Inside The Trans Youth Sports Debate: Data, Fairness, And Real Solutions

We cut through the noise on trans youth in sport by examining real participation numbers, performance gaps after puberty, and the mental health stakes of belonging. We challenge glossy campaigns, map the current legal landscape, and offer a concrete idea to expand opportunity without sacrificing fairness.

• mission of athletes supporting athletes and signal versus noise
• critique of the ACLU More Than A Game campaign messaging
• overview of state laws and pending Supreme Court timelines
• mental health benefits for LGBTQ youth and risks in restrictive states
• participation rates in high school and college contexts
• sport-specific performance gaps and safety considerations
• human impact on girls’ and boys’ psychology in competition
• proposal to pilot dedicated trans competitions and open categories
• invitation for trans athletes and parents to share perspectives

You can find me at coachbperformance.com, or at the Plan B by Coach B Instagram podcast page. Want to come on the show? Drop us a line and share your story.

Transcript

Calling Out The ACLU Campaign

Laws, Lawsuits, And Policy Landscape

Mental Health Stats And Belonging

Performance Gaps And Sport Specificity

Participation Numbers In Perspective

Human Impact And Fairness Lens

Puberty, Physiology, And Risk

A Proposal: Create Trans Games

Speaker 2 1:12

Hi guys, welcome to the Plan B podcast. I'm Coach B. And for those of you who new to the show, I am a former professional athlete. I did triathlon. I'm an eight-time Australian team member. And aside from being a wife and mom, I'm also a sports psychology consultant and a doctoral researcher in elite performance. And as a researcher in elite performance, I am always looking for the signal versus the noise. And let me tell you right now, the noise surrounding trans youth in sport is at an all-time high. But the actual data tells a much quieter story. So needless to say, my whole podcast is athletes supporting athletes. So it doesn't matter how small the group is, if it is a minority group of athletes that need support, then hey, we are going to find a way to support them. So I created this podcast to give athletes of every level a voice. But also as a researcher, it's my job to make that differential between the signal and the noise. And right now, when it comes to trans youth sport, it's crazy what is going on. Okay, so we've heard a lot of rhetoric. And in fact, if you are really on social, you will see that the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU, have put a lot of money into creating a huge advertisement campaign. And that advertisement campaign is it's called more than a game. If you haven't seen it, Google it or go to YouTube and you will see. And you know, it it has a nice message. And but what it's trying to do, and it's being very clever about that, and this is why I'm calling them out because I feel it's misleading. And as a former professional athlete, I feel like I have a platform to do this. And I'm and I'm using this for the benefit of supporting biological female athletes, because that's who I was, and also male athletes. I'm going to get to that in a minute, but I am also conscious of the trans athletes and what sport could mean for them and how it could help their lives and you know and make the hat make them feel great. Because you know what? Sport does make you feel great. I love it. A huge part of my life. I could not sing my life without sport, but I don't feel like the ACLU, they are being kind of shifty and they're moving it away from the biological advantages, and they're using language like freedom and the and you know, and belonging and all of this. But what they're doing is they're not they're missing the data, which people need to understand and understand how an organization like this, a nonprofit charity, 501c, which makes an annual revenue of $50 million, why are they putting so much money into the trans athlete population in high school, which is honestly less than 1%. Okay. Now we'll look at numbers in a little bit, but let's get back to what the actual message they're trying to say, what they believe it says. Okay, so they're emphasizing that sport is about leadership, teamwork, and belonging, and that every child deserves a chance. I agree 100%. They're pulling out all the big guns, and you've got the stars like Megan Rapino, you know, ex USA soccer player. You've got Sue Bird, who was a fantastic basketball player. Then they've even thrown in some Hollywood stars in there. You have Elliot Page, who was born Ellen Page, and you might remember her from inception. And then they've also, you know, pulled on the heartstrings of Naomi Watts, who is an Australian actress, and she also has a child who uh decided to transition away from their biological gender. And at the heart of all this, the face of the movement, it centers very much on Becky Pepper Jackson. Now she's a 15-year-old track athlete from West Virginia who has been fighting in the courts for years to, as she claims, just run with her friends. And hey, it's it's incredible that this organization has got behind her and paid for her legal fees. It's currently in the Supreme Court, and a ruling you know, is coming down pretty soon about that. And in fact, in January 26, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments from West Virginia versus BPJ and Little V. Haycox, a ruling which they say is going to come through in June 2026, which will determine if states have the right to categorically ban trans girls from school sports. Okay, so that's coming up as well. Right now, as it stands, 27 states have passed laws restricting trans participation in sports, and many have expanded from 2025 to include not just K-12, but collegiate levels and beyond. So why, you know, let's really get to the heart of it. Why would an organization like the American Civil Liberties Union get behind a project that and a minority group that that that's so small and not put the same level of energy into other minority groups? That's a huge question mark for me. And so that's why, as a researcher, I'm going to pull up some stats for you. Okay, so let's look at it, the impact of trans and non-binary youth. So here are some of the facts that they are, you know, bringing to the table. They are saying that LGBTQ youth in sports report 20% lower rates of depressive symptoms. Okay, fantastic. Trans youth in sports are more likely to report mostly AIs, 27% versus 19% for non-athletes. And over 60% of LGBTQ athletes report a positive sense of belonging at school. In states with restrictive laws, trans youth reported up to 72% of increased suicide attempts. Okay, so you know, this is these are very important, and this is not neglecting the impact that sport could have on trans athletes. But what I don't want us to forget in this signal versus noise uh topic is that there is a huge other part of the population, the biological male and female athletes, that are being completely ignored and overlooked and for the sake of a very small number. And how small is it? Okay, well, let's let's really get down to how many it is. Okay, so in high schools, while there are about 3.3% of students identify as transgender participation in sports from that 3.3% is less than 1%. Now, out of 17 million high schools across America, that equates to about a hundred thousand athletes. And okay, so that's that's right across. So and if we were to look but and then moving on for that, hi everyone, I'm Coach B. And for the regulars who know me and know my background, I'm a former pro athlete, I'm an eight-time Australian team member, and I'm currently a doctoral researcher in elite performance. Now, along those lines, I could not ignore what is happening on social media right now, and you guys may have noticed it too, when you've seen the advertisement campaign More Than a Game. Okay, a More Than a Game campaign was recently launched by the American Civil Liberties Union, that is a national non-profit organization, a fairly lucrative organization, I've got to say, and I will I will elaborate on that. But they've come out with this amazing campaign, and you know, with some pretty high-profile athletes and movie stars taking part to talk about the importance of trans athletes in participation in high school sport. Now, in my research, okay, I'm always trying to differentiate between the signal and the noise. Right now, I listen, I've got to tell you the noise around trans trans youth on social media is deafening. Okay, it's it's a storm of headlines, it's political talking points, it's media focusing on the Supreme Court cases happening happening in West Virginia. But today on the Plan B podcast, I'm gonna talk about performance gaps and and some of those gaps which the ACLU, more than a game campaign, have overlooked and the real world, real world impact these debates have on those kids involved. So when they're jumping up and down and saying that they're they care and that they're you know they're gonna do something, they're really like putting, you know, they really care about the trans athletes. I I'm sorry, like I have a question mark over it. I my whole life has been sport, it's been about athletes, and I now dedicate my life to caring for athletes of all levels of of all kinds. And I don't see it. I I see smoke and mirrors, I see a lot of you know, glitz and and glam, but I don't really see from a researcher perspective and also from a sports psychology side, I really don't see how you are making an impact to really help trans athletes. And I am going to talk about how we could possibly change that because I've thought long and hard about it. Listen, I'm not coming on this to hate on trans athletes, not at all. This whole podcast is about athletes supporting athletes. And if there are trans athletes that that want to take part in sport, let's find a way for you to do that. But let's do that in a way that one keeps biological male and female athletes safe. And I mention male as well because I'm gonna let you, I'm gonna fill you in on the psychological damage that can occur to male athletes when they're put in competition against a female. And you might be saying, Well, how can that be? We're talking high school guys. Okay, can you imagine what peers think of you as a boy who just got beaten by a girl? And if