tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/transgender-ban-41456/articlesTransgender ban – The Conversation2023-12-07T13:29:27Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2178912023-12-07T13:29:27Z2023-12-07T13:29:27ZBiases behind transgender athlete bans are deeply rooted<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563732/original/file-20231205-27-qcfbyg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=988%2C62%2C5002%2C4302&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A California teacher takes part in a demonstration in September 2023 to support the rights of transgender people.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/micki-simon-a-teacher-in-santa-ana-and-a-parent-of-news-photo/1652629912?adppopup=true">Leonard Ortiz/Orange County Register via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 2023, <a href="https://www.lgbtmap.org/equality-maps/youth/sports_participation_bans">24 states</a> had laws or regulations in place prohibiting transgender students from participating on public school athletic teams consistent with their gender identity. These bans mean that a person whose sex assigned at birth was male but who identifies as a girl or woman cannot play on a girls or women’s athletic team at a public school in that state.</p>
<p>The topic has spurred many <a href="https://www.cato.org/regulation/fall-2022/transgender-athletes-fair-competition-public-policy">debates about fairness</a>, the science behind <a href="https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/38209262/transgender-athlete-laws-state-legislation-science">sports performance</a>, <a href="https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-condemns-house-vote-on-federal-ban-on-transgender-student-athletes">civil rights</a> and sports as a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1123/kr.2021-0040">human right</a>. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=xU8P9K4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">researchers</a> who <a href="https://www.diversityinsport.com/lab-members">study</a> diversity, equity and inclusion in sport, we were interested in understanding what prompted such bans. Though not a surprise, we showed for the first time through an <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/53e51960e4b0f38ca4081a61/t/656fa1c769a9f848e8b4c25e/1701814727449/Politics%2C+Bias%2C+and+Transgender+Athlete+Ban+%28Blind%29+%28Final%29.pdf">in-depth study</a> set to be published in the peer-reviewed <a href="https://doi.org/10.1123/jsm.2023-0137">Journal of Sport Management</a> that state-level politics and public biases against transgender people are largely to blame.</p>
<h2>Our research</h2>
<p>We collected two years of data in 2021 and 2022 on <a href="https://www.lgbtmap.org/equality-maps/youth/sports_participation_bans">states that passed</a> legislation prohibiting transgender athletes from participating in sports on teams that connect with their own gender identities. </p>
<p>To determine the political leanings of a state’s population, we <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/about-state-legislatures/state-partisan-composition">collected data</a> about the share of Republican state senators and the party affiliation of the governor.</p>
<p>Finally, we collected information about the biases people had toward transgender individuals. The data came from responses to the <a href="https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html">Project Implicit website</a>. People visiting the site can take tests aimed at measuring their biases toward different groups, including transgender people. Administrators then remove identifying information and <a href="https://osf.io/y9hiq/">make the data</a> freely available. For our study, we aggregated the responses to have transgender bias scores for each state.</p>
<h2>The politics of transgender bans</h2>
<p>States whose residents have conservative political leanings tend to have more restrictive views on civil rights issues such as <a href="https://doi.org/DOI:10.1177/1532440014524212">immigration</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2020.306126">health care</a> and the use of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/sof.2004.0115">death penalty</a>.</p>
<p>These patterns hold for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0160323X21990839">transgender rights</a>, too.</p>
<p>In our work, we found that states with conservative-leaning legislatures such as in <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/03/21/1164917836/wyoming-governor-calls-trans-athlete-ban-bill-draconian-and-then-allows-it-to-pa">Wyoming</a> and <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/supreme-court-says-transgender-girl-can-run-track-in-west-virginia-as-lawsuit-proceeds">West Virginia</a> were most likely to enact transgender athlete bans. As were states with Republican governors, such as <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/06/01/desantis-transgender-sports-bill-491495">Ron DeSantis</a> in Florida and <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-transgender-college-athletes-bill-greg-abbott-sb-15/">Greg Abbott</a> in Texas.</p>
<p>These statewide patterns are consistent with national political actions. </p>
<p>In 2023, the Biden administration <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/12/politics/republican-governors-letter-transgender-sports-ban-title-ix/index.html">proposed a change</a> to Title IX, the federal law that bans sex discrimination at K-12 schools and colleges that receive federal funds. Under Biden’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/06/us/transgender-athletes-title-ix-biden-adminstration.html">proposed changes</a>, Title IX would also ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.</p>
<p>In response, nearly all – <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/12/politics/republican-governors-letter-transgender-sports-ban-title-ix/index.html">25 of the 26 Republican governors</a> – called on Biden to delay or withdraw the rule change. To date, Biden <a href="https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/a-flood-of-public-feedback-has-delayed-a-title-ix-change-covering-trans-athletes-again/2023/09">has not made</a> a final decision and has delayed the change.</p>
<h2>Bias against transgender people</h2>
<p>But politics tells only part of the story.</p>
<p>We found that conservative political leanings spurred collective biases against transgender people, which in turn prompted the bans.</p>
<p>Political scientists have previously shown that politicians craft narratives and frame their arguments in ways that help shape people’s attitudes about <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/psj.12475">social issues</a>. In fact, people will sometimes <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12243">adjust their perspectives</a> to align with those held by their political representatives. </p>
<p>That’s what we found.</p>
<h2>Impact on sports and athletes</h2>
<p>Biases that are prevalent in a community or state represent <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2021.08.001">systemic forms</a> of oppression. Coupled with laws that limit rights, collective biases serve to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.11.010">stigmatize transgender people</a>, hurting their overall <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15856-9">health and well-being</a>. </p>
<p>The impact is far-reaching. </p>
<p>Transgender athletes face the real possibility of participating in a sport one day, only to be prohibited from doing so the next. Ending a career in sports, regardless at what age, <a href="http://csri-jiia.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/RA_2019_19.pdf.pdf">can harm</a> the mental health of some athletes, something only likely to be magnified given the reason for the end. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Four sprinters run at an indoor track meet." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401062/original/file-20210517-21-km9t86.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401062/original/file-20210517-21-km9t86.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401062/original/file-20210517-21-km9t86.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401062/original/file-20210517-21-km9t86.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401062/original/file-20210517-21-km9t86.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401062/original/file-20210517-21-km9t86.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401062/original/file-20210517-21-km9t86.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bloomfield High School transgender athlete Terry Miller, second from left, wins the final of the 55-meter dash over transgender athlete Andraya Yearwood, far left, at a Connecticut girls Class S indoor track meet in 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/TransgenderAthletesHighSchool/bf19d959b3c24a53b4d315f9a26f8ddc/photo?Query=title%20AND%20ix&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=181&currentItemNo=2">AP Photo/Pat Eaton-Robb</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Coaches and sport administrators living in conservative states might find themselves having to navigate laws affecting who can play on their teams. They can do so by partnering with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2019.04.025">campus counselors</a> and ensuring their athletic departments are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1123/jsm.2014-0135">inclusive spaces</a>. </p>
<h2>What’s next?</h2>
<p>The links among conservative politics, collective biases against transgender people and transgender rights are unlikely to diminish any time soon. National political reporters <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/16/us/politics/transgender-conservative-campaign.html">Adam Nagourney and Jeremy Peter</a> explained that social conservatives have targeted transgender rights as a way of galvanizing their constituents. The GOP efforts came about after planning by national conservative organizations to “harness the emotion around gender politics.”</p>
<p>Proponents of transgender inclusion <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80262-985-920221002">have offered counterarguments</a>, showing that transgender athletes are not a threat to women’s sports, nor have they ever been. </p>
<p>This data is important but will go only so far when combating biases. </p>
<p>Education and the chance to be around transgender people in everyday life also help <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-011-0110-6">curb prejudice</a>. These collective factors, when combined with <a href="https://hbr.org/2011/03/using-stories-as-a-tool-of-per">compelling stories</a> about transgender inclusion in sports, may be what’s needed to overcome the biases in place.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217891/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Sports researchers learned that conservative political leanings among state legislators lead to biases against transgender athletes among voters.George B. Cunningham, UAA Endowed Professor of Sport Management, University of FloridaKelsey Garrison, PhD student, Department of Sports Management, University of FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1783772022-03-04T13:22:17Z2022-03-04T13:22:17ZIndiana, Iowa and Texas advance anti-transgender agendas – part of a longtime strategy by conservatives to rally their base<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449614/original/file-20220302-25-wuo8gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=53%2C0%2C5913%2C3939&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Conservatives see anti-transgender bills as fair game.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IndianaLegislatureSchools/d8b9e551455644ec949307a3b5333084/photo?Query=transgender%20school&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=453&currentItemNo=5">AP Photo/Michael Conroy</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Transgender girls in Iowa will no longer be allowed to compete in girls’ sports – the latest in a rash of anti-trans initiatives sweeping across the United States.</p>
