We don’t consider it controversial to say that LGBTQI+ people belong in every aspect of civic life. Children deserve to play games for fun and as part of their education; adults deserve to compete professionally as well as recreationally.

Reform in these areas is not just crucial, but inevitable, and it will continue to succeed through education, compassion, and inspiration.

In the meantime, unease over these reforms is being deliberately cultivated as a wedge issue to divide groups which tend to share common interests related to bodily autonomy, such as trans women and cisgender women, under the pretense of “fairness” and the paternalistic “protection” of certain women’s rights. The level of scrutiny being heaped upon cisgender, transgender, and intersex bodies of all ages as a condition for participating in athletics is oppressive and unscientific, defying the historical concept of sport as a human right.

Athlete Ally is an organization dedicated to helping schools, teams, and other athletic communities become more united in their understanding of these issues. Their free online curriculum Champions of Inclusion is a valuable resource for coaches, educators, and student athletes. Athlete Ally also conducts research, surveys media coverage of these issues, and offers perspectives in response to current events. Their pro-athlete Ambassador Program currently has over 400 athletes.

In April 2024, they published  an open letter to the National Collegiate Athletics Association ahead of the NCAA’s review of transgender student-athlete participation. The letter, which was signed by 400 current and former NCAA, professional, Olympic and Paralympic athletes in support of transgender inclusion, observed:

“Within the context of broad legislative attacks on the rights of trans people in the United States, opposition to trans athletes is driven by certain politicians who seek to control our bodies, not by science or data. Although trans exclusionary efforts claim to ‘protect women’s sports,’ in reality, they fail to address any of the real, documented threats to women in sports, namely unequal pay, failure to uphold Title IX, rampant sexual abuse and harassment of women and girl athletes, and a lack of equal resources for men’s and women’s teams (as we saw in March Madness tournaments just three years ago).”

For Pride 2024, we’ve created the following series of KOTINOS perfume oils to raise funds for Athlete Ally; everything above the cost of production will be donated.