Transgender athletes face an uncertain future at the Olympics as reactionary policies gain ground

The Olympic rings are seen at the Paris La Defense Arena, on June 12, 2024 in Nanterre, outside Paris, France.& (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla) by Travers, Simon Fraser University At the last Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard made history as the first openly transgender athlete in Olympic history. American transgender and non-binary runner Nikki Hiltz recently qualified for the 2024 Paris Games, marking their Olympic debut. But these two may be among the last transgender athletes to compete at the Olympics for some time due to a reactionary shift in sport policy stemming from conflicts over the participation of transgender women and girls in “female” sports. While transgender people have gained some recognition and human rights in the past decade, a well-financed reactionary movement is rolling them back. A constellation of white supremacist, conservative and Christian fundamentalist groups and so-called “gender critical feminists” are resisting feminist and gender-inclusive challenges to traditional gender and sexual hierarchies. These groups are targeting transgender women and girls specifically — more so than transmen and boys, and non-binary people — for surveillance and exclusion. Bills blocking transgender women and girls from participating in “female” sports have been passed in many U.S....