One thing that has come from efforts to keep transgender women out of women’s sports is the exposure of the perilous state of women’s sports.

I falsely assumed that women’s sports were thriving in the U.S. When I was in high school, my school didn’t even have a girls’ basketball program. Now, thanks to Title IX, girls’ sports are as plentiful as boys’ sports, and millions of girls play high school and college sports.

Then people started hollering that women’s sports are in such a precarious state that they needed to be saved.

Saved? From what? Overexposure? Attacks on Title IX? Vaccines? Antifa?

Nope. We are told that the threat to women’s sports is — drumroll, please — transgender women athletes.

Twenty-seven state legislatures have courageously saved women’s sports from the scourge of transgender women through laws banning them from competition. Several of those states reported fewer than five of these ponytailed menaces. Mississippi legislators couldn’t find a single one when they passed the nation’s first law banning their participation five years ago.

That’s Mississippi for you: Last in health care, last in income, first in legislation against phantom dangers.

There are only a few dozen transgender girls playing K-12 sports in the U.S., and, of approximately 500,000 athletes in women’s college sports, fewer than 10 are transgender.

If a handful of transgender girls can pose an existential threat to girls’ sports, those sports are more fragile than soap bubbles.

I ain’t buyin’ it.

The real motivation behind Mississippi’s pioneering campaign against transgender people is not about fair competition. It’s good old-fashioned Mississippi bigotry, another of our state’s specialties.

Transgender identity is one of several issues that went years without any real organized opposition, along with illegal immigration, unisex restrooms, diversity, equity and inclusion programs and abortion.

In 2014, The Dispatch told the story of Blossom Brown, a transgender woman who was a student at Mississippi University for Women. We braced ourselves for blowback from readers. If there were complaints, I don’t recall hearing them. So, as recently as 12 years ago, the prevailing reaction to transgender people in Columbus was more or less a shrug of the shoulders.

At some point, though, conservatives found a way to exploit transgender people for political gain.

The first line of attack was the idea that transgender women might assault our daughters if given access to women’s restrooms. Let’s be clear. That is a myth. There have been more cocaine bears (one) than assaults by transgender women in women’s restrooms (zero).

Presented with that knowledge, Mississippi’s legislators responded just the way we have come to expect**: They** passed a law banning transgender people from using the “wrong” restrooms in 2024.

It goes to show that if you beat the drum loudly enough and long enough, you can convince some people – in this case lots of people – of almost anything.

At some point, complaining about restrooms began to lose its political steam, though, because, really, how long can you stay mad at Target?

Not to worry. Along came University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, who had the good fortune of finishing in a fifth-place tie with a transgender opponent in a 2022 Olympic qualifying race. Although that result did not affect her chances of making the Olympics (she didn’t make the team), it did rescue her from a planned career in dentistry, instead launching her on a lucrative career in professional victimhood. She travels all over the country for paid speaking engagements. Attorney General Lynn Fitch is bringing her to speak at the Mississippi Women’s Summit in August.

If conservatives ever suffer a moment of guilty conscience, maybe they will admit that this has never been about the playing fields or restrooms. It’s about whether being transgender is accepted as a medical reality.

To them, being transgender is merely a matter of men dressing up in women’s clothing to gain an edge while ignoring the grim truth that being transgender is often a living hell no one would choose for themselves. To define being transgender as men dressing up like women (or vice versa) is deeply offensive. Of course, these are the same people who believe being gay is a lifestyle choice, you know, like kayaking.

It is bigotry in an age where bigotry is becoming accepted practice.

That is what people should be worried about.

Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].

Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].

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