Hot Take: Why we must ACT NOW to stop Idaho's anti-trans bill HB500 w/ Ashland Johnson

Lindsay talks with Ashland Johnson of the Inclusion Playbook about why we must all act IMMEDIATELY to get Idaho's governor to veto HB500, an anti-trans bill that is using women's sports as a cover for bigotry.

Here is how you can help defeat this transphobic bill now: secure.transequality.org/site/Advocac…D1C0F5DC0895

More information: www.powerplays.news/p/urgent-idaho-…s-from-enacting

Inclusion Playbook: www.inclusionplaybook.com/

Transcript

Lindsay: Hello, flamethrowers Lindsay here. I hope you are all taking care of yourselves and that your loved ones are all in good health during this really stressful time. I wanted to bring you a hot take right now because there is a very urgent situation going on in Idaho that is actually not coronavirus related. But I wanted to draw your attention to it so that hopefully we can all help stop this. So joining me today is Ashland Johnson, the founder of The Inclusion Playbook. And we'll talk a little bit more later about what The Inclusion Playbook is, but right now I just wanna welcome Ashland to Burn It All Down. Thanks so much for being here, Ashland. 

Ashland: Thank you so much for having me on and taking interest in this really important and timely issue. 

Lindsay: Yeah. So, let's just dive right in. Right now, governor, I think Benjamin Little, has on his desk in Idaho, HB500, which is an anti-transgender bill. What is HB500? And why is it so imperative that we defeat this bill? 

Ashland: So, HB500 is one of the I guess 18 bills that we've seen so far that try to ban trans girls from playing in sports consistent with their gender identity. So, it would prohibit any trans girl from playing on any girl's team. It also would touch the NCAA programs and collegiate programs too. So, what makes this bill so bad is it goes against pretty much every recommendation of the majority of sports policy experts, which is to allow trans youth to play on teams consistent with their gender identity. Now, the ways that this can be done varies by state, but this bill represents a blanket ban, which is something that no one has been advocating for in the sports inclusion world. And it's the first state legislature to ever pass such a bill. So that's why it's so much attention on it. And we're trying to get the governor to veto it because it's just such a major position that is out of line with what the recommendations are for trans youth.

Lindsay: Yeah. And I think it's so important that this is…We are not talking about elite level competitions right now – the Olympics and even the NCAA itself, there are all guidelines that, you know, we can debate, certainly, but a lot of activists do agree that those guidelines are, you know, okay and appropriate. We're talking mainly about youth, about just letting kids participate in sports. And the trans community in particular needs access to the benefits that sports provide. How can sports specifically help the trans community and the trans youth? 

Ashland: Yeah. The thing about youth sports is we know that it is about building character. It is about building confidence and having people be a part of community. That's why we have Title IX. That's why we have equal access to sports for youth, because we know that these are the benefits of sports that are lifelong benefits. So when it comes to trans youth, trans youth already face a lot of discrimination, already face a lot of isolation and victimization. So we know that when it comes to mental health, wellbeing, that trans youth are already at a higher risk for negative mental health outcomes. What we also know about sports is that when youth participate in sports, they have higher levels of self confidence. They have higher grades, they have a higher sense of community. We know this particularly too about LGBTQ youth who play sports. They tend to have a higher sense of wellbeing. So, we wanna make sure that all youth have access to sports, especially trans youth, considering a lot of the social stigma and discrimination they're facing. Having access these sports communities could be like life changing.

Lindsay: Yeah. So this bill, like a lot of the others that are similar throughout the state…So, just to be clear to our listeners, Idaho is not the only place where a bill like this is on the table. There are, I think you said, about 17 other legislatures across the country. But most of them are tabled a little bit for now because of, you know, most state governments are pretty focused on this global pandemic that we're in right now. So that doesn't mean we can take our eye off of those, but it does mean that, you know, we have a little bit more time to kind of rally around them. But at Idaho, under the name of the “Fairness in Women's Sports Act,” they actually passed it through their legislature this week. And now Governor Little just has I believe until Monday to either sign it into law or veto. Did I get that timeline correct? 