<p>On March 3, 2022, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/03/03/1084278181/transgender-girls-and-women-now-barred-from-female-sports-in-iowa">Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law</a> legislation that affects transgender girls and women wanting to compete in accordance to their gender identity.</p>
<p>It comes just days after legislators in Indiana <a href="https://www.wane.com/news/indiana/lawmakers-send-trans-girls-sports-ban-to-governor-holcomb/">advanced a similar bill</a> aimed at K-12 trans students.</p>
<p>That proposed legislation will now go to the Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb, who has previously <a href="https://www.whas11.com/article/news/education/indiana-transgender-athlete-ban-bill-governor-holcomb-lawmakers-sports/417-01596cf5-87f0-4b22-b71d-ea1b2e3d2547">indicated a willingness</a> to sign the bill into law. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, in Texas, it emerged that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/01/us/texas-child-abuse-trans-youth.html">officials had begun investigating</a> the parents of transgender boys and girls for alleged child abuse. This follows an <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/02/23/greg-abbott-gender-affirming-care-child-abuse-directive/">order by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott</a> requiring “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/23/science/texas-abbott-transgender-child-abuse.html">doctors, nurses and teachers</a>” to report as child abuse any instance of a young person using puberty blockers or other <a href="https://theconversation.com/im-a-pediatrician-who-cares-for-transgender-kids-heres-what-you-need-to-know-about-social-support-puberty-blockers-and-other-medical-options-that-improve-lives-of-transgender-youth-157285">gender-affirming medical treatments</a>. The order allows for criminal penalties to be imposed on those who refuse to comply and on the parents of transgender children. A judge has <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/03/02/1084092301/a-judge-has-blocked-a-texas-investigation-of-one-transgender-teens-parents">halted the investigation</a> into the parents of one trans teen, but set aside a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/03/02/texas-transgender-child-abuse-injunction/">broader ruling on the directive</a> until a hearing on March 11.</p>
<p>Indiana, Iowa and Texas are far from being the only states advancing an anti-transgender agenda. More than 30 states initiated anti-trans legislation in 2021 alone, and at least <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/least-7-states-proposed-anti-trans-bills-first-week-2022-rcna11205">seven more have done so this year to date</a>.</p>
<p>These anti-transgender health care bills and legal interpretations are part of a package of initiatives that mark 2021 as a “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-lgbt-lawmaking-trfn/2021-is-worst-year-for-gay-and-trans-rights-in-war-on-lgbt-americans-idUSKBN2CS2EP">record-breaking year</a>” for anti-LGBTQ policies introduced in state legislatures across the country according to the advocacy group Human Rights Campaign. And 2022 is already on track to <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/anti-lgbtq-legislation-2022-equality-act-hrc-philadelphia-20220302.html">surpass this record</a>.</p>
<p>These efforts include bills that will bar transgender athletes from participating in student sports, such as in Indiana and Iowa, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/florida-house-passes-dont-say-gay-bill-rcna17532">and prohibit</a>, or <a href="https://www.wpr.org/republican-bill-would-require-schools-notify-parents-teaching-programs-sexual-orientation-gender">require parental notification</a> of, any school curriculum that references sexual orientation or gender identity. One additional variety – <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/governor-approves-limiting-sex-change-birth-certificates-77429581">signed into law</a> in April 2021 by Republican Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte – requires gender reassignment surgery before any individual can change the sex marker on their birth certificate. </p>
<p>So far, anti-transgender athlete bills have gained the most traction. Despite consistent <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/04/16/987765777/republicans-and-democrats-largely-oppose-transgender-sports-legislation-poll-sho">public opposition</a>, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/least-7-states-proposed-anti-trans-bills-first-week-2022-rcna11205">more than 30 states</a> have now considered barring transgender athletes from playing on teams that match their gender identity. Ten states have already enacted bans on transgender student athletes through <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2021-12-01/these-states-restrict-how-transgender-students-participate-in-school-sports">legislation or executive order</a>. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://polisci.uoregon.edu/profile/gash/">civil rights scholar</a>, I have found that campaigns that mischaracterize LGBTQ-supportive policies as harmful to young people are a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/21565503.2018.1441721">staple strategy</a> conservatives use to galvanize their base.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397964/original/file-20210429-21-lw5psr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Andrew Bostad, a transgender youth, sitting on the sofa at home with his mother and stepfather." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397964/original/file-20210429-21-lw5psr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397964/original/file-20210429-21-lw5psr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397964/original/file-20210429-21-lw5psr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397964/original/file-20210429-21-lw5psr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397964/original/file-20210429-21-lw5psr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397964/original/file-20210429-21-lw5psr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397964/original/file-20210429-21-lw5psr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Andrew Bostad, center, his mother, Brandi Evans, and stepdad, Jimmy Evans, at their home in Bauxite, Arkansas, on April 15, 2021. Andrew is one of hundreds of transgender youth in Arkansas who could have their hormone therapy cut off under a new state law.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/TransgenderYouthMedicalBan/0ebbbee2f72e43f29f4e24de9021f390/photo?Query=transgender%20AND%20youth&mediaType=photo&sortBy=creationdatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=104&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/Andrew DeMillo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘Save our Children’</h2>
<p>Anti-gay activist and Florida orange juice queen Anita Bryant first perfected the strategy in the 1970s to oppose ordinances prohibiting sexuality-based discrimination. Bryant’s “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/03/27/gay-rights-fight-shaping-up-in-miami/e4f596c1-f8e0-4785-b528-599077a478ba/">Save our Children</a>” campaign demonized gays and lesbians as “recruiting children.” Bryant successfully encouraged voters to oppose legislative attempts to protect gays and lesbians from discrimination and prompted Florida legislators to <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=132133&page=1">bar same-sex couples from adopting children</a>, a law that was <a href="https://www.eqfl.org/Adoption">overturned</a> in 2010. </p>
<p>In the late 1990s and early 2000s, conservatives prompted over 40 states to bar same-sex marriage on the basis that <a href="https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190201159.001.0001/acprof-9780190201159">all children could be at risk</a> – those raised by same-sex couples and those introduced to marriage equality at school.</p>
<p>In 2015, when the Supreme Court overturned these bans in the landmark case <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/obergefell-v-hodges/">Obergefell v. Hodges</a>, conservatives began targeting transgender rights. </p>
<p>Conservatives again trained their focus on nondiscrimination measures – this time those prohibiting gender identity discrimination. They misleadingly argued that any measure protecting transgender individuals would place cisgender girls and women – individuals whose gender identity and birth-assigned sex are both female – at risk by <a href="https://www.charlotteobserver.com/living/health-family/article74652892.html">allowing men dressed as women</a> to use women’s locker rooms and restrooms. </p>
<p>There is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-018-0335-z">no evidence</a> supporting this claim. Yet there is <a href="https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/transgender-teens-restricted-bathroom-access-sexual-assault/">significant evidence</a> of health and safety <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/without-federal-protections-trans-students-face-potential-health-crisis-n725156">risks to transgender students</a> if they are prohibited from using bathrooms that reflect their gender identity.</p>
<h2>Significant costs</h2>
<p>Anti-transgender athlete and health care bills follow a similar approach. Advocates for bills targeting trans female athletes claim that transgender teammates will “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/transgender-rights-biden-sports/2021/03/03/24d1645e-7c38-11eb-a976-c028a4215c78_story.html">ruin women’s sports forever</a>.” </p>
<p>Supporters of anti-trans health care bills claim that children are being pressured to employ these therapies, by physicians and parents, and <a href="https://khn.org/news/article/flurry-of-bills-aim-to-set-limits-on-transgender-kids-and-their-doctors/">describe the effects as permanent and scarring</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-arkansas-law-and-similar-bills-endanger-transgender-youth-research-shows/">There is little empirical evidence</a> to back up these assertions. Puberty blockers are an increasingly common treatment precisely because they provide a <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/10/22/18009020/transgender-children-teens-transition-detransition-puberty-blocking-medication">reversible and less invasive</a> option for transgender adolescents and are provided only with the patient’s fully informed consent. Cross-gender hormone treatments, which are typically provided in later adolescence, are also <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-arkansas-law-and-similar-bills-endanger-transgender-youth-research-shows/">relatively low-risk</a>. </p>
<p>And there is little evidence to suggest that transgender female athletes in K-12 settings are unfairly outcompeting their cisgender competitors – <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/22334014/trans-athletes-bills-explained">particularly if they have been on puberty blockers</a>. In fact, conservative legislators have pointed to only one instance in their campaigns, when <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2021/04/15/transgender-athletes-womens-sports-title-ix/">two trans female athletes</a> in Connecticut took first and second place in a 2017 statewide track tournament. Several cisgender female athletes who lost, unsuccessfully <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/judge-tosses-suit-sought-block-transgender-athletes-rcna758">attempted to sue</a> state officials for permitting transgender athletes to compete.</p>
