Human Rights Campaign: The Real Threat to Women’s Sports Isn’t Trans Athletes – It’s Underfunding, Lack of Resources

As states across the country continue to debate and pass anti-transgender sports bans – bills that would prevent transgender girls from playing on sports teams that align with their gender identity – a new Human Rights Campaign analysis points out that the real threat to women’s sports is not allowing transgender young people to play; it is underfunding and lack of resources for collegiate women’s sports. HRC’s analysis of data from a USA Today series on Title IX found that colleges and universities in the 15 states that have passed or have pending anti-transgender sports bill spent $64 million more on men’s than women’s sports – spending only approximately $0.70 on women’s sports for every $1 spent on men’s sports

“States passing these bans are not only acting cruelly, but they are acting hypocritically. If they want to save women's sports, they should look in their own backyards, where public universities and colleges are consistently underfunding and underinvesting in women's sports, to the tune of millions of dollars,” said Shoshana K. Goldberg, Ph.D. MPH, Director of HRC’s Public Education & Research Program. “While extreme far-right leaders & legislators push to bar young transgender people from participating in sports, they ignore the real, meaningful ways that women’s sports can be made better. Rather than make meaningful change by giving dedicated athletes and hardworking coaches the resources they need, they choose to point a finger at young people who simply want to play sports and blame them for imagined problems. ”

Since the first law of its type was enacted in 2020, 16 states have either passed an anti-transgender sports ban or have bills from this session awaiting final disposition. In the states where anti-trans sports bans have passed and data is available, funding disparities are as follows: