– ‘For they/them’ – Polling tends to favor Republican positions on several key transgender issues, which provoke intense emotions and fuel heated debate online and on partisan television. It was two years ago, locked in a bitter presidential race with Kamala Harris, that Trump’s campaign released a devastatingly effective television ad depicting his Democratic opponent as promoting taxpayer-funded sex changes in prisons. The narrator famously concludes that “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.” Many experts credit the ad with helping turn the tide in some of the tightest electoral battlegrounds. “It was brutal, it was devastating,” said Gavin Newsom, California’s Democratic governor and an outspoken Trump opponent. “It was a great ad.”

– ‘Appease and please everybody’ – For much of the 2010s and into the 2020s, Democrats heavily embraced social justice issues, rallying supporters and scoring major wins on matters like legalizing gay marriage nationwide. But on transgender issues, Democrats hit a wall of opposition. Years of campaigning on the issues did little to shift the American public while leaving a smorgasbord of problematic soundbites for Republican ad makers to exploit. The nonpartisan Pew Research Center found in 2025 that 73 percent of American adults were uncomfortable with transgender athletes playing on sports teams that don’t match their birth sex. Sixty-six percent favored a law or policy requiring trans athletes to compete on teams that matched their birth sex. Kurt Bardella, a former Republican staffer who now advises Democrats, told AFP: “I think that Democrats fell into the classic mistake of just being afraid of their own shadow.” “In trying to appease and please everybody, they actually alienated the majority of Americans,” he added. Democrats “lose sight of how many people they actually offend with some of this stuff,” Doug Heye, a veteran Republican strategist, told AFP. “If you look at the polling on the issue it’s pretty broadly in Republicans’ favor and a reason that they’ve been as aggressive as they have on this,” Heye added.

– Reopening the playbook – As campaigning hits full steam ahead of November’s polls, Republicans are reigniting the issue. Axios reported that Elon Musk’s “America PAC” has begun an ad blitz attacking Democrats over their unpopular transgender positions in an effort to drive Republican voter turnout. “Tired of grown men dunking on female athletes?” the narrator of one ad asks as what appears to be a drag queen slams a basketball through a hoop. “James Talarico voted to let biological men play women’s sports. Not fair. Not safe. Not Texas.” Talarico, a Democrat locked in a tight race to represent Texas in the US Senate, voted in 2021 and 2023 as a state lawmaker against restrictions requiring transgender athletes to compete according to their sex at birth. Like many other Democrats competing this election cycle, he now says he opposes “trans athletes playing in girls’ sports if it endangers safety or fairness.” The reemergence of the issue frustrates Democratic strategist Bardella. After all, estimates put the number of American adults who identify as transgender at a mere one percent. “It’s also the height of how idiotic this timeline is that we’re allowing an issue that affects such a minute group of people — that is statistically insignificant, frankly — to hijack this amount of the conversation,” he said.

– Paul BLAKE

© 2024 AFP

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Four-time Olympic gold medallist swimmer Ariarne Titmus said she thought the marketing tactic belonged to the past. “I can’t describe how infuriated I feel when I watch this,” Titmus wrote on Instagram. “Not only is it a kick in the face to every woman who had dedicated her life to perfecting her craft, but every woman who enjoys sports for what it really is — teamwork, friendship, dedication, excellence, unity… How do we live in a world where monetising a women’s body and sexualising women’s sport is still a thing?” the Australian added.

Several leading track and field athletes competing at the Ultimate Championship in Budapest last weekend expressed their consternation at Sweeney’s commercial, saying it was a misleading representation of how women in sport looked. Having finished fourth behind US sprinter Melissa Jefferson-Wooden’s winning time of 21.47sec in the 200 metres, the fourth fastest ever, British athlete Amy Hunt said in a BBC TV interview: “Sydney Sweeney, this is what women in sport look like. 21.4. Muscles. Hard work, blood, sweat, tears.” She added: “When you’re a woman in sport, it’s not pretty. It’s not glamorous. It’s not sexy all the time, definitely.”

Many athletes have posted videos of themselves, grouped around the message “this is what sport looks like”. US gymnast Gracie Kramer captioned her post, featuring her performing gymnastic routines and training in a variety of other sports, with the message: “idk what Sydney Sweeney was doing, but this is what a woman in sport looks like.”