Ashland: He had five days from when it was transmitted to him. But he said he is gonna make a decision by either today or Monday. So that's why you have all these women groups, including the Women's Sports Foundation, speaking out against this bill. 

Lindsay: And the thing that's so important…So, today you helped organize a campaign with the National Center for Transgender Equality, and a lot of these women's groups signed onto it, and I think that's so important because this bill, like others like it, are trying to use women's sports as a cover for their transphobia. There's a whole website called like “Save Women’s Sports” where it's all these advocates of these bills going through. And I think that's so deceptive, because there are a lot of people who might not be paying close attention, who might say, well, I wanna save women's sports. I like women's sports. Women's sports are good. [laughs] So can you explain to the Burn It All Down listeners why this isn't actually about women's sports? Why is this not really about fairness in women's sports or saving women's sports? 

Ashland: Well, women's sports, especially in the last couple years, I mean, for years, but in the last couple years you've got the WNBA, you've got women's soccer, you've got women's hockey, all telling you what women need to save their sports. They need equal investment. They need better facilities. They need better access to opportunities and visibility in sports. These are the things that women's athletics needs in order to be competitive, in order for these women to actually have a livelihood. None of this is actually covered in these bills. And that's professional women's sports. What we know about girl’s sports is no one is really following Title IX. We're actually seeing that girls have 1.13 million fewer opportunities than boys to play sports. We're seeing that girls have less funding in sports. And women leaders in sports are worried about the lack of women actually coaching sports to have role models for these young girls.

So, these are all things that the Women's Sports Foundation, their new study on what affects participation for girls in sports, these are things that they actually identified affect girls' participation in sports. At no point do they actually say it has anything to do with trans girls participating in sports. So if these legislators really wanted to do something to help women and girls in sports, they should start by listening to women and girls in sports. And that would be addressing Title IX non-compliance, funding disparities, and negative hiring practices that impact women and girls. 

Lindsay: Yeah, amen to that. So I have a few more questions for you, but just in case – I know everyone’s attention spans are short these days, so just in case people are getting ready to move on to another thing, what can listeners do right now to help defeat this and to help persuade Governor Little to veto this bill? Because that is an option. He can veto this, like, there's an out here. 

Ashland: Listeners right now can go on NCTE’s website, click a button, and email the governor. We need as many people as possible emailing the governor or raising awareness on social media about the fact that they don't want this done, especially in the name of women and girls. And that's what we can do in the short term. In the long term, remember when these legislatures open again, we'll have 17 more bills to consider that are going to try to do the exact same thing. So just staying engaged and letting people know that this is not in the best interest of women and girls, and it is definitely not in the best interest of trans girls, would be extremely helpful.

Lindsay: Absolutely. And we will keep everyone updated on these bills and do a more thorough breakdown of all the dangerous ones that are in legislatures right now. We just really wanted to activate our community immediately. So, transequality.org, transequality.org. Also, the Burn It All Down Twitter account, the show notes for this episode. My Twitter, @linzsports. If you go to Ashland's stuff at The Inclusion Playbook, there's all these scripts that you can go directly to that will help you be able to fight this immediately. I also had – self plug, self plug – Power Plays did an issue on this yesterday that included all the scripts as well. So, we all feel really helpless right now, because once again, global pandemic. It’s a very frustrating time where a lot of us are locked inside and feeling like the best thing we can do is sit still. But I think it's important to remember that from our homes, from the safety, we can still fight against these bad things. And so these are some concrete things you can do to rally our community. Now, Ashland, one thing that I'm actually a little bit confused about is, so, the NCAA does have its own rules for transgender athletes participation. Why can Idaho overrule them?

