Yet as of May, 19 states had passed laws banning or restricting transgender participation in sports despite the general lack of a problem to address. The number of athletes within that group is much smaller a 2017 survey by Human Rights Campaign suggested fewer than 15% of all transgender boys and transgender girls play sports. There are some 15.3 million public high school students in the United States and a 2019 study by the CDC estimated 1.8% of them - about 275,000 - are transgender. Without federal legislation to set parameters for this highly technical issue - on the front line of a culture divide that also includes abortion rights, gun control and “ replacement theory,” among other topics - high school athletic associations and legislatures in no fewer than 40 states have filled the void on their own. And it has always been complicated and nuanced.” “But people aren’t going to look at the underbelly because it’s complicated and nuanced. “We’re at a time where Title IX is going to be exploited and celebrated,” said Donna de Varona, the Olympic champion swimmer who heads the Women’s Sports Policy Working Group, which seeks a “middle way” to be inclusive of transgender athletes while also not “forcing” what it sees as unfair competition.
