Parsing the Facts of Trans Women in Competitive Sports

The Brian Lehrer Show

WNYC

Arts, Lerer, Radio, York, Wnyc, News, Media, New, Npr, Nyc, Bryan, News Commentary, Politics, Daily News, Public

4.7 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 3 June 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

ESPN's Katie Barnes discusses the controversy surrounding trans women in competitive sports, fact-checks ideas the broader public holds about fairness and gender in athletics, and talks about current rules various leagues already set in place to ensure equity and inclusion.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	It's the Brian Lairor Show on WNYC. Good morning, everyone. Coming up later in the show,
0:16.0	a special edition of our 100 Years of a Hundred Things series. it's 100 years of cancer research in two parts.
0:22.4	First, the history, then the current state of cancer research amid the science funding cuts
0:27.6	coming from Washington. That's coming up. But first, we start here. You may have seen in the news
0:33.1	that President Trump and his administration are threatening the state of California with both fines and
0:39.2	legal action after a trans athlete won two gold medals this weekend in the California state
0:44.9	track and field meet, which the New York Times calls arguably the most competitive high school
0:50.3	meet in the nation. Trump posted on truth social on Sunday that, quote, large-scale fines
0:56.1	will be imposed. Then yesterday, his Justice Department sent a letter to California school districts
1:02.5	threatening to sue based on the equal protection clause of the Constitution. The letter said,
1:08.3	quote, forcing girls to compete against males, what they call males,
1:12.6	would deprive them of athletic opportunities and benefits because of their sex, unquote. The New York
1:18.3	Times reports that the California Department of Education is planning to send guidance today to the state
1:24.7	school districts on how to respond. And that follows changes that the state of California made in advance of the weekend event
1:32.8	because of previous threats from Trump to withdraw funding
1:37.0	and knowing that the particular trans girl, A.B. Hernandez, might do well.
1:42.5	Again, according to the Times, after Mr. Trump's threats last week
1:46.3	to cut funding, the Federation changed its rules regarding how the participation of trans athletes
1:51.7	would affect other competitors in an effort to make the event fair without excluding anyone.
1:57.3	Under the new rule, the athlete who finished immediately behind Ms. Hernandez would be
2:01.9	elevated to share her placement. At the state meet, those athletes shared the podium with Ms.
2:08.8	Hernandez, even though they technically had finished one spot behind her. That's a quote from
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 15 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from WNYC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of WNYC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.