Published July 2, 2026
Anti-transgender hatred starts at the top: the top of powerful organizations and well-funded campaigns. For some time now, a push to wipe us from public life has made it seem as if an overwhelming majority of regular folks have a big problem with us.
They do not. But you wouldn’t know it by listening to the powerful.
Breathless and unfair coverage helped flip things in favor of the hate machine, at least in terms of uninformed public perception.
Let me start at the top.
The White House is openly saying they want to eliminate a minority group and people still want to say this is about sports.
— Alejandra Caraballo (@esqueer.net) July 1, 2026 at 6:59 PM
Tuesday’s Supreme Court actions about trans youth in sports set the stage for future decisions to be used against all transgender people. We’ve been warning about this for years. But let’s get real about this.
i kinda love this answer, it’s very illuminating. it’s not about female athletes at all, it’s about the fragile egos of delusional psychopathic parents who want returns on their perceived investments
— victoria zeller⚔️ (RISEBALL, summer ‘27) (@dirtbagqueer.rocks) July 1, 2026 at 1:27 PM
Marie Gluesenkamp Perez is my representative in Congress, but she does not represent me. She is no friend of trans people. She is one of the worst of the Democratic Party’s elected officials, and she gets really angry when criticized.
Media outlets began pouncing on us the day after the 2024 presidential election. They’re still at it in various ways.
“Should trans people be allowed to exist in public?” asks Slate, who should all drop dead.
— badly drawn bee 🐝 (@soapachu.bsky.social) June 25, 2026 at 10:15 PM
A members-only essay from Assigned Media has this headline: Too much visibility didn’t screw the trans community. Paper-thin allyship did.
The essay rightly suggests that trans people were only ever slogans on buttons to many people who called themselves allies. As I’ve said, I know people who have said they’ll never stop fighting for trans people, but there’s no evidence they ever started fighting for us.
Let’s talk about real allyship
Courtney Milan knows a thing or two about constitutional law and has been advocating for us for a long time.
I do not understand the “fairness in sports” thing, in part because it isn’t a thing, but also “fair to who” is always the question.
People who are taller have an advantage in basketball. Does that mean we ban tall people? Why would THAT be fair?
— Courtney Milan (@courtneymilan.com) July 1, 2026 at 10:46 AM
For years, one of the arguments against desegregating Black people from sports is that they were naturally more physical (gross racism) and if you let them in they would dominate everything.
But like, so what?
— Courtney Milan (@courtneymilan.com) July 1, 2026 at 10:46 AM
Even assuming the premise is true (and it is highly dubious), do you get to ban people from sports who are good at sports and for simply for no other reason?
— Courtney Milan (@courtneymilan.com) July 1, 2026 at 10:47 AM
I don’t actually really think it matters whether trans people would dominate in sports if they were allowed to play (even though I think there’s a lot of evidence that this would not happen).
Why the fuck CAN’T a trans woman win at sports? Are they not allowed?
— Courtney Milan (@courtneymilan.com) July 1, 2026 at 10:47 AM
“But then a cis women wouldn’t win”
Yeah, that’s what sports IS. When one person wins another person doesn’t. Grow the fuck up and stop being a sore loser about it.
— Courtney Milan (@courtneymilan.com) July 1, 2026 at 10:48 AM
EVERYTHING ABOUT SPORTS is about people having biological! competitive! advantages!
I know this because I had none of them and have been bad at sports my whole life, but nonetheless, I played sports with people who were MUCH BETTER than me the whole time I was growing up.
— Courtney Milan (@courtneymilan.com) July 1, 2026 at 10:49 AM
Trans kids deserve to be able to participate in sports because the idea that we can exclude people implies that we think that we’re extending participation to them out of the goodness of our hearts, but they’re only allowed in if they’re bad at it.
FUCK THAT SHIT.
— Courtney Milan (@courtneymilan.com) July 1, 2026 at 10:51 AM
I’m clumsy and I can’t catch and I have exercise induced asthma and I run like shit, but you don’t see me clamoring for everyone with real functional lungs to be banned from sport so that I have a chance of winning, and that’s because I know that nobody owes me a chance of winning.
— Courtney Milan (@courtneymilan.com) July 1, 2026 at 10:53 AM
It’s all “ooooh we need a meritocracy” until the wrong people have merit and then it’s like “oooh we need to protect us.”
Trans kids deserve a chance play in sports because EVERYONE deserves a chance to play in sports and nobody should lose that chance because they’re disfavored by bigots.
— Courtney Milan (@courtneymilan.com) July 1, 2026 at 10:56 AM
anyway you can probably tell that I was reading Sam Alito in preparation for this talk I’m giving
and specifically the section titled “Sam Alito is a bigot but he hates when you call him that”
www.32auctions.com/organization…
— Courtney Milan (@courtneymilan.com) July 1, 2026 at 12:50 PM
We fund kid sports for a lot of reasons to benefit children. Trans kids deserve those same benefits.
We don’t fund kids sports to find out who is the best kid soccer player. Any “unfair advantage” arguments can just take a hike.
— Steve Haley (@niborris.bsky.social) July 1, 2026 at 12:34 PM
If we REALLY want to talk about unfair advantages, let’s look into why some kids have access to better nutrition, better practice facilities, higher paid and more skilled coaches, and more free time to focus on sports
But it seems “has money” is considered fair?
— Steve Haley (@niborris.bsky.social) July 1, 2026 at 12:35 PM
Many of the people who do paper-thin allyship and surface-level thinking and reading are like those people who have the audacity to proclaim that “everyone is given the same 24 hours in a day.” An absurd premise to anyone living in the real world.
And for more illustrations of paper-thin allyship, read the comments (if you dare) under M. Gessen’s opinion column in The New York Times. Many people do not want to be educated about how their understanding of biology is painfully shallow.
Anyway, almost every day for years now has been Trans Day of Invisibility for me. The forces allied against me (and us) have at times had me deep in suicidal ideation, worries about being homeless someday or unable to get the healthcare I need. To suggest that we pushed too hard is the cruelest form of victim blaming.
Photo by Christopher Penler via Shutterstock.
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