<p>A far more common story is the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/lawmakers-unable-to-cite-local-trans-girls-sports-914a982545e943ecc1e265e8c41042e7">relative obscurity</a> of transgender athletes in women’s sports and their similarities with their cisgender teammates. <a href="https://www.northcarolinahealthnews.org/2021/04/09/amid-lgbtq-rights-debate-few-trans-kids-play-in-high-school-sports-in-nc/">Many of the states</a> considering the legislation have no known trans female athletes or have trans female athletes who are performing on par with cisgender female teammates. </p>
<p>And even the cisgender Connecticut athletes who attempted to sue state officials had <a href="https://www.courant.com/sports/high-schools/hc-sp-chelsea-mitchell-terry-miller-55-meter-dash-state-open-20200222-zdwb7shfbnfrxajs2hgmdwutbi-story.html">prevailed</a> in several championship races against their transgender competitors shortly after filing their lawsuit. </p>
<p>But none of this has prevented bill supporters from stoking fears.</p>
<p>Researchers and healthcare providers do know, however, that the <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/04/11/beyond-bathroom-report-shows-laws-harm-transgender-students/100265266/">bills will harm</a> transgender young people.</p>
<p>Prohibiting gender-affirming care, like puberty blockers, or barring transgender-inclusive athletic teams imposes <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/04/22/transgender-child-sports-treatments/">real and devastating risks on transgender youths</a>. Transgender people who do not have access to the kinds of hormone therapies that are being outlawed are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2018.02.051">four times more likely</a> than cisgender people to struggle with depression.</p>
<p>They are also <a href="https://www.ustranssurvey.org/reports#USTS">nine times</a> more likely than cisgender individuals to attempt suicide.</p>
<p>Put simply, gender-affirming policies and <a href="https://theconversation.com/im-a-pediatrician-who-cares-for-transgender-kids-heres-what-you-need-to-know-about-social-support-puberty-blockers-and-other-medical-options-that-improve-lives-of-transgender-youth-157285">supportive health care therapies</a> are <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/puberty-blockers-linked-lower-suicide-risk-transgender-people-n1122101">lifesaving</a>. </p>
<p>Furthermore, if upheld in court, the athlete bills could require any female athlete to “prove” their gender to participate, potentially through <a href="https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/equality/548534-floridas-new-ban-on-transgender-students-in-sports-would">invasive physical examinations</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397965/original/file-20210429-21-f9nt1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A bus, painted with the words 'boys are boys' and 'girls are girls,' is parked on a Boston street." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397965/original/file-20210429-21-f9nt1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397965/original/file-20210429-21-f9nt1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397965/original/file-20210429-21-f9nt1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397965/original/file-20210429-21-f9nt1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397965/original/file-20210429-21-f9nt1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397965/original/file-20210429-21-f9nt1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397965/original/file-20210429-21-f9nt1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The ‘Free Speech Bus,’ painted with the words ‘boys are boys’ and ‘girls are girls,’ is parked on a Boston street on March 30, 2017. A spokesman for the group behind the bus said organizers are pushing back against greater acceptance of transgender people.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Anti-TransgenderBus/fb0141f0fc0e43e88340a604cabf5566/photo?Query=anti-transgender&mediaType=photo&sortBy=creationdatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=26&currentItemNo=9">AP Photo/Steven Senne</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Political landscape</h2>
<p>Conservatives may be using these bills – which some describe as “<a href="https://slate.com/human-interest/2021/03/anti-trans-bills-republicans-sports-bathroom-discrimination.html">erasing transgender youth</a>” – to catalyze Republican voters to participate in upcoming <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/05/gop-transgender-rights-women-sports-473746">midterm elections</a>. And the strategy could work. </p>
<p>Attempts to bar transgender athletes appeal to at least some <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/9/5/20840101/terfs-radical-feminists-gender-critical">self-described feminists</a>. And some high-profile women’s athletes have joined the fray, convening the <a href="https://womenssportspolicy.org/about-us/#mission">Women’s Sports Policy Working Group</a> in order to “<a href="https://ctmirror.org/2019/07/22/transgender-issues-polarizes-womens-advocates-a-conundrum/">protect</a>” cisgender female athletes from trans athlete inclusion.</p>
<p>Conservatives also used anti-trans-athlete talking points to oppose the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/02/24/969591569/house-to-vote-on-equality-act-heres-what-the-law-would-do">Equality Act</a>, a bill that would have added prohibitions against sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination to existing federal civil rights bills. The House passed a similar measure in 2021, but it failed to pass the Senate.</p>
<p>Transgender advocates have some recourse to fight the bills. <a href="https://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/ncaa-board-governors-statement-transgender-participation">Corporate backlash</a> is one option. Litigation is another. Advocates for transgender rights have secured <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/09/03/transgender-rights-supreme-court-win-propels-lower-court-victories/5647161002/">legal victories</a> in state and federal court challenges involving bathrooms and locker rooms. More recently, a federal judge in Idaho blocked that state’s anti-<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/18/us/idaho-transgender-athletes-ban-blocked/index.html">transgender athletes</a> bill passed in 2020. </p>
<p>And the Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling in <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/bostock-v-clayton-county-georgia/">Bostock v. Clayton County</a>, which protects LGBTQ individuals from certain forms of discrimination, seems at first blush to support transgender student equality. But the Bostock case is relatively new, its application to sports and health care untested and political fervor is mounting. With a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/26/politics/supreme-court-conservative/index.html">solid conservative majority</a> on the Supreme Court – and in <a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/majority-of-u-s-appeals-courts-now-have-gop-appointed-edge">federal courts</a> across the country – legal battles may be unreliable.</p>
<p>In the meantime, transgender young people across the country are contemplating a more uncertain and dangerous future for themselves and their parents. Some are working with their parents to <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/04/12/arkansas-trans-minors-law-endangers-lives-snubs-doctors-experts-say/7144794002/">find out-of-state sources</a> for puberty blockers. Others are contemplating <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/it-s-not-safe-parents-transgender-kids-plan-flee-their-n1264506">moves to less hostile</a> states. All of this because conservatives have channeled trumped-up claims into harmful legislation that outlaws and endangers transgender youth, in an attempt to further divide American voters.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/anti-transgender-bills-are-latest-version-of-conservatives-longtime-strategy-to-rally-their-base-158296">article originally published</a> on May 6, 2021.</em></p>
<p>[<em>The Conversation’s Politics + Society editors pick need-to-know stories.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?nl=politics&source=inline-politics-need-to-know">Sign up for Politics Weekly</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178377/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alison Gash does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Bills barring transgender teens from girls’ sports and moves to investigate parents of trans children for potential crimes provide an uncertain and dangerous future for many.Alison Gash, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of OregonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1690132021-12-08T13:37:23Z2021-12-08T13:37:23ZTrans people have a long history in Appalachia – but politicians prefer to ignore it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435863/original/file-20211206-15-nrbp9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=189%2C395%2C5240%2C2908&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Parents and activists who support transgender rights rally before a school board meeting on Aug. 10, 2021, in Ashburn, Virginia.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/charlotte-mcconnell-of-sterling-va-leads-a-rally-of-parents-news-photo/1234616774?adppopup=true">Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In recent public debate throughout the South, transness – the fact of being transgender – is <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/political-minds/202012/new-book-irreversible-damage-is-full-misinformation">framed as a kind of new social contagion</a>.</p>
<p>Count me among the afflicted.</p>
<p>When I first moved to Appalachia in 2015, I expected to find a hostile environment for my own transition. Instead, I met trans people of all ages whose stories demonstrate that there is nothing new about being transgender in southwest Virginia.</p>
<p>Yet this remarkable history is all but forgotten. </p>
<p>When politicians frame transgender youth as a new phenomenon, they ignore the fact <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/histories-of-the-transgender-child">that gender nonconforming young people have existed for generations</a>. Without a historical perspective, decisions can be made that negatively impact young people. </p>
<p>For example, recent legislation in the South has focused on <a href="https://theconversation.com/anti-transgender-bills-are-latest-version-of-conservatives-longtime-strategy-to-rally-their-base-158296">prohibiting transgender youths</a> from a variety of activities, including <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/oct/26/texas-signs-into-law-bill-banning-transgender-athletes-from-school-sports">school athletics</a> and lifesaving <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/states-pursue-wave-anti-lgbtq-laws-cities-move-direction-rcna5890">health care</a>.</p>
<p>In southwest Virginia, <a href="https://wset.com/news/local/russell-co-school-board-unanimously-rejects-vdoe-transgender-issues-model-policy">several county school boards</a> in the <a href="https://newsadvance.com/news/local/education/watch-now-in-split-vote-bedford-school-board-rejects-state-model-policies-on-treatment-of/article_e09bd5c2-f0b7-11eb-9e7b-a78828caa0f9.html">summer of 2021</a> voted to reject new state guidelines aimed at providing support for transgender students. </p>
