State representative James Roesener of Concord was among 14 transgender and non-binary legislators from across the country who signed a letter addressed to President Joe Biden last week to push back on his administration’s recently proposed Title IX policy change for transgender athletes.

In early April, the Biden administration released a plan to clarify the role Title IX plays in decisions about the ability of transgender athletes to participate in athletics. The proposal says that schools cannot institute blanket transgender athlete bans, however it articulates that universities and schools have the discretion to ban individuals if they believe an athlete would be at a competitive advantage.

“While we understand the administration may have been attempting to provide legal protections and clarity, in actuality these proposed rule changes will simply provide those who seek to deny us our rights a roadmap for how to do so,” the letter said.

“When discussing questions around fairness in sports, rather than granting credence to false narratives around the supposed advantages of trans athletes, we should instead be asking why trans people are so deeply underrepresented – in their participation, in their successes and in athletic scholarships.”

According to a 2022 Pew Research poll, just 0.6% of Americans identify as transgender; per estimates regarding NCAA athletes, there are roughly 50 transgender women who participate in women’s sports out of about 200,000 – that’s .025%.

But for those transgender athletes who are just trying to play the sports they love, appropriately addressing this issue remains central to Roesener, who became the first openly transgender man elected to a state house in the country with his election victory last November.

“We need legislation to function in a protective way that actually creates a roadmap for allowing us to continue to have our students participate, even in situations that are kind of tricky, even in situations where there is a level of unfairness or imbalance,” he said. “You need to figure out a solution, so that those students can actually participate in some way, instead of just saying, ‘You and your body are not qualified to fit what we think you should do.’”

How does the competitive advantage problem get addressed? First of all, Roesener argues, perhaps legislators and school officials need to recalibrate how they think about what that means.

For instance, height, weight and physical endurance are all considered characteristics of individuals; one athlete might be taller and more agile than another. Once a person’s sex is brought into the equation, though, that’s when competitive advantage becomes the issue. That’s not to say it shouldn’t be discussed, but shifting away from blanket assumptions helps produce more constructive dialogue.

“We need a more honest understanding of how our biology affects each person individually because it is disingenuous to split male and female down the middle and assert that one side is always going to be more powerful in every single way than the other,” Roesener said. “Yes, we need more understanding of how these biological factors affect us, but I think we need to keep in mind how they affect us as individuals. Chromosomes, sex, hormones don’t automatically ensure that someone’s going to be very good at one particular thing, physically or otherwise. If we have a more honest conversation about that, it really throws a lot of this transphobic fear out the window.”

In Roesener’s relatively short time in the NH House of Representatives, the legislature hasn’t taken up any bills regarding transgender students participating in athletics, and he said that he has not heard of a significant issue arising recently in the state.

“I sympathize with having concerns about fairness,” Roesener said. “(But) the implications of trans people being on the field, it’s very overblown. Very overblown.”

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