With the attacks against trans children more fierce than ever, the NBA has decided that standing for trans children is not the fight it wants, EdgeofSports writes.
Transgender children have been under relentless attack by the political right. It’s not just the laws that Republicans are enacting in state after state aimed at keeping trans kids off sports teams and outlawing discussion of their existence in classrooms. It’s also the unhinged fascistic rhetoric that until recently stayed at the edges of the Republican Party but has now gone mainstream with meteoric speed.
In the face of such slander and in response to legislation aimed at transgender erasure, the NBA could be a credible and powerful voice in defense of such children. But these anti-trans bills could soon be passed in half the states, and the last thing professional sports organizations and the NCAA want is to be taking political stands every five minutes and ruling out states that could potentially compete with other states for the privilege to host various “mega-events.
Strangio said that “we have all let the right dupe us into a disingenuous debate about ‘women's rights’ and ‘protecting children’” while their threats include taking trans kids away from their parents. He called the NBA’s inaction “part of this normalization and terrain shifting that has led to the current legislative contexts wherein votes are systemically suppressed, abortion banned, trans youth criminalized and classrooms censored.