On the Team
Equal Opportunity for Transgender Student Athletes
About this Report
The purpose of this report is to provide guidance to high school and collegiate athletic programs about how to ensure transgender student athletes fair, respectful, and legal access to school sports teams. In October 2009 the National Center for Lesbian Rights and It Takes A Team!, an Initiative of the Women’s Sports Foundation, co-sponsored a national think tank entitled “Equal Opportunities for Transgender student athletes.” Think Tank participants included leaders from the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the National High School Federation, transgender student athletes, and an impressive array of experts on transgender issues from a range of disciplines—law, medicine, advocacy, and athletics. The think tank goals were to develop model policies and identify best practices for high school and collegiate athletic programs to ensure the full inclusion of transgender student athletes.
This think tank report includes best practice and policy recommendations for high school and collegiate athletic programs about providing transgender student athletes with equal opportunities to participate in school-based sports programs. In addition to specific policy recommendations for both high school and college athletics, the report provides guidance for implementing these policies to ensure the safety, privacy, and dignity of transgender student athletes as well as their teammates. Specific best practice recommendations are provided for athletic administrators, coaches, student athletes, parents, and the media.