‘Happiest I’ve ever seen her’: the sports teams giving

Inclusive clubs provide a supportive environment for LGBTQ+ children amid growing antagonism toward transgender inclusion in athletics

Like many seven-year-olds, Gregory’s daughter discovered her love for soccer on the playground at recess. She started coming home talking about the sport and asked to join her friends’ recreational team. Gregory, an attorney in Portland, Oregon, whose name we’ve changed to protect his family’s safety and privacy, signed her up. But his daughter ended up getting assigned to a different team than the one her friends were on.

Gregory was concerned about his daughter not being on a team with a coach and players she knew – she’s transgender and he wanted her to be in a supportive environment. Gregory’s wife called the league’s coordinator to see if they could get their daughter on the original team and to explain the reasoning for their request, but he said she shouldn’t be playing on a girls’ team if she’s trans. “We were told that she would have to play on a boys’ team if she wanted to play in games,” Gregory told the Guardian. He immediately withdrew his daughter from the league.