Ashland: So, the NCAA rules only apply to NCAA competitions. That means each school can decide what their own policy's going to be. But when it comes to the actual NCAA championships, that's when the NCAA rule kicks in. So if Idaho wants to say that its public schools can only have girls who are born identified as girls on their team, and that is what would constitute a women's team, they can do that. It's just the NCAA rule does not kick into effect unless it's an NCAA competition.

Lindsay: Well, that's annoying. 

Ashland: Yes. 

Lindsay: Am I right that…I mean, I know that there are debates about whether there should be any regulations at all, but for the most part, the trans activism community is somewhat okay with the NCAA's rules. Am I  right about that?

Ashland: The most important thing is that whatever rule that you have in place has to promote inclusion. The values of sports, inclusion and fairness, and also the most up to date science. And so, as long as those things are followed, then people agree with the policies, and that's what the NCAA tried to do, but no one supports a blanket ban because the science just does not support that. 

Lindsay: No, science doesn't support that. And also it's very important, like the Olympics I know recently…Not recently, maybe like five years ago, undid a ban that required actual surgery in order to compete. And that's also very much bad. We do not want to require anyone to have to undergo surgery. So, there were a few things that really stuck out to me about this bill. I noticed like Chris Mosier, who's a trans athlete, he called this one of the most dangerous of the bills, because the amount of monitoring that is involved is very invasive. Can you tell us a little bit more about that, about how this bill goes about defining and analyzing and policing gender?

Ashland: This is one of the bills that would require invasive medical testing and physical exams. And that's just an invasion of privacy. You don't wanna subject any young girl to that. It's something that goes above and beyond even what the NCAA would require. And again, this would be for youth. And I wanna point out too, that this isn't something that just would affect trans girls. This would affect any girl that does not seem to fit the Western norms of womanhood or girlhood. Any athlete who is non-binary or gender nonconforming. Someone could just say, I don't think that this athlete is a girl, and then they would be subjected to very invasive testing and have to “prove” what their gender identity is.

Lindsay: Jesus. It makes me actually sick. Is there anything we did not go over about this bill that you think people should know or that you wanna set straight? 

Ashland: Maybe not about the bill, but about the level of engagement. What we've been very happy to see is you have big name women athletes like Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe and Layshia Clarendon, who is the VP of the WNBA players association, actually taking like the time and steps to go on social media and say this should not be done. This should not be done in our name. And this is a time where the sports community is trying to unite people, like especially with the pandemic. We don't wanna divide people, especially the name of sports. So I think it's important to realize that women athletes are standing up and saying not in our name and supporting trans youth. 

Lindsay: Absolutely. And can you tell us a little bit more about The Inclusion Playbook, which is your organization, and how we can support you?

Ashland: Well, yeah, The Inclusion Playbook is a sports impact organization. I work at the intersection of sports and social justice, and I help sports leagues and teams improve the impact of their social justice work. And then I help social justice organizations leverage the power of the sports community. And so that's why we've been brought onto this particular effort. And ways that you can help us is by continuing to support these athletes who speak out on social justice issues. It's been something that we've been seeing a lot more in the past five years. And when they see that they do have wide support for speaking out, they continue to do so. And then also by encouraging and pushing these social justice organizations to do more for the sports community, to actually acknowledge that a large part of their constituents are athletes, are in the sports community, and that some of their efforts need to be geared towards them as. 

Lindsay: That's amazing. And I just wanna brag about Ashland a little bit. So, Ashland is in a space that is actually dominated by a lot of cisgender white straight male allies, which of course we need a lot of, [laughs] you know, I'm not denouncing any of that. But Ashland is a Black queer woman who has created her own lane and is working with the biggest organizations, whether it be, you know, NBA, WNBA, MLB. I mean, she is giving a voice to these issues within these big companies. We cannot wait to have her back on Burn It All Down. Thank you for all the work that you do. 

Ashland: Thank you too so much. I really appreciate it.