Brianna Turner, a teammate of WNBA superstar Brittney Griner for the Phoenix Mercury, has made her stance very clear in the debate about whether or not transgender female athletes should be allowed to compete in women’s sports.
This week, Brianna Turner wrote an opinion piece for the Houston Chronicle declaring that while women’s sports face many threats, trans athletes are not one of them.
“As a Black woman and athlete, I have faced many challenges to equality in sports,” Turner wrote for the Houston Chronicle. “But the participation of transgender women and girls in women’s sports is not one of those challenges. I cannot understand why lawmakers in my home state of Texas have been targeting trans athletes in grade school, and now at the college level, who just want to play the sport they love with their friends.”
Turner went on to explain some of those “challenges to equality,” revealing that at the 2021 NCAA Tournament, female athletes were treated much differently than their male counterparts.
“The men had access to a massive gym with fancy equipment, while the women had free weights and yoga mats. The women received less food, and of a lower quality and variety, than the men, and the men even received outside sponsors for catering that were not extended to women’s teams,” Turner explained.
What was particularly frustrating to her is that while this was happening, people were pretending to care about protecting and supporting women’s sports by banning transgender athletes. And Turner called out that hypocrisy.
“At the same time this was happening, dozens of states across the country — including Texas — were working to ban kids from playing sports with their friends, all under the banner of ‘protecting women’s sports.’ I was floored. I actually think I laughed out loud. Keeping transgender women and girls out of sports is not protecting me or helping any women athletes,” Turner wrote.
“It’s not helping the incredibly talented women in the NCAA tournament achieve food, lodging, sponsorship or media coverage that’s equal to the men’s teams. It is not doing anything to address gender inequalities that have existed for decades in sports. It is not helping to fill the stands of half-empty regular season games — and in fact, research shows that trans-inclusive policies may boost participation in women’s sports.”
States across the country continue to move forward with bills that would ban transgender athletes from their participation in women’s sports, but Turner is standing firm against it.
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