<p>And in November, Glenn Youngkin won the Virginia governorship on a platform of “<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/how-white-women-helped-propel-republicans-victory-virginia-n1283153">parents’ rights</a>,” building on <a href="https://www.virginiamercury.com/2021/10/29/in-2020-the-legislature-passed-a-transgender-students-rights-law-it-largely-hasnt-been-enforced/">the furor of parents</a> regarding the state’s overreach on curricular matters and policies regarding trans students. </p>
<p>This ongoing panic over transgender bodies is evidence of the increasing visibility of transgender people in rural America. As a <a href="https://gsrosenthal.com/">trans woman</a> who <a href="https://directory.roanoke.edu/faculty/rosenthal">researches and writes about transgender history</a>, I know this history well.</p>
<h2>Local transgender voices</h2>
<p>In my book “<a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469665801/living-queer-history/">Living Queer History: Remembrance and Belonging in a Southern City</a>,” I write about Miss Carolyn. She grew up in rural West Virginia in the 1950s and 1960s. </p>
<p>As she tells it: “I always been Carolyn from 5 all the way up to 67. But I always been, I always know the way I was.” As a teenager, she would sneak out late at night with a friend, both of them dressed in women’s clothes, and dance sexily down the streets. </p>
<p>But it wasn’t until she moved to Roanoke, Virginia, in 1972 that she was able to become her full self. She started performing on area stages as a queen and worked downtown as a sex worker. In an era of desegregation, she became the first Black queen to win the region’s premier drag pageant in 1975.</p>
<p>When a college student interviewed her in 2018 about her life, she said some people call her “she,” some call her “he,” and she doesn’t mind which you use. She said that the word “transgender” wasn’t a thing when she was growing up and coming out, but if she had known what she knows now she would have claimed “transgender” for herself. </p>
<p>Carolyn was not alone. She mentored several other queens in Roanoke who worked at nightclubs and in the streets.</p>
<p>One of those performers was a young white trans woman named Rhoda who grew up in Roanoke in the 1950s. While attending college, Rhoda underwent “a battery of psychological tests,” as she put it. Ultimately, a doctor at the University of Virginia’s <a href="https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/r781wg07h">Gender Identity Program</a> prescribed her with the hormones estrogen and progestin. </p>
<p>By the time she took the stage in Roanoke in 1977 she had visible breasts. She had recently changed her legal identification and was preparing to marry a man and live her life as a woman. </p>
<p>“I’m a transsexual – a woman,” she told <a href="http://lgbthistory.pages.roanoke.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/40/2020/02/Long-Road-from-Man-to-Woman.pdf">a local magazine in 1977</a>. “Ever since I can remember, that’s the way I’ve felt.” </p>
<p>Outside the world of clubs, another white trans woman named Rona was a local activist who in the 1970s distributed <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Transvestite_and_His_Wife/pwXaAAAAMAAJ?hl=en">literature about transgender families</a> to local public libraries. </p>
<p>She also made sure local police departments had up-to-date information on transgender people. In 1980, she helped to found the first transgender organization in southwest Virginia, a budding chapter of the national <a href="https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8dz0bfv/#:%7E:text=Society%20for%20the%20Second%20Self%20(Tri%2DEss)%20Records&text=Tri%2DEss%20is%20a%20non,or%20spouses%2C%20and%20their%20families.&text=Tri%2DEss%20is%20a%20member,International%20Foundation%20for%20Gender%20Education.">Society for the Second Self</a>, or Tri-Ess. Rona raised the issue of transgender rights in southwest Virginia five decades before local school boards here would return to the issue.</p>
<h2>Trans youth and trans history</h2>
<p>Transgender history has the power to shape contemporary experiences of belonging. For trans youths in rural communities, history can be a tool not just for knowing the past but for reimagining our present.
These stories let young people know that they are not alone, that they are not the first to struggle, and that they have a right to be here. </p>
<p>For several years I co-led a workshop with the <a href="http://lgbthistory.pages.roanoke.edu">Southwest Virginia LGBTQ+ History Project</a> at a summer camp for LGBTQ teenagers in the Appalachian Mountains. This workshop, “Living Trans History,” asked participants, some of whom were as young as middle school age, to read excerpts from oral histories with trans elders. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435866/original/file-20211206-17-hslz4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People hold placards." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435866/original/file-20211206-17-hslz4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435866/original/file-20211206-17-hslz4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435866/original/file-20211206-17-hslz4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435866/original/file-20211206-17-hslz4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435866/original/file-20211206-17-hslz4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435866/original/file-20211206-17-hslz4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435866/original/file-20211206-17-hslz4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Supporters celebrate transgender protection measures that were voted into the school systems policies, at the Loudoun County Public Schools Administration Building on Aug. 11, 2021, in Ashburn, Virginia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/supporters-of-policy-8040-celebrate-with-signs-as-the-news-photo/1234630509?adppopup=true">Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After reading the transcripts, the youths were put into small groups and tasked with developing short theatrical performances that brought these elders’ stories to life. One group created a skit focused on the role of the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/12/02/religious-groups-policies-on-transgender-members-vary-widely/">church in denouncing gender nonconformity</a>. Another performance centered on a trans woman who found an unlikely home in a rough-and-tumble bar. Another was about a sex worker who worked the streets of Roanoke. </p>
<p>After their performances, we asked the campers to reflect on their experiences with these stories. They highlighted the similarities and differences across the generations and remarked on their new understanding of themselves. They also realized that they were not the first trans people to live in southwest Virginia, a recognition that can foster a renewed sense of meaning and belonging.</p>
<p>If rural transgender history is brought to light, perhaps it will help communities such as mine remember that trans people have always been here.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 140,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletters to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-140ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>Transness itself is a reminder of the past – an assigned sex, a given name, a pubescent body. It is difficult for trans people to escape from that history, and it can feel like abuse. Perhaps that’s why <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674032392">queer studies scholar Heather Love writes</a> that for LGBTQ people, “The challenge is to engage with the past without being destroyed by it.”</p>
<p>Trans youths experience the abuse of having their own personal histories used against them by school administrators and sometimes by their own parents. But they deserve to know a richer archive than just what’s printed on their birth certificates. Trans history has the power to transform. It gives communities the tools they need for making safer spaces for all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169013/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>G. Samantha Rosenthal is co-founder of the Southwest Virginia LGBTQ+ History Project </span></em></p>The ongoing debate over transgender rights in rural America frames transness as a nascent movement, ignoring a long undercurrent of transgender history that is all but forgotten.G. Samantha Rosenthal, Associate Professor of History, Roanoke CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/940582018-04-02T10:48:18Z2018-04-02T10:48:18ZTrump’s military policy overlooks data on why transgender troops are fit to serve<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212750/original/file-20180330-189810-1cj8do9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Transgender U.S. Army Capt. Jennifer Sims lifts her uniform.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Matthias Schrader</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Trump administration <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-military-transgender/trump-moves-to-limit-transgender-individuals-from-military-service-idUSKBN1H002S">released a memorandum</a> on March 23 that imposes limits on transgender troops and excludes transgender people from enlistment in the U.S. military.</p>
<p>The policy states that individuals with a history of “gender dysphoria” are now disqualified from military service “except under certain limited circumstances.” It defines people with gender dysphoria as “those who may require substantial medical treatment, including through medical drugs or surgery.” This is a deviation from the medical definition of <a href="https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/gender-dysphoria/what-is-gender-dysphoria">gender dysphoria</a>. The American Psychiatric Association defines it as “a conflict between a person’s physical or assigned gender and the gender with which he/she/they identify.” </p>
<p>Since 2014, we <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=wp2X-ukAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">have been working</a> with transgender service members and veterans to better <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=9Da_uOkAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">understand their experiences</a>. Our work is part of a large and growing body of scientific research President Donald Trump, and conservatives more broadly, have ignored. </p>
<p>The evidence is conclusive: Transgender people are fit to serve in the U.S. military.</p>
<h2>Medical rationale</h2>
<p>In the U.S., transgender individuals were officially barred from serving in the armed forces starting in the 1960s. The early prohibition was based on a <a href="http://www.trans-health.com/2005/rethinking-gid-terminology-dsm/">now-outdated psychiatric classification</a>. Until 2013, the American Psychiatric Association classified transgender people as having “gender identity disorder.” This disqualified them for military service, along with anyone else who exhibited a mental disorder.</p>
<p>Since the 1980s, the U.S. armed forces <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/IN10264.pdf">barred service</a> of any person with a “current or history of psychosexual conditions including but not limited to exhibitionism, transsexualism, transvestism, voyeurism, and other paraphilia.” This view conflates transgender identity with mental illness and distress. It assumes that all transgender people experience <a href="https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/gender-dysphoria/what-is-gender-dysphoria">gender dysphoria</a>. That is false.</p>
<p>In 2015, the American Medical Association adopted a <a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/content/ama-adopts-new-policies-improve-health-nation-first-day-voting-annual-meeting">formal policy</a> stating that there is no medical rationale for excluding transgender people from openly serving in the military.</p>