you are a guy that beat a girl, how it doesn't even register as a certain performance. Can you can you look through the lens of a high school boy for a second and see what he is experiencing from his peers? That's a psychological side that nobody talks about. Okay, no one talks about it. You know, they just do these fluff campaigns. And so when I saw that, I could totally understand why Jennifer Say, who was the former American champion gymnast, why she got upset and she, you know, called Megan Rapino, said she was, you know, full of shit. And well, she said full of it, you know, I just added the extra in because I'm an Aussie. And hey, I I don't go that far, but I just think that we are not uh addressing the issues. I think we're just creating band-aids. And you know what? America seems to be great at that when it comes to issues like this. And I could go create another podcast for this on another time, in regards to how we look at mental health issues in America, which is why my whole focus of my sports psychology practice has been on holistic, because I am always looking for solutions. I'm not looking for band-aids. I'm looking to change and make a difference to the lot, a lasting difference, not a superficial fluff stuff, but make a lasting difference to the lives of young people and the athletes that I work with. Okay, so we're gonna get to that in a minute. But as a researcher in performance, I'm gonna start off with fit the physiology side. We can't ignore it. The biological differences between male and female is not a social construct. When we're looking at sports and relying on endurance, strength, and power, we see a statistical performance gap between male and females are anywhere between 10 and 30%. Now, you've heard all this before, but I'm gonna like remind you again, in running, the gap is about 10 to 12 percent. In swimming, it's narrowly down to about 8.9%. In weightlifting, we see one of the biggest uh discrepancies, it's 30% due to the absolute power of upper body strength that males have over females. Now, in skill-based sports, things like archery, where it's about precision rather than explosive power, the gap is minimal. Okay. But this tells us that fairness isn't a one size fits all. Okay, and this is an important conversation to have. It is sport specific. So, on the topic of high school sports, let's narrow the focus, which I feel the ACLU advertisement campaign doesn't look at. Let's look at the reality of participation. So, the actual numbers of athletes, what are we talking about? Well, in high school, okay, 3.3% of students identify as transgender. But in participation in sports, it is a tiny fraction of that. It's estimated that less than 1% of high school transgender youth actually want to go and participate in their biological identified gender. Okay, so less than 1%. And if we were to look at the collegiate level, the numbers are even more striking. So out of over 500,000, I think it's 530,000 NCAA athletes at the moment. I'm not even counting the NIA athletes, there are fewer than 10. Okay, so put that in perspective: 500,000, 530,000 um NCAA athletes, and there are fewer than 10 who are openly transgender competing today. So what does that equate to? Well, that goes back to the headline of this show, which means it is 0.002%. And we are having massive national debates over a population that wouldn't even fill a bench on a single basketball team. Okay, so come on. What is going on? And so I am trying to bring in the human element. I love youth of all you know, shapes and forms, whatever that be. I personally grew up with a family member who in their teens developed a mental illness. I do understand that if you know you're going through youth is a very challenging time, and trying to work out your identity can be really challenging. Now, for my family member, going into the minority group of having a mental illness, okay, there certainly wasn't this level of support at all anywhere. And so I am like stepping back and through the lens of sports psychology, looking at the more than a game campaign and seeing, okay, what are they really focusing on? Well, they claim they are focusing on leadership, teamwork, and belonging and lessons that every child deserves. And their whole campaign is really around one particular athlete to start with, okay? So Becky Pepper Jackson. Now, Becky was born a boy, but decides that decided that she'd like to be a girl. Okay, that's her choice. And no one's criticizing that. So she's a 15-year-old and she's been fighting for years to run track with her friends. Okay. And for good reason, and the Trevor Project, uh, which the ACLU refers to, has found that the LGBTQ community have 20% low rates of depressive symptoms when they are allowed to be involved in sport. So it's clear that sport is an incredible catalyst for improving mental health. Okay. And they've also highlighted that in the states where trans youth are not able to participate in sport, they have showed an increase of up to 72% of suicide attempts. So, you know, really shocking and sad statistics, which I am saying, yes, I agree, we can't ignore. But as a coach, those are the only numbers that, you know, those