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It is #NationalGirlsAndWomenInSportsDay which is a great day to celebrate women's sports! Lots of people are talking about the future of sports for girls and women so I thought I'd write a thread re: reasons to celebrate and reasons for concern. P.S. #TransGirlsAreGirls 1/
No today w/o #TitleIX of the Educ Amndmts of 1972:"No person in the U.S. shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.” 2/
Implementing #TitleIX dramatically changed athletic and learning opportunities for women+girls in American educational institutions. Read about the history of sports for women+girls before Title IX in Susan Cahn's foundational text, Coming on Strong: https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/34bze7cd9780252080647.html 3/
My own scholarship focuses on the policy history of #TitleIX and its impacts. I.e., Here's an article I published about the early years of policy debate (spoiler alert: it's probably not a history you know): https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21565503.2016.1268178 4/
But you're here to talk about the status quo and the future, right? As much as #TitleIX has done to force institutional change (i.e., more teams, opportunities, funding, and scholarships for women) 2 things to note: 1) forcing compliance has been a grind, & 2) much more to do 5/
Boys and men continue to be granted the majority of athletic opportunities in the U.S. and, since #TitleIX doesn't directly require equitable funding, the differences in financial investment in teams for boys/men are astronomical. This is one major threat to G+W's sports. 6/
There are others. Increasingly, & b/c of COVID19, some schools are trying to use #TitleIX as an excuse to cut programming. I wrote about this for @GenderPolicyRpt.
The goal of policy was always expansion-as-non-discrim, NOT harming men+blaming women.
https://genderpolicyreport.umn.edu/equity-during-crisis-blaming-title-ix-wont-help/ 7/
The goal of policy was always expansion-as-non-discrim, NOT harming men+blaming women.
https://genderpolicyreport.umn.edu/equity-during-crisis-blaming-title-ix-wont-help/ 7/
You know who is *truly* left behind by current policy enforcement? Girls & women of color, girls & women with disabilities, transgender girls & women, and gender non-conforming, non-binary, and intersex people. When I think about the future of sports, I'm concerned. 8/
Most of the expanded opportunities on women's teams under Title IX have been afforded to white people. I don't say this to erase the amazing achievements of BIPOC women in sport--and there are many. But 68% of women's opp in college go to white women. https://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/research/ncaa-demographics-database 9/
Very, very few schools have added adaptive athletics for athletes with disabilities. This is a long-standing issue and there is need for organizing to change this and MANY other disability access issues in education and society. https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-519 10/
Why should we care? IMPACTS: Research shows that 
sports provide myriad benefits to the physical & mental health and well-being of participants. Disproportionately providing access to these benefits to *only* already privileged groups is a problem. https://www.womenssportsfoundation.org/articles_and_report/her-life-depends-on-it-iii/ 11/
sports provide myriad benefits to the physical & mental health and well-being of participants. Disproportionately providing access to these benefits to *only* already privileged groups is a problem. https://www.womenssportsfoundation.org/articles_and_report/her-life-depends-on-it-iii/ 11/
This brings me to access to sport for transgender athletes. Very few out trans athletes currently compete in collegiate sport, despite 2011 policy from the NCAA to support their inclusion. Yet amazing trans people R everywhere. What's going on w/ their absence from sport? 12/
Currently, states have a huge variety of policies for trans inclusion in high school athletics. The amazing @TheChrisMosier (an elite trans athlete) maintains a fantastic policy resource at his website: https://www.transathlete.com/ Some states allow full inclusion, many don't. 13/
In the past year, multiple state legislatures have proposed laws that would ban transgender athletes from high school (and in some states, collegiate) competition. Most all of them focus on transgender girls. I wrote a piece for some context in Dec. https://theconversation.com/how-high-school-sports-became-the-latest-battleground-over-transgender-rights-151361 14/
These proposals are an affront to the dignity of transgender people & attempt to advance the false notion that trans girls and women are a "threat" to sports for women and girls. Many, MANY athletes & almost every women's rights advocacy grp disagrees: https://www.athleteally.org/amicus-trans-athletes/ 15/
Things that ARE a threat to women's sports include: 1) lack of funding, 2) lack of media coverage, 3) sexist ideologies that suggest women & girls can't compete with men & boys, 4) egregious pay inequity for athletes/coaches, 5) homophobia and transphobia that policies bodies 16/
6) pitting transgender, gender non-conforming, non-binary, & intersex athletes against cisgender girls and women. And 7) Androcentrism in sports culture is a *foundational* threat to sports for women and girls. Heteropatriarchy is our target for organizing--NOT TRANS PEOPLE 17/
I tweeted about this yesterday. The problem is sexism. The problem is transmisogyny. The problem is reifying the idea that trans and cis women should battle over resources that are intentionally made scare for them. We have to focus on that today. 18/ https://twitter.com/e_sharrow/status/1356700185531977732
#NationalGirlsAndWomenInSportsDay is a day to recommit to 
access to the benefits of sports particip 4 those who have been routinely denied them. It's a day to advocate for gender-identity discrm protections at the federal level; to celebrate #TitleIX but organize 4 better. 19/
access to the benefits of sports particip 4 those who have been routinely denied them. It's a day to advocate for gender-identity discrm protections at the federal level; to celebrate #TitleIX but organize 4 better. 19/
Public policy doesn't self-enforce. It doesn't automatically protect vulnerable groups from discrimination and exclusion. It doesn't inherently instruct us on how to do what's right for the future. That's on *us* 2 fight for a better world ALL girls and women. #TransGirlsAREGirls
@AthleteAlly @MassAGO @WomensSportsFdn @chasestrangio @EdgeofSports @BurnItDownPod — thanks for all your work on these issues
