LAUSR

Participation in sport has multiple physical, mental and emotional benefits. Moreover, sport participation may help individuals establish a key component of their identity, while fostering stronger connections with others. Sport participation also can facilitate mutual understanding between individuals who have differing life experiences, beliefs, values and perspectives. A transgender person is someone whose gender identity does not match the sex they were assigned at birth. Previous estimates suggest that 0.6% of Americans identify as transgender, and in a recent survey of American high school students, 1.8% identified as transgender, suggesting that transgender youth are a rising proportion of the population. Transgender individuals disproportionately experience higher rates of hate crimes, poverty, housing and employment insecurity, and have greater risks of depression and suicide as compared with their cisgender counterparts.There are also important intersectional considerations of gender and race, with black transgender women being at the highest risk for antitransgender actions. Particularly troubling is that more than half (56%) of American transgender youth expressed suicidal ideation and almost onethird (31%) reported a previous suicide attempt. Transgender individuals can experience significant distress from the mismatch between their gender identity and the body into which they were born. It is currently unknown how participation in sport specifically impacts transgender individuals. However, given the known benefits of sports involvement, participation in sport by transgender athletes, especially in an environment that affirms their gender identity, may be an important mitigating factor to prevalent psychological stressors. Yet, sport participation itself has become an area of controversy stemming from concern that some transgender athletes may have a competitive advantage over cisgender athletes.