I've been following this story, so thanks for your take!

You know, I wish people opposed to trans students playing sports in school would focus on the real human cost.

I'm thinking of a case in Florida that's winding down now, where some families complained about a trans girl playing high school volleyball.

She sat the bench most of the time, being very "small and slight," as her former coach describes her. But her teammates liked and accepted her, not that acceptance was an issue for most of them because she had transitioned as a very young child and few people realized she was trans.

She should have had a pretty nice first year of high school; she made lots of friends and was elected as a homecoming princess.

Then some haters started to hate.

Her trans identity started making the rounds in school, then at the district level. Then the school board took it up.

All hell broke loose.

Volleyball is now "safe" from her. So is the high school itself. She was kicked off the team in a storm of heated, hateful controversy that rocked not just her school, but her whole community.

She quit school and studies at home now. Her family say she had no choice. They're horrified by all the naked hatred and bullying directed at her.

She's no longer a happy high school student hoping to improve at volleyball and maybe increase her physical fitness a little. The Right got what they wanted. They hounded her off the team and out of school.

But no issues of fairness in sport ever came up. She doesn't HAVE a competitive advantage. Her teammates were almost all taller and stronger than her. (She never went through male puberty, and her female puberty was delayed too, given she had trouble accessing HRT. That's why most of her peers were bigger than she was.)

No, it wasn't "fairness" that destroyed her high school career and rocked her community with hatred.

It was naked, unapologetic transphobia. By members of the Right who hate queer people. It's really that simple.