numbers truly do keep me up at night and why I am trying to have this conversation on this platform. And really, I want to invite, you know, trans athletes and andor the parents of trans athletes to come on board and share your perspective. Okay, and see if we can actually come up with a viable solution. Because what I feel has been thrown on the table, and this kind of force your way into biological sports for trans, you know, kids that choose to identify with the opposite gender from what they were born with and force their way into that sport against and with kids that have a different biological sex to the one that they were born with, you are discriminating and you're disadvantaging a much larger population. And I one, that's not fair. And I don't feel like it's a solution. I feel like I just think it's crazy when you look at the the variables. So, where are we at right now on this landscape in this in the Supreme Court? Well, they are we're we are waiting on rulings which will come down by June 2026, and this could change the landscape of sport forever. But we do need to remember that behind every statistic, and this is what the ACLU is claiming, there is a kid that just wants to play. Yeah, I hear you, but there's also a biological kid that has the Right to play their sport safely against other athletes of the same biological gender without the fear of something happening to them. Okay. And you just can't ignore that based on the differences of physiology. And I'm going to say it again because I listen, I'm going to go back to my own experience as an endurance athlete. For me, in endurance-based sports, okay, my main event was Iron Man Trithlon. So if I was to compete up against Simon Thompson, Tomo, childhood friend of mine, we did cross-country together, we did track together, we did triathlon together. Both Simon and I went on to be professional triathletes. Simon, just from being born a boy and me a girl, biological girl, he's a biological boy, he has an 8 to 12% advantage over me in endurance sports. So what does that equate to in my event of Iron Man triathlon? It means, like, say roughly 10%, that over a 10-hour event, Simon automatically would have, based on his physiology, a one-hour advantage over me. And when I look at the results of when male and female pro athletes come in, that's about right. Okay. That is about the difference between the top male pro and the top male uh female pro in endurance events over ultra distance. And they're basically saying, oh, well, you know, Blinda, you should just ignore that and because because they want they've decided to change the gender that they identify with and you should just wear it or you should just swallow it. No, I'm not going to. Okay, it's not fair. And I want other biological females to have the same equal playing field that I had as an athlete and the same equal opportunities. I'm not going to go down the path of how many medals have been taken by trans athletes to date. But I do want to keep coming back to the biological drivers of performance differences because that's my field and you can't ignore it. Okay. So when young males start going through puberty, they have a 15 to 30 times higher increase in muscle mass, strength, bone density. And that's just due to testosterone. Okay, testosterone is kicking in. So boom, all straight away. Tomo and I have where to line up against each other. He has a bigger heart than me. Just because he was born a male. Okay. And what does that equate to? Well, it's a greater aerobic capacity in endurance, 25% higher. Okay. You know, the other things which you know wouldn't affect you if you were doing archery or if you're doing shooting, but you know, males have much lower body percent, you know, fat percentage on them than females. But how that translates to in sport is the power to weight ratio of advantage. And, you know, we look at say, I pointed out with the the fast twitch muscle fibers, you can't ignore that males have somewhere from anywhere to four to eight times the amount of muscle fibers. So what is the solution? Well, I really want to challenge the ACLU who came up with the more than a game campaign to really show me with your four million members that you have that they've got to come up with better ideas than what you have produced in your ad. Because I get that you're trying to raise awareness for an athletic population in high school that is less than 1%. Okay, so let's go back to the stats again. 