The outrage around the campaign echoes that provoked by American Eagle’s “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans” campaign in 2025. The campaign attracted heavy criticism for appearing to employ the language of eugenics, with Sweeney saying in a video that has since been deleted: “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality, and even eye colour. My jeans are blue.” Sweeney later acknowledged that by failing to comment on the furore, it had only “widened the divide”. She added: “I was honestly surprised by the reaction. I’m against hate and divisiveness.”

© 2024 AFP

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US President Donald Trump, who campaigned on the issue of trans athletes, has worked to prohibit them from competing in girls and women’s sports since returning to office. Trump issued an executive order in February aimed at banning transgender athletes, allowing federal agencies to halt funding to any institution that does not consider birth-assigned genders in determining sex. US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement on Tuesday the resolution of the UPenn case marked a “great victory for women and girls … across our nation.”

“The Department commends UPenn for rectifying its past harms against women and girls, and we will continue to fight relentlessly to restore Title IX’s proper application and enforce it to the fullest extent of the law.” Under the terms of the settlement, UPenn will restore all individual swimming records and titles to female athletes affected by Thomas’s participation. The university will also send a “personalized letter of apology” to each swimmer impacted by the case. The college will also be required to issue a public statement specifying it will “not allow males to compete in female athletic programs” or use Penn Athletics facilities for women, such as locker rooms.

Thomas became a lightning rod around the debate of transgender athletes in women’s sport after competing in female collegiate competitions in 2022. She had earlier swam on UPenn’s men’s team while undergoing hormone replacement therapy. Her participation in women’s events sparked widespread outrage, with critics and some fellow swimmers saying she should not have been allowed to compete due to an unfair physiological advantage. Her supporters argued she should be allowed to compete as a woman.

One of Thomas’s competitors, Riley Gaines, welcomed Tuesday’s announcement. Gaines has been a long-time critic of Thomas’s participation in women’s collegiate swimming and tied for fifth place with her in the 200-yard freestyle at a national collegiate meeting in 2022. “It is my hope that today demonstrates to educational institutions that they will no longer be allowed to trample upon women’s civil rights, and renews hope in every female athlete that their country’s highest leadership will not relent until they have the dignity, safety, and fairness they deserve,” Gaines said in a statement.

© 2024 AFP

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Colt, 44, coaches the Staten Island Giants, last year’s under-18 US champions. Since he co-founded the club in 2019, its youth teams have earned a host of national titles and sent several players to the national team. Colt said it had been “a struggle” early on to gain recognition and find backing. “We fought for everything,” he said. “We were kind of always pushed to the side, like this wasn’t serious.” He notes that to this day, there is still a perception that flag football is not as serious as other sports. “In the beginning, nobody really wanted to coach girls.”

The Giants’ trajectory mirrors that of the sport as a whole. Developed as an alternative to collision-prone tackle football, girls’ and women’s flag was relatively unknown six years ago. Yet participation reached close to 270,000 girls aged six to 17 in 2024, according to USA Football, which oversees US teams in tackle and flag football. The Giants club has the financial backing of the NFL’s New York Giants.

Even as the NFL throws its impressive weight behind the game, the scope of flag football can still come as a surprise to the uninitiated, especially the opportunity it provides for gridiron-loving girls. When 14-year-old Brielle Caetano talks about flag, which she has been playing since kindergarten, people “are very in shock.” “And (then) I tell them you can get a (university) scholarship from that,” Caetano added. “They’re definitely in shock.”

“Football has always been considered a boy’s sport,” noted 16-year-old Annie Falcone, referencing the familiar high-contact game whose pinnacle is the NFL. “But flag football has grown so much for women of all ages.” In flag football, most often played in a five-on-five format, an offensive player is “tackled” by pulling one of two “flags” worn on a belt around the hips. No blocking is allowed, further reducing the risk of injury in a game that focuses on running and throwing skills.

“It’s just incredible to me how fast flag overall is growing, but really led by girls and women,” said Scott Hallenbeck, USA Football’s chief executive officer. “In my probably 30-plus years of being involved in sports, I’ve never seen a discipline of a sport scale (up) as fast as we’re seeing flag.” Hallenbeck said a lot of credit for that growth goes to the NFL, which is pushing to develop the game.