<h2>Serving under a ban</h2>
<p>Transgender people have long served in the armed forces. The Williams Institute, a think tank at the University of California in Los Angeles, <a href="https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/Transgender-Military-Service-May-2014.pdf">estimates</a> that roughly 134,000 transgender Americans hold veteran status.</p>
<p>About 15,000 transgender people are currently serving across all branches of the U.S. armed forces, including the National Guard and Reserve forces. The vast majority have served under the transgender ban.</p>
<p>In our research, <a href="http://tsq.dukejournals.org/content/2/4/584.abstract">we have found</a> that transgender service members have had to conceal their identities. In fact, among the <a href="http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/trgh.2015.0002">transgender service members we surveyed</a> under the transgender military ban, only 16.2 percent reported being “out” as transgender to friends within their military unit. Only 5.6 percent were out to their commanding officer. This has limited their access to support services and health care, and made it difficult to gain institutional recognition.</p>
<p>It is also in stark contrast to their personal lives. The majority of those surveyed reported being out to immediate family members (72.2 percent) and nonmilitary friends (69.4 percent). </p>
<p>Our findings suggest that transgender individuals enlist for many of the same reasons as cisgender men and women, those whose assigned sex at birth corresponds with their gender identity. Transgender people are motivated by educational goals, career aspirations, travel, family history, patriotism and stability. Transgender service members <a href="http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/trgh.2015.0002">also report</a> few mental or physical health issues that would limit them from meeting fitness criteria.</p>
<p>Research conducted by the nonprofit <a href="https://www.rand.org/nsrd/ndri.html">RAND National Defense Research Institute</a> has found similar evidence. RAND was commissioned by the government to conduct a wide-ranging external study to assess the impact of transgender service.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1530.html">RAND reported</a> that extending health care coverage for gender transition–related treatments would create only small increases in the budgets for the Department of Defense and Homeland Security. It estimated increases between US$2.4 million to $8.4 million, which represented only 0.04 to 0.13 percent of the departments’ budgets. That is in direct contrast to President Trump’s statement in July 2017 that it would incur “<a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cost-of-medical-care-for-transgender-service-members-would-be-minimal-studies-show/">tremendous medical costs</a>.” The report also noted that transgender service has minimal impact on unit readiness and cohesion. It recommended that military fitness policies align with contemporary medical standards.</p>
<h2>Impact of a military ban</h2>
<p>President Trump’s memorandum referenced inaccurate information. It undermines several rigorous scientific studies, peer-reviewed publications, the expert opinions of <a href="http://archive.palmcenter.org/files/Transgender%20Military%20Service%20Report.pdf">military leaders and officers</a>, and the medical recommendations of our nation’s leading professional organizations.</p>
<p>Most concerning, however, in our opinion, is that the current commander-in-chief discredits the service and sacrifices of tens of thousands of transgender veterans and service members. They have served and will continue to proudly serve our country despite persistent injustice and inequality.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94058/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brandon Hill received funding from The Palm Center.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua Barnett received funding from The Palm Center.</span></em></p>Here’s the research that explains why President Donald Trump’s limits on transgender military service may be struck down in court again.Brandon Hill, Executive Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Inquiry and Innovation in Sexual and Reproductive Health, University of ChicagoJoshua Trey Barnett, Professor of Rhetoric, University of Minnesota DuluthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/831332018-01-09T11:20:50Z2018-01-09T11:20:50ZFit to serve: Data on transgender military service<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199496/original/file-20171215-17842-em08j9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Transgender U.S. Army captain Jennifer Sims lifts her uniform.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Matthias Schrader</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As of Jan. 1, transgender individuals are allowed to openly enlist and continue serving in the U.S. military without fear of being discharged. </p>
<p>President Donald Trump issued a ban on transgender military service in August 2017. It was <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4163521/10-30-17-Doe-v-Trump-Order.pdf">struck down</a> by U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly last fall. In December, the <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2017-12-12/pentagon-to-allow-transgender-people-to-enlist-in-military">Pentagon announced</a> it would allow transgender people to enlist in 2018.</p>
<p>In a strongly worded 76-page <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/10/30/560847850/federal-judge-blocks-trumps-ban-on-transgender-service-members">opinion</a>, Kollar-Kotelly wrote: “There is absolutely no support for the claim that the ongoing service of transgender people would have any negative effects on the military.”</p>
<p>And she’s right. Since 2014, we have been working with transgender service members and veterans to better understand their experiences. It is part of a large and growing body of scientific research President Trump, and conservatives more broadly, have ignored.</p>
<h2>Medical rationale</h2>
<p>In the United States, transgender individuals were officially barred from serving in the armed forces starting in the 1960s. The early prohibition was based on a <a href="http://www.trans-health.com/2005/rethinking-gid-terminology-dsm/">now-outdated psychiatric classification</a>. Until 2013, the American Psychiatric Association classified transgender people as having “gender identity disorder.” This disqualified them for military service, along with anyone else who exhibited a mental disorder.</p>
<p>Since the 1980s, the U.S. armed forces <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/IN10264.pdf">barred service</a> of any person with a “current or history of psychosexual conditions including but not limited to exhibitionism, transsexualism, transvestism, voyeurism, and other paraphilia.” However, the view that transgender people have a pathological condition conflates transgender identity with mental illness and distress. It assumes that all transgender people experience <a href="https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/gender-dysphoria/what-is-gender-dysphoria">gender dysphoria</a>. Gender dysphoria relates to distress caused when an individual’s assigned sex at birth is incongruent with their current gender identity or expression. Not all transgender people experience it.</p>
<p>In 2015, the American Medical Association adopted a <a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/content/ama-adopts-new-policies-improve-health-nation-first-day-voting-annual-meeting">formal policy</a> stating that there is no medical rationale for excluding transgender people from openly serving in the military.</p>
<h2>Serving under a ban</h2>
<p>Transgender people have long served in the armed forces. The Williams Institute, a think tank at the University of California in Los Angeles, <a href="https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/Transgender-Military-Service-May-2014.pdf">estimates</a> that roughly 134,000 transgender Americans hold veteran status. </p>
<p>About 15,000 transgender people are currently serving across all branches of the U.S. armed forces, including the National Guard and Reserve forces. The vast majority have served under the transgender ban. </p>
<p>In our research, <a href="http://tsq.dukejournals.org/content/2/4/584.abstract">we have found</a> that transgender service members have had to conceal their identities. In fact, among <a href="http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/trgh.2015.0002">transgender service members surveyed</a> under the transgender military ban, only 16.2 percent reported being “out” as transgender to friends within their military unit. Only 5.6 percent were out to their commanding officer. </p>
<p>This was in stark contrast to the personal lives of service members where the majority of those surveyed reported being out to immediate family members (72.2 percent) and nonmilitary friends (69.4 percent). This has limited their access to support services and health care, and made it difficult to gain institutional recognition.</p>
<p>Our findings also suggest that transgender individuals enlist for many of the same reasons as cisgender men and women, those whose assigned sex at birth corresponds with their gender identity. Transgender people are motivated by educational goals, career aspirations, travel, family history, patriotism and stability. Transgender service members <a href="http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/trgh.2015.0002">also report</a> few mental or physical health issues that would limit them from meeting fitness criteria.</p>
<p>Research conducted by the nonprofit <a href="https://www.rand.org/nsrd/ndri.html">RAND National Defense Research Institute</a> has found similar evidence. RAND was commissioned by the government to conduct a wide-ranging external study to assess the impact of transgender service.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1530.html">RAND reported</a> that the Departments of Defense Homeland Security would incur only small increases in annual health care cost, estimated between US$2.4 million to $8.4 million, representing only .04 to .13 percent of the budget. That is in direct contrast to President Trump’s justification for the ban, as he cited <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cost-of-medical-care-for-transgender-service-members-would-be-minimal-studies-show/">“tremendous medical costs</a>.” Further, the report observed that transgender service has minimal impact on unit readiness and cohesion. And, it recommended that military fitness policies align with contemporary medical standards.</p>
<h2>Impact of a military ban</h2>
<p>President Trump’s memorandum referenced inaccurate information. Further, the administration’s effort undermines several rigorous scientific studies and peer-reviewed publications, the expert opinions of <a href="http://archive.palmcenter.org/files/Transgender%20Military%20Service%20Report.pdf">military leaders and officers</a>, and the medical recommendations of our nation’s leading professional organizations. </p>