3.3% of students identify as transgender in high school. And from that 3.3%, less than 1% is part of the student-athlete population. And in college, that equates to 0.002% of the total athlete population. I am not discounting your point that sport can greatly impact and improve mental health for young people, 100%. I don't believe that forcing biological male and females to accept trans athletes into their programs, I don't believe that's the solution, but I have another one for you. And maybe one of your four million members could beat me on this. And possibly with your 50 million annual revenue that you currently make, you could possibly put some of those funds to doing a little bit of a deeper think tank than what you've done. Because just, you know, in the last since that ad came out on January 12th, I have thought about why wouldn't an organization like this that you know it is doing so well, what about a trans a transgender games? So it, you know, if we're looking to really, if you really, really care about the 122,000 high school athletes, okay, now that number sounds massive, but again, that's less than 1% of the student athlete population in high school across the whole of the US. If you really care about them, why aren't you creating a trans games, trans cisgendered games for them? Why aren't you creating a space where they can all get together and where little Becky, who was who was born a boy, but Becky, you know, the has decided that he wants to be a female, Becky can then go against other competitors who were also born a boy but have decided to identify as a female. Why aren't you creating that solution? Why why don't you care about the uh the other group of athletes that could be subjected to a high level of risk in sport, particularly in contact sports, and also just the psychological uh disadvantages of females feeling like they are having things taken away from them from you know a male athlete by having to compete against them, why aren't you considering them when you're coming up with this solution? You're not okay, and I I think you've got to do better. I think if you're really serious about caring about athletes, then you need to work harder. Okay, so if you are a transgender youth athlete and you're in that 1%, and you would like to come on the show and you would like to share your perspective, you know, or you're a parent of a transgender athlete, and you would like to come on the show and and give your side of the story. I'd love to hear from you because I would like to be educated more on this. I don't have a trans child, but I care about all athletes, and that includes also protecting the safety and and the mental health risks that go towards for for male athletes and and female athletes when we start blending the two genders in a highly competitive physical environment. Okay. So if that is you and you are listening, or you know of somebody, hey, drop me a line. You can find me at coachbperformance.com, or you could find us at the Plan B by Coach B Instagram podcast page. I would love to hear from you. And listen, we need to push past the political noise, which is deafening right now, and really focus on the athletes and get back to the point that the athletes impacted is minimal minimal, but I I agree the benefits of sport are massive. So, yeah, it's a it's a small group, but having them being able to do sport could impact their lives in a huge positive way. Hey, sport changed my life, okay, and for the better, I was able to travel the world. It's my community, it's my friends, it's my job, it's everything that I do today. I'm extremely passionate about it. And I don't want to see minority groups left out. I think that for an organization like American Civil Liberties Union, while you're heading down this track of addressing the minority groups in sport, or you know, the trans athletes that are less than 1%, spend some time also looking at some of the other minority groups at high school that are also disadvantaged. And who are those? Okay, well, the hearing impaired, you're looking at 15 to 20 percent of high school, the population are hearing impaired, and those who have vision impaired, it's also around about 15 learning disabilities of high school youth. What are we doing for them? Are we creating a campaign for them with Hollywood stars and and ex-athletes? And come on, be fair. Like Sue and Megan, you know that if you had to go against boys, you wouldn't won. Sue, you would never beat Steph Curry in getting into a team. Megan, you were part of a USA women's soccer team that was beaten by a U-15 male boys team. And I'm not hating on you guys, I'm just stating facts. If I had to compete against boys, I wouldn't have won anything either. And we can't forget that. And we can't lose sight of that, and we can't gloss over it with fancy ads. And I feel like that's exactly what people are doing right now. So let's get back to the real issue of athletes supporting athletes and come up with real, viable solutions. Because what you've got on the table right now, I don't buy it. I'm Coach B. Thanks for listening. And hey, want to come on the show, share your perspective, drop us a line, send us an email. Your perspective is important to me. I like hearing back from those who are on the front line and involved. Yeah, this is your space. This is where you can be heard. But we got to do better. We got to do better than this more than a game campaign. All right, guys. Hey, be sure to join in next week. We have a rising star of the track and field. He is coming on the show and sharing with us on how he's getting ready for the 2026 season. Okay, so that is gonna be fun. So join in, join us next week uh for that episode. And until then, let's take care of each other. At the end of the day, that's all that matters. And yeah, I look forward to being part of your lives next week.

Speaker 1 33:30

Thanks for listening. I'm coach B.*