Well, here we are. We knew this U.S. Supreme Court ruling on trans athletes was coming, it’s here now and yet it still hurts. On Tuesday, the court ruled once again that trans people are not eligible for equal protection under the constitution, despite being subject to thousands of state-level laws eliminating our rights over the last decade.

The ruling found that state-level bans on trans girls playing girls sports are not subject to the equal protection clause under the constitution, nor are they illegal under Title IX, which bans discrimination on the basis of sex. The outcome was expected, given the court’s ideological makeup and recent restrictions on trans athletes by the International Olympic Committee and the NCAA, but it was the 9-0 decision on the Title IX question that has set off klaxon alarms within the trans community.

@xtramagazine The U.S. Supreme Court just upheld laws in two states banning trans women and girls from competing in sports. The ruling sets a new precedent around existing and future legislation restricting the rights of trans people in sports and more broadly. And it’s likely to have a much wider impact as these bans have already been replicated in at least 25 other U.S. states. In 2020, Idaho became the first state in the U.S. to ban trans women and girls from women’s sports teams with the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act. Lindsay Hecox sued the state after she was barred from the varsity women’s track team at Boise State University, alleging that the law violated her right to equal protection under the U.S. Constitution. In the case of Becky Pepper-Jackson, the 16-year-old shot-putter challenged West Virginia’s law on the basis that since she had undergone gender-affirming treatment at a young age, she did not have an unfair advantage in intramural sports. At the heart of all of this is Title IX. The landmark 1972 law bans sex-based discrimination in education programs that are publicly funded. For student athletes, this means providing equal opportunity, treatment, scholarship funding and facilities regardless of gender. But today’s opinion, authored by Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh, argued that because Title IX explicitly allows sports teams that are segregated by biological sex, states should be able to limit athletes by their assigned sex at birth. Those against trans women and girls competing in women’s sports want you to believe that it’s just about protecting young girls from unfairness—but that’s not the case. Study after study has not shown any competitive advantage for trans women and girls in sports. This ruling is just another example of enshrined rights being rolled back for political theatre—and all at the expense of trans women and girls in the U.S. who just want to play sports. #lgbtqnews #supremecourt #transrights #transathlete ♬ original sound – Xtra Magazine

The ruling essentially defines trans women and girls as men and boys under Title IX law. Even the liberal judges conceded that Title IX sex protections are based on “biological sex,” a recently invented political term that seeks to create legitimacy for people’s assigned sex at birth. Doing so would mean that trans people are not entitled to anti-discrimination protections in gendered educational situations even beyond sports. It creates yet another transphobic precedent that conservatives can use to expand their legal attacks on trans rights and opens the door to all kinds of bigoted horrors down the road.

Because Title IX covers all educational areas, not just sports, red states now have permission to pursue full-on bathroom bans on trans kids in school without having to worry about being overruled by the Supreme Court. But what else can they come up with? Can they ban trans girls from getting the female lead role in a school play? Can they bar the teaching about trans people in history, civics or health class? Maybe they’ll ban trans teachers next.

Everything is up for grabs now, to the point where life for trans kids in red states has been made so unlivable that in order to continue their crusade, conservatives will soon run out of areas of life to restrict and move more directly against adults. Where is salvation supposed to come from?

Certainly not from the law.

I wish there was a manageable stopgap to help trans people continue playing sports, but we are a tiny portion of the population. You’d struggle to put together one full trans-only soccer team roster in a given county in the U.S., much less a town or smaller area.

This is an illegitimate court and court reform has to be at the top of the Democratic Party agenda in these midterms and beyond. It sure seems like SCOTUS stopped caring long ago about following and interpreting the law and nowhere else is this more apparent in how they’ve simply refused to consider the rights of trans people to be treated equally by the government.

We cannot breathe without the approval of the government now. Government agents are now responsible for knowing how the crotch of every school-aged girl athlete looks. That is the proposed enforcement mechanism for these sports bans. Female children will now have to either pay for an expensive and invasive DNA test, or have an adult doctor or official certify that a girls’ sports participant has a vagina.

One might say that discouraging girls from playing and succeeding at sports is the ultimate point of these bans. After all, if your reward for excelling in a sport is for parents and coaches of the opposing team to accuse you of being trans, what’s the point in playing in the first place?

This is obviously not a reasonable use of government resources, but for conservatives it’s worth it to prevent an 11-year-old trans girl from playing middle school softball with her friends. Give me a break.

Conservatives are trying to make living as a trans person so intolerable that we will give it up and detransition, or not transition in the first place. They believe we are all living a mass delusion that we will one day wake up from en masse. This is the great myth of the anti-trans movement. But the truth that we know is that we have always existed in some form or another, from ancient Roman times, to Indigenous peoples of North America to 18th-century French diplomats.

This is how I know we will eventually win, not just on trans athletes but on trans rights in general. You cannot roll back the trans tipping point. Yes, today is very dark for American trans people, but living is the best revenge.

I am 44 years old, I can outlive every single justice who made this ruling today. I long to savour my first estrogen dose once Brett Kavanaugh, the author of today’s ruling, is in the ground (from natural causes).

In the meantime, we must continue to show up for one another. We must continue creating and maintaining trans spaces will be key. We must outlive the bastards.