The “trans people in sports discourse” is not about sports. It’s about delegitimizing trans people’s genders and thus our whole lives. It’s about saying that a trans girl is “male,” not just on the sports field, but everywhere, and — regardless of what exactly that biological classification might mean and whether it’s true — making it seem like it’s everyone else’s business to classify their neighbors by sex. Every time a political leader puts his foot down and makes his bed this way, it legitimizes the outing of people as trans, emboldens transvestigators, and leads us closer to the regulation of everyone’s transition. It’s saying that “trans” can be an accusation. It’s saying that this accusation can be leveraged against anyone.

Let no Irishman throw a stone at the foreigner; he may hit his own clansman.