<p>Most concerning, however, is that the current commander-in-chief discredits the service and sacrifices of tens of thousands of transgender veterans and service members. They have served and will continue to proudly serve our country despite persistent injustice and inequality.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83133/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brandon Hill received funding from The Palm Center. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua Barnett received funding from The Palm Center. </span></em></p>Here’s the research that explains why President Donald Trump’s ban on transgender military service was so easily struck down.Brandon Hill, Executive Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Inquiry and Innovation in Sexual and Reproductive Health, University of ChicagoJoshua Trey Barnett, Professor of Rhetoric, University of Minnesota DuluthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/847472017-10-09T09:24:30Z2017-10-09T09:24:30ZFive ways Donald Trump is rolling back the Obama years – or trying to<p>In the absence of any clear ideology associated with Donald Trump’s US presidency, it does seem he has at least one obvious priority that transcends the hype and spin: he is determined to <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/21/politics/donald-trump-barack-obama-legacy/index.html">undo his predecessor’s legacy</a>. </p>
<p>Trump’s efforts to “repeal and replace” have had mixed success, just as Obama’s efforts to build that legacy in the first place were stymied by the 2010 Republican takeover of the House of Representatives. Obama did push <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/08/05/executive-directives-and-misdirection/?utm_term=.8ea73fd5719c">executive branch authority to its limits</a> – most notably when it came to the diplomatic thaw with Cuba – but relying on administrative powers to bring about change was a second-best way of building a robust legacy. </p>
<p>Eight months into his term, Trump has added no major legislative achievements to his name, but he too has used executive powers to chip away at the achievements of his predecessor. Here are some examples of where his administration has tried to roll things back so far.</p>
<h2>Healthcare</h2>
<p>As a candidate Trump broke with conservative orthodoxy on some key social policy issues, notably in his support for the government-run Medicare and social security programmes. But he joined with Republicans to vociferously denounce Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/26/us/politics/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-affordable-care-act.html">Affordable Care Act</a>, better known as “Obamacare”. </p>
<p>Through 2017 congressional Republicans advanced various proposals and the House passed the American HealthCare Act in May, only for this bill to die a death in the Senate. The GOP’s narrow 52–48 majority means there is little room for internal party dissent, giving some voice to the few remaining moderates. The final week in September brought the year’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/23/us/obamacare-repeal-graham-cassidy-mccain-trump.html?emc=edit_th_20170924&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=5348137">last-ditch effort at repeal</a>, since the Senate’s arcane rules dictate that the use of the “reconciliation” process, which would preclude any Democratic filibuster of reform, ended on September 30.</p>
<h2>Trade and tarriffs</h2>
<p>Trump has consistently attacked trade deals that he claims are bad for American workers. Through the campaign he lambasted the North American Free Trade Agreement, which dates back to the George H W Bush and Clinton presidencies, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/06/opinion/campaign-stops/global-trade-war-trump-edition.html">and suggested that</a> the US might impose significant new tariffs on Chinese imports. He was also scornful of the Trans Pacific Partnership, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/15/world/asia/the-trans-pacific-trade-deal-and-a-presidents-legacy.html">a deal the Obama administration had negotiated</a> with 11 other countries and which encompasses almost 40% of the world’s economy. Here Trump promptly fulfilled his promise and withdrew the US from the agreement, which had yet to come into effect. Regarding other deals while Trump’s rhetoric remained fiery, he has mainly instructed <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/04/29/100-days-trump-order-review-free-trade-agreements-commerce/101066150/">that they be reviewed rather than revoked</a>.</p>
<h2>Funding family planning overseas</h2>
<p>On his first day in office Trump signed a memorandum reinstating the so-called Mexico City policy, which prevents federal funding from going to NGOs that perform or promote abortion as a means for family planning as part of their work. In May, Trump had <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/15/us/politics/trump-gag-rule-abortion.html">announced</a> that it would expand the range of activities that would be prohibited under what critics call the “global gag” rule. The US would save around US$500m a year and Trump scores a win with his socially conservative base, while the number of abortions carried out in Sub-Saharan Africa and other areas is likely to rise, rather than fall. While the funding ban does not affect American women directly, it sends a clear message to them that their president is sympathetic to those who oppose female reproductive autonomy.</p>
<h2>Transgender Americans in the armed forces</h2>
<p>In August 2017 the president reinstated a ban on transgender recruits signing up to the US Army, and a ban on the military paying for any related medical expenses or surgery. Responsibility for the decisions on what to do regarding the thousands of currently serving transgender army members was left to the generals. </p>
<p>Again, this presidential memo was a direct reaction to an Obama-era initiative. It remains a political flashpoint, and as of September 2017 a six-month delay in implementation has been put in place. Those in favour of the ban decry the notion of the army being used as a forum for “social experiment” while others argue that a person’s qualification and suitability for military service should be the only criteria that matters. Chelsea Manning responded to the ban <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/chelsea-manning-donald-trump-military-transgender_us_5978959fe4b0a8a40e84234d">by stating</a> that the armed forces “have always been a social experiment just as much as a fighting force”.</p>
<h2>Gun rights</h2>
<p>Speaking to the BBC in the summer of 2015, President Obama noted that his biggest regret as president was the failure to make any headway on gun control. In truth it was only after the Sandy Hook massacre, in which 20 primary school children and their six teachers were gunned down, that he made the issue a top priority. Despite sustained efforts to get Congress on board, his efforts were fruitless, and he was forced to resort to executive action in January 2016. This had symbolic and some substantial value, and if nothing else demonstrated he was prepared to take on the gun lobby. Trump, on the other hand, embraced the gun lobby as a candidate, which rewarded him by donating US$30m to his campaign. That investment began to pay off when President Trump, on February 28 2017, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-signs-bill-revoking-obama-era-gun-checks-people-mental-n727221">signed a bill</a> that undid one of Obama’s measures to strengthen background checks. </p>
<p>Even <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oct/06/las-vegas-shooter-may-have-planned-other-attacks">in the aftermath</a> of Las Vegas, the biggest mass shooting in modern America, little is likely to change. With 59 dead and hundreds injured, there might seem an opening for political dialogue on the widespread access to weapons of war, but opponents of more regulation will protest against “politicising the issue”. Trump and the Republican party will remain wedded to a culture promoting gun rights, emphatically reinforced by power of the National Rifle Association. Presidential thoughts and prayers, rather than actions, will have to suffice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84747/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Donald Trump seems vague on many policies except one: undoing as much of Barack Obama’s legacy as possible.Clodagh Harrington, Senior Lecturer in Politics, De Montfort UniversityAlex Waddan, Associate Professor in American Politics and American Foreign Policy, University of LeicesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/817962017-08-08T01:07:15Z2017-08-08T01:07:15ZThe military, minorities and social engineering: A long history<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181256/original/file-20170807-25556-1vddnfp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">LGBT veterans march in a Boston parade. Contrary to what some may say, the military has a long history of embracing socially marginalized groups.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Steven Senne</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On August 25 President Trump signed a directive reinstating a previous ban on transgender persons serving in the U.S. military, thereby continuing the perennial debate about the relationship between military service and social policy. </p>
<p>In an interview with the BBC after the president tweeted his intention to reverse Obama policy, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2017/07/28/trump-aide-transgender-troops-obama-era-social-engineering/520296001/">then White House adviser Sebastian Gorka</a> said the military “is there to kill people and blow stuff up. They’re not there to be socially-engineered.” </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Ash Carter, who as Barack Obama’s secretary of defense <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/06/30/pentagon-lifts-ban-transgender-troops/86551686/">lifted the ban</a> on transgender individuals in 2016, used similar terms <a href="http://poststar.com/news/national/govt-and-politics/the-latest-ash-carter-criticizes-trump-transgender-ban/article_1302525d-04c7-576c-a14c-efef31c42759.html">to condemn President’s Trump’s tweets</a>: “To choose service members on other grounds than military qualifications…is social policy and has no place in our military.”</p>
<p>In fact, as I found while researching the story of African-American soldiers and of immigrant recruits during World War I for my book <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/lostbattalions/richardslotkin/9780805081381">“Lost Battalions: The Great War and the Crisis of American Nationality</a>,” the armed forces have played a vital role in shaping American social policy toward the country’s minorities. </p>
<h2>Race and the right to serve</h2>
<p>The right to serve in the common defense has always been a fundamental civil right in the U.S. and a hallmark of full citizenship. </p>
<p>Originally, the prerogative to serve in the militia was restricted to “freemen” or citizens. A few blacks had served in state and federal units in the Revolutionary War and War of 1812. But it was not until the Civil War that blacks were generally allowed to enlist in the federal Army. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181258/original/file-20170807-3406-mjup89.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181258/original/file-20170807-3406-mjup89.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181258/original/file-20170807-3406-mjup89.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181258/original/file-20170807-3406-mjup89.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181258/original/file-20170807-3406-mjup89.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181258/original/file-20170807-3406-mjup89.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181258/original/file-20170807-3406-mjup89.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">African-American soldiers serving in the Union Army during the Civil War.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DutchGapb.jpg">Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Between the end of Reconstruction and the start of World War I, the U.S. underwent a demographic revolution. Cities and industrial towns were transformed by <a href="https://www.libertyellisfoundation.org/immigration-timeline">massive waves of immigration</a>. The arrival of large numbers of ethnic groups from hitherto untapped parts of Europe and Asia – groups whose language, culture and religion were strikingly alien – seemed to threaten existing cultural norms and social structures. </p>
