Pro-player And Former Prisoner Griner Throws Support for Trans Athletes
Basketball star speaks out against proliferation of bans in sports
One of the nation's most prominent female athletes has come out strongly against the proliferation of laws and regulations across the country which bar transgender athletes from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity.
Anti-LGBTQ activists and politicians have introduced — and passed – laws to ban transgender youth from participating in school sports, most frequently in K-12 schools but sometimes including in college. These laws mean that transgender girls, for example, would not be allowed to participate in sports with other girls.
This is despite local schools and state athletic associations already having policies that both protect transgender people and ensure a level playing field for all athletes.
The issue has taken national prominence, recently, as the Republican-led House passed such a ban on the federal level, by way of a party-line vote. President Biden has promised to veto that legislation, but the House bill is unlikely to advance in the Democratic-controlled Senate regardless.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration this month put forward its own proposal that would forbid outright bans on transgender athletes, although teams could create some limits in certain cases — for example, to ensure fairness.
When a reporter asked professional basketball star Brittney Griner about the issue, she immediately threw her support to transgender athletes, calling attempts to outright ban their participation “a crime.”
A player for the Phoenix Mercury of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), Griner also is a two-time Olympic gold medalist.
She is also known for the nearly year she spent detained in Russia until late last year when she was released in a prisoner exchange worked out by the Biden administration.
“Oh, that ranks high on the list of things that I would be fighting for and speaking up against. You know, everyone deserves the right to play,” Griner said. “Everyone deserves the right to to come here, sit in these seats, and feel safe and not feel like they’re the threat or they can’t be who they are or like it’s just all eyes on them.
“So, I think it’s a crime, honestly, to separate someone for any reason, so I definitely will be speaking up against that legislation and those laws that are trying to be passed, for sure,” she added.
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