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Opinion: Trump win means sports will again be gigantic (and frightening) battleground

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2 weeks ago

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Opinion: Trump win means sports will again be gigantic (and frightening) battleground

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Schuyler Bailar became the first transgender athlete to compete on an NCAA Division 1 men’s team in 2015 while swimming for Harvard. He’s an author and well-known LGBTQ activist. We spoke over a month ago about teams refusing to play (and in fact forfeiting games) against San Jose State because the team had a transgender player. Bailar said something brilliant then that applies now in a post-Donald Trump presidency world.

Sports is again going to be a target of Trump. It’s a certainty because Trump has done this before, both as a former President, and a candidate. He once attacked Colin Kaepernick. He’s attacked the NBA. Most recently, over the past few weeks leading up to the election, his campaign poured millions of dollars into ads attacking trans athletes.

“The Trump campaign understands that transgender care is not a top issue for voters — that’s not the point,” one former Trump administration aide told The Hill. “This is a stark reminder for the remaining undecided and low propensity voters in battleground states that (Vice President Kamala) Harris is no moderate.”

Bailar, like a Nostradamus, noted some time ago that politicians were using trans athletes to gain political power.

“There are people using trans athletes to get votes,” Bailar told USA TODAY Sports. “But I believe one of the big things is most people listening to the rhetoric are not evil. Most people protesting have good intentions but they’ve been tricked. They’ve just been tricked.”

Bailar then asked a question: “Can we exercise basic critical thinking? Can we control our fear? These are the basic things we need.”

That question Bailar, who is highly decent and empathetic, asks, is vital. These will be the questions moving forward not just with trans athletes but in sports overall. We need to ask the same questions.

The sports world will be more caustic because Trump, as he’s done before, will enter into the fray. Again, we know this, because he’s long done that and his interventions have led to some ugly moments.

In 2017, Trump urged NFL owners to fire players who refused to stand for the national anthem. In that same speech he said football wasn’t violent enough, and he disinvited the then NBA champion Golden State Warriors from the traditional White House visit.

“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a b—- off the field right now, out, he’s fired,’” Trump said.

LeBron James, after Trump’s tweet about Curry: “U bum @StephenCurry30 already said he ain’t going! So therefore ain’t no invite. Going to White House was a great honor until you showed up!” 

Trump going after players caused a massive response from them, league executives and even Commissioner Roger Goodell. “Divisive comments like these demonstrate an unfortunate lack of respect for the NFL, our great game and all of our players, and a failure to understand the overwhelming force for good our clubs and players represent in our communities,” Goodell said then in a statement.

If the election is any indication, Trump will also go after trans athletes, and in a big way. This is a potentially scary thing.

You may have seen the plethora of anti-trans ads from the Trump campaign which blanketed television (they showed up during numerous NFL games). These ads create a permission structure for trans hate.

Trump said in 2022 that if elected he would initiate a national ban preventing trans women from participating in women’s sports.

“We will ban men from participating in women’s sports,” Trump said. “So ridiculous.” (Spoiler alert: that doesn’t happen.)

Well, he’s obviously been elected again.

Who knows how he will do this? But what we strongly suspect is he will try. Another part of all of this is the danger to athletes who don’t fit the female narrative for some like Imane Khelif.

This will all be part of what’s going to be a possibly troubling sports universe.

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