<p>At the same time, beginning in the early years of the 20th century, the “<a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/long-lasting-legacy-great-migration-180960118/">Great Migration</a>” carried large numbers of black people out of the South. African-Americans became a national rather than regional minority. </p>
<p>Fear and resentment of these newcomers generated a political backlash. </p>
<p>Already in the period between 1890 and 1915, the South had established a new regime of <a href="http://www.tamupress.com/product/Folly-of-Jim-Crow,6978.aspx">oppressive racial laws known as Jim Crow.</a> In response to the Great Migration, <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Sweet_Land_of_Liberty.html?id=NA_UPxK6jroC">racial animus grew in the North</a>. In parallel to this, there was <a href="http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520269910">an anti-immigration movement</a> backed by both Populists and Republican “progressives.” Harvard President Lawrence Lowell stated <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=untfy7pCwWgC&pg=PA18&lpg=PA18&dq=%E2%80%9CIndians,+Negroes,+Chinese,+Jews+and+Americans+cannot+all+be+free+in+the+same+society.%E2%80%9D&source=bl&ots=sc111A9B4C&sig=WuOS2gAsv61x-uC6wkiq7tjD9gs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj7oc_NsL7VAhXGSyYKHa9OCy0Q6AEILTAB#v=onepage&q=%E2%80%9CIndians%2C%20Negroes%2C%20Chinese%2C%20Jews%20and%20Americans%20cannot%20all%20be%20free%20in%20the%20same%20society.%E2%80%9D&f=false">the core belief of these movements</a>: that “Indians, Negroes, Chinese, Jews and Americans cannot all be free in the same society.” </p>
<p>The crisis produced by American entry into World War I brought these movements up short. Suddenly the nation had to raise an army of millions from scratch, with the utmost speed. </p>
<h2>The Great War and a new social bargain</h2>
<p>There was no way to achieve that goal without enlisting large numbers of African-Americans and immigrants or “hyphenated Americans,” a derogatory term for immigrants first used at the turn of the century. It was in this crisis that American leaders rediscovered the ideals of civil equality that late 19th-century <a href="https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/ethnonationalism">ethno-nationalism</a> had called into question. </p>
<p>A wave of official publications produced by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-woodrow-wilsons-propaganda-machine-changed-american-journalism-76270">Committee on Public Information</a> now described the U.S. as a “vast, polyglot community,” whose <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_ideals_of_our_war.html?id=1QZFAAAAIAAJ">democratic ideal</a> was</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“higher than race loyalty, transcend[ing] mere ethnic prejudices, more binding than the call of a common ancestry … [an ideal] to which every citizen, of whatever race, may rally, without losing hold upon the best traditions of … his race, and the land of his nativity.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The official ideologists of America’s Great War offered minorities a new <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/lostbattalions/richardslotkin/9780805081381">social bargain</a>: recognition as Americans in exchange for loyal service in wartime. </p>
<p>Through the special <a href="http://www.tamupress.com/product/Americans-All,3082.aspx">Foreign Soldier Service</a>, a military agency organized to provide language and civics classes for the foreign-born, the Army would become a school for citizenship. Organizations representing minority communities – the Jewish Welfare Board, Knights of Columbus (for Italians) and various black church groups – were invited to provide support services in the training camps. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nps.gov/articles/immigrants-in-the-military-during-wwi.htm">Half a million immigrants</a> from more than 40 different nations would serve during the war. The 77th Division, initially recruited in greater New York, was noted for the high percentage of immigrants, especially Jews and Italians. But immigrants served in every division. Sergeant Alvin York of the 82nd Division, for example, the Tennessee mountain man and later war hero, <a href="http://books.wwnorton.com/books/Over-There/">found himself</a> “throwed in with a lot of Greeks, Italians and New York Jews.” </p>
<p>Over 350,000 African-Americans would serve with the American Expeditionary Forces in France. Units of the 93rd Division (including the “Harlem Hell Fighters” of the 369th Infantry) won distinction fighting as part of the French army. But most blacks were used as labor and support troops, and the combat units faced discrimination and mistreatment serving with the American Army. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181260/original/file-20170807-2667-1fmjcru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181260/original/file-20170807-2667-1fmjcru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181260/original/file-20170807-2667-1fmjcru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181260/original/file-20170807-2667-1fmjcru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181260/original/file-20170807-2667-1fmjcru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181260/original/file-20170807-2667-1fmjcru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181260/original/file-20170807-2667-1fmjcru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The 369th Infantry, better known as the ‘Harlem Hellfighters,’ challenged assumptions about the capability of African-Americans to serve in the military during World War I.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Colonel_Hayward%27s_%22Hell_Fighters%22_in_parade._The_famous_369th_Infantry_of_(African_American)_fighte_._._._-_NARA_-_533518.jpg">Public domain</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>From racial backlash to renewed liberalism</h2>
<p>Once the war ended, racial and ethnic fears and resentments reasserted themselves. </p>
<p>Jim Crow was violently reaffirmed by <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/redsummer/cameronmcwhirter/9781250009067/">lynchings and racial pogroms</a>, and in 1925 an <a href="http://cdm16635.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16635coll14/id/56025">Army report</a> distorted the combat record of its black units to justify policies limiting the role of black troops in future conflicts. </p>
<p>New policies of “race”-based exclusion were aimed against white ethnics too. The tone was set by Congress’ passage of the <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1921-1936/immigration-act">Reed-Johnson Act</a>, restricting immigration by ethnic groups deemed undesirable – Jews, Italians, Eastern Europeans. Most Ivy League colleges <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-ivy-leagues-history-of-discriminating-against-jews-2014-12">adopted formal quotas</a> limiting the number of Jewish students, and informal rules affecting Italian applicants. <a href="https://www.mappingprejudice.org/what-are-covenants/">Real estate “covenants”</a> barred Jews and other ethnic groups from purchasing or renting homes in certain towns or districts.</p>
<p>However, the war experience had roused the political consciousness of racial and ethnic minorities. Black civil rights organizations <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Freedom_Struggles.html?id=OrfLRKS4OloC">cited</a> their people’s record of military service in demanding an end to Jim Crow. New ethnic veterans organizations, most notably the <a href="http://example.com/">Jewish War Veterans</a>, were prominent in fighting for veterans’ benefits and civil rights. Blacks, Jews and other working-class ethnic groups gained influence <a href="https://millercenter.org/president/fdroosevelt/the-american-franchise">as part of the New Deal coalition</a>. </p>
<p>The crisis of mobilization for World War II recreated the opportunity for social change that had been squandered after World War I.</p>
<p>Once again the large-scale enlistment of black and ethnic minority soldiers was a necessity. And this time the conflict pitted Americans against the explicitly racist ideology of Nazism. The resemblance of Nazi race laws to the segregation and exclusion enforced by Jim Crow helped <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Double-Victory-Multicultural-History-America/dp/0316831565/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1501884588&sr=1-1&keywords=double+victory+a+multicultural+history+of+america+in+world+war+ii">discredit</a> the South’s racial regime with a broad public. And Hollywood played a critical role in transforming public opinion, through its production of war films, later known as <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=4Y_nBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA305&lpg=PA305&dq=richard+rorty+platoon+movie&source=bl&ots=jMzU4PP5dl&sig=O8Kp4ajApHTVRg0fqxIrPOSTnrs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwia1pLorrvVAhXi7YMKHYMpD7sQ6AEIJjAA#v=onepage&q=richard%20rorty%20platoon%20movie&f=false">“platoon movies.” </a></p>
<p>The pattern was set by “Bataan” in 1943, which symbolizes America in a small unit whose members include (in addition to some white regional types) a Jew, a Pole, an Irishman, two Filipinos and – most extraordinarily – an African-American. The U.S. Army was still racially segregated, but Hollywood deliberately set reality aside to create an ideal <a href="http://img.youtube.com/vi/EuO-zwORDJg/hqdefault.jpg">vision</a> of an integrated America. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/I1r_Q2HAstA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>The new vision: A diverse military for a diverse society</h2>
<p>It was this integrated vision that would shape post-war social change. White minorities were the first to benefit, pushing back against the patterns of discrimination that had barred Jews and Italians from employment, elite college admissions and housing. A new federal commitment to civil rights for African-Americans was signaled by <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2008/02/truman-desegregates-armed-forces-on-feb-2-1948-008258">President Truman’s 1948 decision</a> to racially integrate all military units. </p>
<p>As new laws (like the <a href="https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/civil-rights-act/civil-rights-act-of-1964.html">Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts of 1964-65</a> and <a href="https://www.si.com/vault/2012/05/07/106189983/title-ix-timeline">Title IX</a> in 1972) have mandated the increased inclusion of hitherto marginalized or excluded groups in the mainstream of economic and political life, those steps have registered in the makeup of our armed forces.</p>
<p>In a representation of today’s Army, a symbolic “platoon” would have to include many more African-Americans and Latinos, Asians of different national origins – and also women, and gays and lesbians.</p>
