Fair Wisconsin’s Testimony In Opposition to AB 100 & 102

Good afternoon to the members of the Senate Committee on Government Operations, Labor and Economic Development. I am Abigail Swetz, my pronouns are she/her, and I am here as the executive director of Fair Wisconsin, Wisconsin’s only statewide LGBTQ+ civil rights and political advocacy organization. I am also here as a former middle school sports coach, a current mom, and an athlete and fan of women’s sports. Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony in opposition to Assembly Bills 100 and 102.

Fair Wisconsin opposes these bills because they are bad for trans girls and women, because they are bad for all girls and women, because sports are about teamwork and life lessons in collaboration, not politics, and because these bills do not exist in a vacuum.

These bills would negatively impact trans girls and women, and our trans youth in Wisconsin need encouragement to participate in sports, not the opposite, because trans youth currently report far less physical activity than their peers. I have submitted this data analysis from the Wisconsin YRBS with my written testimony.

These bills would also negatively impact all girls and women. This was determined through an analysis of national YRBS data done by the CDC, but I cannot submit this analysis with my written testimony because it has been scrubbed from the CDC website, along with other trans-inclusive content.

Fair Wisconsin also has serious concerns about the implications these bills have on privacy and safety because enforcing this bill would likely invade the privacy of all girls and would require them to answer invasive questions. Experiences in other states with similar legislation point to these bills becoming an invitation for people to question the gender of any female athlete they choose, for whatever reason they choose. Considering this, I’m not surprised that participation in girls’ sports in states with trans athlete bans has gone down.

The good news is that, when people hear the stories of trans athletes and listen with an open mind, they begin to understand the negative impact these bans have. Just yesterday during oral arguments in the Supreme Court of the United States about this exact kind of ban, a comment from one of the justices was directed at the lawyer representing a trans college student athlete. The comment was “one of the themes of your argument has been the more people learn, the more they’ll agree with you.” I agree, Justice Kavanaugh. We could all learn a lot from trans people.

Sports is always about more than just the score, more than just the game. These bills are about more than just the makeup of a team; they would codify discrimination against trans people into Wisconsin law, and we cannot allow that, especially when our trans community is facing so much hostility from every level of government. I urge the committee to vote no on Assembly Bills 100 and 102.