For residents of the Bay State, the Supreme Court’s decision is unlikely to impact trans athletes in the immediate future. Still, it opens the door for potential changes down the line.
“Massachusetts is a state where there are additional protections against discrimination on the basis of gender identity and a particular law that applies to gender identity nondiscrimination at schools," Libby Sharrow told WAMC. "That would make it very difficult for one of these bans to be permissible in the state of Massachusetts, because we are a state that has legislated more assertively on gender identity protections across a number of different realms.”
Sharrow is a professor of public policy and history at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and director of Faculty Research at the UMass Institute for Social Science Research.
“This still elevates the conversation and gives some credence to the notion that exclusion is a valid perspective when the Supreme Court makes a ruling of this type, and so, the politics, I think, still remain open-ended in the state, even though those laws and those protections persist,” they said.
Sharrow is an expert on the history and evolution of Title IX, the landmark 1972 civil rights law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in federally funded education programs.
“The longer history of Title IX should be understood as a law that was concerned with looking at patterns of exclusion, marginalization of groups, in this case athletes in school-sponsored programs, and saying that those forms of exclusions shouldn't be considered natural, they should be considered problematic and discriminatory,” said the professor.
Sharrow disagrees with the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the statute as it relates to the trans athlete bans.
“In some ways, now taking a look at the question of exclusion for a different group, for trans athletes and trans girls and women in particular, and saying, in this case, sex nondiscrimination doesn't apply to this group, for reasons that I think the majority thinks about in rather convoluted ways, is a real reversal of some of the main dynamics that have instigated change through the implementation of Title IX for the past half century,” they explained.
Here’s where the commonwealth’s Senate primary comes into play. Even in a deep blue state with robust protections for the trans community, trans athletes’ rights have been questioned by one of the Democrats in the race.
Congressman Seth Moulton of the 6th Massachusetts District, who is challenging incumbent Sen. Ed Markey, told the New York Times in 2024 that he was against his daughters “getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete” and that “as a Democrat [he was] supposed to be afraid to say that.”
Those remarks have been a point of articulation between him and Markey, who has continually emphasized his support for the trans community.
When Moulton spoke to WAMC in January, he said he “[stood] in exactly the same place” in what he described as a “tough conversation.”
"Look, I have 100% voting record on trans rights," said the congressman. "I've always supported trans people. In fact, I've been a fierce advocate for them serving in the military in my position on the Armed Services Committee. But we're not representing their interests if we wrap ourselves in the trans flag and do nothing to actually debate their issues, because then exactly what I predicted is going to happen, which is the Republicans are going to be the only ones controlling this debate.”
After the SCOTUS decision, Markey decried the ruling as “inhumane.” He also mentioned “hateful politicians scapegoating [trans athletes] as talking points” and referenced Moulton’s 2024 remarks as making him “part of the movement that is ripping these kids away from the sports they love and the dignity they deserve as human beings.”
For his part, Moulton issued a statement calling the move “codifying sweeping overreach,” a “deliberate act of cruelty” towards the trans community during Pride, and “targeting recreational athletes who just want to play with their friends.” The congressman also pledged to always fight for trans people’s right to exist safely. WAMC reached out to the Moulton campaign for comment on this story.
Speaking to WAMC, Democratic Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey – the first openly LGBTQ person to be elected to statewide office in the commonwealth back in 2014 as well as becoming the nation’s first openly lesbian governor in 2022 – echoed Moulton’s concerns while condemning the court’s decision.
“As a student athlete, a former student athlete, I want all of our student athletes to be safe," she said. "That said, I also want people to know, particularly our trans youth and members of the transgender community, the laws and protections remain in place in Massachusetts, and they will.”
Healey is also on the campaign trail, but doesn’t face any Democratic challengers in her bid for a second term this year.
Estimates from the NCAA in 2024 put the number of trans athletes in college sports at around 10 out of half a million.
Sharrow says the country’s top court allowing the specific exclusion of trans women from women’s sports reflects its own bias more than adherence to legal precedence.
“The premise of their decision is that girls and women need separate spaces because they are less than boys and men athletically, and that they need protection from that competition," they told WAMC. "That's just a profoundly sexist and even misogynistic idea that they are using to then turn on trans girls and women and say that's the reason why you can't be here. Cisgender girls and women are the losers in this argument as well.”