That includes at the youth level, with the NFL organizing its own national flag tournament for boys and girls in July this year, complete with sponsors and a TV broadcasting contract. While the NFL is the most-watched pro league in the United States, it has struggled to expand the game outside US borders. The NBA has become a global phenomenon, and elite basketball leagues prosper outside the USA, but tackle football has found a foothold in just a few other countries such as Germany and Mexico.

Hallenbeck said flag football could be an international game-changer. “(They are) really pushing flag to help grow fandom and opportunities around the world and then obviously putting a lot of emphasis around it here in this country,” he said. Gaining inclusion at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics is a key part of that campaign and is already having an effect. “It’s a source of motivation for me and for the girls right now,” Falcone said.

The NFL is already looking beyond the Games and is “exploring very aggressively now an opportunity to create a professional flag league for both men and women, obviously two different leagues,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in February. “They’re trying to gather sponsors,” said Colt. “I definitely think it’s going to be a professional sport by 2032.”

© 2024 AFP

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Top Republicans including US House Speaker Mike Johnson and firebrand Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene were among those in the audience to watch the signing ceremony. “We will defend the proud tradition of female athletes, and we will not allow men to beat up, injure and cheat our women and our girls,” Trump added to applause and cheers. Trump’s order allows US government agencies to deny funds to schools that allow transgender athletes to compete on women’s teams. “If you let men take over women’s sports teams or invade your locker rooms, you will be investigated… and risk your federal funding,” Trump said.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), which regulates student athletics in colleges across the country, welcomed the order and said they would align to it “in the coming days.” “We strongly believe that clear, consistent, and uniform eligibility standards would best serve today’s student-athletes instead of a patchwork of conflicting state laws and court decisions,” said NCAA president Charlie Baker in a statement. “To that end, President Trump’s order provides a clear, national standard,” he said.

Trump also said he would now push the International Olympic Committee to change its rules on transgender athletes before the 2028 Los Angeles Games, and had ordered Secretary of State Marco Rubio to tell the IOC “we want them to change everything… having to do with this absolutely ridiculous subject.” The IOC allows each international sports federation to set their own rules on the issue. “Working with the respective International Sports Federations, the IOC will continue to explain and discuss the various topics with the relevant authorities,” an IOC spokesperson told AFP.

Trump said he had also directed Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem to deny visa applications “made by men attempting to fraudulently enter the United States while identifying themselves as women athletes to try and get into the Games.”

– ‘Cruel attack’ – Rights organization Amnesty International called the order “yet another cruel attack on transgender people that is very much intended to further stigmatize and discriminate against LGBTQ+ people.” Republican Trump has repeatedly targeted gender non-conforming people in a blitz of orders pushing his radical right-wing agenda at the start of his second term.

At his inauguration speech he announced that US government policy would only recognize two genders, male and female — ending the practice of providing a third gender option in some settings. Days later he signed an order to rid the military of what he called “transgender ideology” and effectively ban transgender troops. He also issued an order to restrict gender transition procedures for people under age 19.

The slew of actions comes despite the fact that transgender people make up only a small minority of the US population. During the 2024 election campaign, he repeatedly hammered Democrats on the divisive issue of transgender rights, capitalizing on a broader culture war over the topic. One of Trump’s most successful attack lines against his election rival Kamala Harris — “Kamala Harris is for they/them. President Trump is for you” — targeted her support for trans rights. His executive order Wednesday comes after the Republican-led House of Representatives in January passed a bill severely restricting transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.

As transgender people have become a more visible presence in the United States, sparking questions around gender norms and fairness, many conservatives have rallied around women’s sports.

– Danny KEMP

© 2024 AFP

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“It’s absolutely amazing, and they deserve it,” said Aracelis Amadeo, 51, a paralegal from the Bronx. “These women deserve it, everything that they’re getting today.” A convoy of floats and open-top buses processed up Manhattan’s “Canyon of Heroes” to City Hall with Finals Most Valuable Player Jonquel Jones leading proceedings as supporters wearing Statue of Liberty visors threw ticker tape. “I couldn’t dream of this,” Jones told reporters at the parade. “There’s been so (many) sacrifices that had to happen for us to be able to do this.” Players and staff were given an escort by mounted police officers and bagpipe bands.

Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind,” an ode to New York, blared out of sound systems as the team’s elephant mascot Ellie danced in time to the music. “I just like the way they play together — they have fun, even though they got the job done,” said Elena, a fan from neighboring New Jersey who had taken a day off to attend the parade. “They’ve come a long way.”

A New York tradition, ticker tape parades have been held since the end of the 19th century to celebrate heads of state, returning soldiers, astronauts, and sports champions. Megan Rapinoe and the US women’s football team were honored with parades in 2015 and 2019 to celebrate their World Cup titles.

© 2024 AFP

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“I go to a lot of sporting events, and nothing beats the energy here,” longtime Liberty season ticket holder Lolita Beckwith told AFP. Beckwith, a professional photographer, has been following the team since the WNBA was launched in 1997. Her 27-year allegiance to the Liberty has encompassed the team’s early days, when they played games at the legendary Madison Square Garden, to the bleak era when the team was exiled to the suburban city of White Plains, closer to Connecticut than Brooklyn.

“It’s just great because for 27 years, it was looked down upon,” Beckwith said as she reflected on a sea of green-shirted Liberty fans thronging the arena. “No one watched, there weren’t many fans. It was mostly women and kids. So to see it become what it is now is just absolutely amazing,” she added. “I wish I had a daughter so I could bring her to the games.”

While the Liberty’s success on the court has undoubtedly boosted the team’s appeal, the jump in crowd sizes is part of a broader trend in a league that has enjoyed skyrocketing interest since the arrival of rookie phenomenon Caitlin Clark. Indiana Fever star Clark has taken the WNBA by storm this year after a record-breaking US collegiate career. This season, the Liberty have rewarded the loyalty of fans such as Beckwith with the best regular season in the franchise’s history. The team, spearheaded by the likes of Olympic gold medallists Sabrina Ionescu and Breanna Stewart, finished top of the WNBA’s Eastern Conference with 32 wins and only eight defeats.

With the playoffs underway, the team is perfectly positioned to end its long wait for a first-ever WNBA championship. On Sunday, the Liberty demolished the Atlanta Dream 83-69 in game one of their opening playoff series. “To have the crowd that we had here definitely made it a lot easier,” US Olympic team star Stewart said after the win.

During the regular season, New York averaged more than 12,000 fans per game, a whopping 64% increase on the 2023 average, which itself had surged 45% from the 2022 campaign. Those kinds of ticket sales will be music to the ears of owner Joe Tsai, the Taiwanese-Canadian billionaire co-founder and chairman of Chinese multinational firm Alibaba, who purchased the team in 2019 with his wife Clara Wu Tsai, and who also owns the Brooklyn Nets NBA team as well as the Barclays Center itself.

“Two years ago, we could barely fill the lower bowl,” said Liberty fan Justin Tartamella, 27. These days, thousands of fans flock to the arena wearing sneakers in the Liberty’s colors, as well as T-shirts bearing the slogan “Everyone watches women’s sports.” Other fans, meanwhile, line up to take selfies with the team’s mascot, Ellie the Elephant, whose TikTok account has nearly 180,000 followers.

For some fans, Liberty games are an increasingly attractive option in a New York sporting landscape already studded with iconic men’s franchises. Baseball has the New York Yankees and the Mets, the NBA has the New York Knicks and the Brooklyn Nets, while the NFL offers the New York Giants and New York Jets. Adam Reid, a 35-year-old computer programmer who recently opted for a Liberty game over a Mets fixture, explained the team’s appeal. “You can get very close-up seats for an affordable price, compared to a very high-up seat to the baseball game,” Reid told AFP. “And they’ve been a blast.”

The inclusivity of the WNBA has also drawn in fans. “Historically, it’s been very LGBTQ+ friendly, which is really important,” said David Smith, a 51-year-old consultant. “As a gay man, this is where I feel the most welcome.” Indiana’s Clark, meanwhile, has helped boost the Fever’s average crowds this season to more than 17,000 per game, with a record 20,000 fans turning out for one fixture.

Those kinds of figures are translating to big business off the court: in late July, the WNBA announced a new 11-year broadcast contract worth an estimated $200 million per season—more than triple the previous amount. The WNBA is also preparing to expand the league, with three new franchises joining the competition in coming seasons.

© 2024 AFP

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