<p>Each act of inclusion has raised concerns about the effect on unit cohesion and military effectiveness. In 1948, for example, Army Secretary Kenneth Royall <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/08/01/most-americans-opposed-integrating-the-military-in-1948-most-americans-support-transgender-military-service-today/?utm_term=.99fcfc26c30c">declared</a> Truman’s order would lower the morale of the many white Southerners in the service, and that the Army should not be “an instrument for social evolution.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181261/original/file-20170807-25548-kcl2b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181261/original/file-20170807-25548-kcl2b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181261/original/file-20170807-25548-kcl2b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181261/original/file-20170807-25548-kcl2b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181261/original/file-20170807-25548-kcl2b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181261/original/file-20170807-25548-kcl2b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181261/original/file-20170807-25548-kcl2b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">LGBT soldiers, many serving openly, are an essential part of today’s military.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.fairchild.af.mil/News/Photos/igphoto/2001756535/">U.S. Air Force photo illustration by Senior Airman Michael Smith</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/08/01/would-transgender-troops-harm-military-effectiveness-heres-what-the-research-says/?utm_term=.5bb8a745a560">Similar objections</a> were raised to the integration of women, gays and lesbians into the military. Nevertheless, in these cases military leaders <a href="http://archive.palmcenter.org/publications/dadt/a_history_of_the_service_of_ethnic_minorites_in_the_u_s_armed_forces">achieved integration without loss – and indeed, generally with an enhancement of military effectiveness.</a></p>
<p>In the mass armies of the two World Wars, inclusion was mandated by the sheer size of the force. Now that we have an all-volunteer military, the requirement of inclusiveness is, if anything, greater, because force size and the mix of specialists cannot be augmented by mass conscription.</p>
<p>As Senator John McCain <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/26/politics/congress-reaction-transgender-military-policy/">recently said</a>, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We should all be guided by the principle that any American who wants to serve our country and is able to meet the standards should have the opportunity to do so – and should be treated as the patriots they are.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>Editor’s note: this is an updated version of an article originally published August 7, 2017.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81796/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard S. Slotkin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Whether it be African-Americans, Catholics or transgender people, the armed forces have played a vital role in shaping US social policy toward the country’s minorities.Richard S. Slotkin, Olin Professor of English and American Studies, Emeritus, Wesleyan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/817352017-08-02T01:18:25Z2017-08-02T01:18:25ZA trans soldier in the ancient Roman army?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180308/original/file-20170731-9675-dpkjfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C234%2C1059%2C434&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Roman army at the Battle of Cannae. The painting depicts the death of Roman consul Paulus Aemilius.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/The_Death_of_Paulus_Aemilius_at_the_Battle_of_Cannae.jpg">John Trumbull (The Athenaeum / Yale University Art Gallery), via Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On August 25 Donald Trump signed a directive <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/08/25/presidential-memorandum-secretary-defense-and-secretary-homeland">banning transgender people</a> from joining the U.S. military. This officially reverses the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/26/us/politics/trans-military-trump-timeline.html">inclusive policies</a> introduced during the Obama regime. Trump’s decision was, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/26/us/politics/trump-transgender-military.html?mcubz=1&_r=0">he claimed in earlier tweets</a>, based on the burdensome medical costs and disruption that accommodating transgender people in the military has allegedly caused.</p>
<p>The president’s directive put me, as a classics scholar, in mind of a rather obscure fable thought to be written in early imperial Rome by one of the Emperor Augustus’ freed slaves, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/telling-tales-on-caesar-9780199240951?cc=us&lang=en&#">Phaedrus</a>. In this fictional tale, a barbarian is threatening the troops of the military leader, Pompey the Great. All are afraid to challenge this fierce opponent until a <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=k1G2BQAAQBAJ&pg=PA453&lpg=PA453&dq=cinaedus+masterson&source=bl&ots=DuS6NIO-aG&sig=pOPxuYOMYdnec5Bc6ndZXbryK7o&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi1nd_csLbVAhWohlQKHTavBlMQ6AEILDAB#v=onepage&q=cinaedus%20masterson&f=false">“cinaedus”</a> steps forward to volunteer for combat. </p>
<p>Although foreign to us moderns, the cinaedus was a familiar figure to ancient Greeks and Romans, whose identity raised concerns about gender ambiguity.</p>
<h2>The cinaedus and the commander-in-chief</h2>
<p>The cinaedus was frequently mentioned in classical sources due to his brazen effeminacy, untoward sexual behavior (most often a “shocking” desire to be <a href="https://sententiaeantiquae.com/tag/kinaidos/">anally penetrated</a> by other men), and the ambiguous status of his genitalia. </p>
<p>This figure was first mentioned by Plato in the fourth century B.C., who says little more than that the cinaedus’ life was terrible, base and miserable. Other classical authors provide more <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3704392?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">detail</a>. </p>
<p>Martial, a Roman poet writing in the first century A.D., for instance, describes a cinaedus’ dysfunctional penis as like a “soggy leather strap” in one epigram. In the same century, the Roman novelist Petronius has a cinaedus suggest that both he and his fellows have had their genitals removed.</p>
<p>In Phaedrus’ fable, the “cinaedus” is described as a soldier of great size but with a cracked voice and mincing walk. After pleading permission in a stereotypically lisping manner from Pompey, his commander-in-chief, the cinaedus steps into battle. He quickly severs the barbarian’s head and, with army agog, is summarily rewarded by Pompey.</p>
<h2>What the cinaedus reveals about today</h2>
<p>Hold Phaedrus’ fable up and some easy similarities stand out with the situation today. The cinaedus is comparable to a contemporary trans person in that their expression of gender does not match the norms that their society – whether ancient or modern – expects of their sex as assigned at birth.</p>
<p>Ancient Greek and Roman sources show a bias against gender-variant people parallel to Trump’s current-day attitudes.</p>
<p>Both the recent directive and the ancient fable display discomfort with the idea of gender-ambiguous fighters, regardless of any true situation on the ground. And while Trump professes exclusion of transgender people <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/07/26/539470211/trump-says-transgender-people-cant-serve-in-military">on grounds of financial cost and disruption</a>, Phaedrus is a little more open about his motivations.</p>
<p>In Phaedrus’ fable, the cinaedus is untrustworthy. He is described as having stolen valuables from Pompey and then later swears on oath that he hasn’t. A clear connection is made between gender “deception” and treacherous behavior. </p>
<p>This, I believe, is the same unfounded gender panic that Trump is drawing on to appeal to his traditional support base.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180602/original/file-20170801-21062-rswmrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180602/original/file-20170801-21062-rswmrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180602/original/file-20170801-21062-rswmrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180602/original/file-20170801-21062-rswmrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180602/original/file-20170801-21062-rswmrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180602/original/file-20170801-21062-rswmrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180602/original/file-20170801-21062-rswmrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A rally in Times Square after President Donald Trump’s announcement of a ban on transgender troops in the U.S. military.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Frank Franklin II/AP Photo</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Gender diversity</h2>
<p>Such consistency in attitudes across millennia is rather depressing. Some points in redress, however, are worth considering. </p>
<p>There are notable differences between a cinaedus and a trans person. The cinaedus was thought of as male, albeit with questionable masculinity. He is only ever described as being effeminate, never as identifying with, or living as, the opposite gender. </p>
<p>In my own work, I use the term <a href="http://ejce.berkeley.edu/geneq/resources/lgbtq-resources/definition-terms">“gender diversity”</a> to point out loose, but still meaningful, connections between the ancient cinaedus with both modern trans people and others included under the <a href="http://theath.ca/features/the-missing-letters-beyond-lgbtqi/">LGBTQI+</a> umbrella.</p>
<p>The wide variety of effeminate men, masculine women, eunuchs and intersex individuals mentioned in classical sources suggests a breadth of experiences was possible outside of traditional gender norms. </p>
<p>There is some evidence of female masculinity in antiquity. The mythical women warriors of Greek mythology, the Amazons, might actually have had some basis in historical fact. In his book <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/postcolonial-amazons-9780199533374?cc=us&lang=en&#">“Postcolonial Amazons,”</a> scholar of ancient Greek <a href="http://history.sdsu.edu/faculty_and_staff/faculty_bios/w_penrose.htm">Walter Penrose</a> demonstrates that warrior women were prevalent and highly valued both in Scythian and ancient Indian cultures.</p>
<p>And although classical scholars have debated whether any actual individual in antiquity ever embraced the stigma of being openly called a cinaedus, a series of tax receipts, letters and temple inscriptions from Greco-Roman Egypt do <a href="http://eugesta.recherche.univ-lille3.fr/revue/pdf/2015/6.Sapsford-Eugesta-5_2015.pdf">document men</a> who were identified and notably identified themselves using this term. </p>
<h2>Being trans and surviving adversity</h2>
<p>The cinaedus has a long and persistent history. Being a topic of interest for writers from Plato in the fourth century B.C. through to Byzantine authors in the 11th century A.D., he is truly a survivor.</p>
<p>As gender studies scholar <a href="http://english.columbia.edu/people/profile/560">Jack Halberstam</a> writes, trans people will <a href="http://www.ucpress.edu/blog/29000/trumps-transgender-crisis">likewise survive Trump’s exclusionary tactics</a>. For, as Phaedrus’ little fable suggests, gender-diverse people have in all ages been capable of some mighty remarkable things. </p>
<p>Like the victorious soldier cinaedus, they can confound expectations and achieve results in some of the most extremely adverse situations.</p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This is an updated version of a story originally published August 1, 2017.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81735/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Sapsford does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An ancient Roman fable imagines a cinaedus, well-known for his brazen effeminacy, fighting heroically. The story raises concerns over gender identity in the military – much like those seen today.Tom Sapsford, Lecturer, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.