Dawn Staley, who on Sunday guided the University of South Carolina women’s basketball team to their third NCAA championship under her reign, has come out in support of transgender athletes participating in the division of their choosing.
One day before her team would face off against the University of Iowa for the NCAA championship, the superstar coach was asked about her position on trans athletes during a Sunday interview by Dan Zaksheske of OutKick, a Fox-owned outlet that describes itself as the “antidote to the mainstream sports media that often serves an elite, left-leaning minority instead of the American sports fan.”
“Damn, you got deep on me, didn’t you?” Staley responded, according to CBS. “I’m on the opinion of, if you’re a woman, you should play. If you consider yourself a woman and you want to play sports or vice versa, you should be able to play. That’s my opinion.”
When asked directly if she thought trans women should be allowed to participate in college basketball, she only became more emphatic, and acknowledged that her position would most likely result in an adverse response from some sports fans.
“Yes, yes,” Staley continued. “So now the barnstormer people are going to flood my timeline and be a distraction to me on one of the biggest days of our game, and I’m OK with that. I really am.”
Staley’s comments in support of trans athletes stand in opposition to other coaches who were asked the same question on Sunday. For instance, Iowa coach Lisa Bluder declined to take a stance.
“I understand it’s a topic that people are interested in,” Bluder said, CBS reports. “But today my focus is on the game tomorrow, my players. It’s an important game we have tomorrow, and that’s what I want to be here to talk about. But I know it’s an important issue for another time.”
Staley’s comments, as well as Bluder’s refusal to comment, come less than a year after the House of Representatives passed the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, which would prohibit people assigned male at birth from participating in women’s sports at any institution that receives funding from the federal government, a list that includes many colleges and universities. After passing by a slim margin in the House, the bill has been languishing in the Senate, where it is not expected to pass.
The NCAA updated its policy on trans athlete participation in 2022, allowing for a sport-by-sport policy that reflected the Olympics’ policy. The policy allows first for the sport’s national governing body to set its own rule, with allowances for an international federation where no national body exists.
According to an August report, 23 states have passed legislation to bar transgender athletes from participating in sports that align with their gender identity since 2020.
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