicans
tried to pass a nationwide ban

on trans participation in sports,
it failed in the Senate,

after every single Democrat
voted against it.

And it's been inspiring to see
some of these trans kids' teammates

coming out hard against the way
their friends are being treated.

For instance, in Florida,

where that trans girl was kicked
off her team thanks to, again,

an investigation that was
"more than 500 pages long",

kids in her school staged
a walkout in protest,

and one of her teammates went on
the local news and didn't hold back.

Their main argument
is about fairness in, like,

sports and how she probably could
have helped us win in ways

that are, like, about fairness
and equalness in sports.

How about, like, fairness
among, like, humans?

Just us as humans?
Because right now,

she's not being
treated like a human.

If she were here and you
could say something to her,

what would you say?

How much I love her and
I'm always there for her,

genuinely, as a human, like,
that I do, like, I love her so much,

and she deserves to be
treated just like everybody else.

Yeah. She's right.
She's completely right.

She just encapsulated

the argument I've been trying
to make for over half an hour,

but with a vibe both more emotional
and also substantially more chill.

So, first, thank you
for that, Jordan.

And second, sorry to everyone else,

because now we're going
back to my energy,

which we all know
is significantly worse.

And look, for the final time,
I will concede:

there are degrees to which this issue
is meaningfully complicated.

I'd also argue those complications are
at the elite levels of specific sports.

And we can have conversations
about what "elite" means,

and where exactly
to draw that line.

We can engage in good-faith debate
about policies that actually balance

competition and inclusion.

But it is ironic that,
at the highest levels,

some sporting associations
are still being thoughtful

and deliberate about this,

even as we are passing blanket
bans for elementary schools.

Which is brutal. Because you've seen
how much sports means

to the kids who play them.

Taking that away
is not a harmless act.

Not for these kids,

or the multiple others
you haven't heard from tonight,

some of whose stories
we couldn't even show you

because the environment for
trans kids is so toxic right now

that they asked us not to draw
attention to them for their safety.

If you are someone for whom this is
just about the integrity of competition

and for a lot of the loudest people
pushing this, I don't think it is,

but if that is the case for you,
then I do acknowledge,

we're going to disagree
about some things.

But the one thing I'd ask of you
is that you recognize

the ugliness of how
this issue gets discussed,

and how it's being cynically used
by some

to advance the eradication
of trans people, generally,

to get back to what they know
from scripture:

that trans people are a myth.

The same scripture that tells us
the devil is an unemployed angel,

and hair is for foot-washing
or super strength,

and two fish and some bread
is a catering order,

and boats are emergency zoos.
Thanks be to God.

And just to be clear:
I'm not happy to watch

women experience "injury, humiliation,
and a loss of sporting opportunities."

But that includes
trans women and kids.

And they seem to be getting hurt
the most right now.

Meanwhile,
there are much bigger issues

regarding women's sports that
we should actually be addressing.

And maybe that could be
what lawmakers prioritize,

because for so many
who are loudly claiming

they're "going to bat"
for women's sports,

if I may paraphrase the single
most honest mom of all time:

so far, they've never hit
a home run in their f*cking life.

And now, this.

And Now: Harvey Levin Really,
Really Does Not Want You

to Forget He Went to Law School.

Hey, listen, you think you got
a problem with your parents,

think about what it would be
like if you ended up going

to University of Chicago Law School
and you end up running TMZ.

I taught law school in Florida and
came back here to practice law.

My training is in the law.
And I taught law school.

And I've taught
at two law schools.

I taught at the University of Miami
Law School for a year.

You look like you're in the grove.

I'm in touch with some of my law
school colleagues from a long time ago.

And I'm doing something way different
than what they're doing.

I would imagine.

He's a professor at Rutgers
Law School, who, by the way,

I went to law school with.

And I taught law school
at University of Miami.

This is a good legal argument,
and in law school it is.

There is apparently a tax law
that I do not fully understand.

That was my worst grade
in law school, by the way.

She practiced law with
my law school roommate.

- Seriously!
- Fun fact.

I went to University of Chicago
Law School and it means a lot to me.

Two of the most negative legacies
that Chicago is responsible for

is Al Capone and
Harvey Levin's law license.

That's our show, thanks for watching.
We'll see you next week, good night!