WA Rep. Adam Smith on transgender women in sports: Let leagues decide, not lawmakers

U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., is running for re-election in Washington’s 9th Congressional District against former Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant.

KTTH host Jason Rantz noted that the topic of transgender women and girls in sports will come up during the race and asked Smith for his opinion on “The Jason Rantz Show.”

“I don’t think that any legislative body should govern that one way or the other,” Smith responded. “I think the individual leagues in question should make the decision that they believe is fair and competitive. And I think in some instances, yes, if you are a biological man, I think those individual sports — but I don’t want 11-year-olds having to go through a genital exam before they can join a
sport.”

Regarding undergoing an exam, Rantz said, “You realize that never happens, right?”

Smith ignored the question but said, “If you have a competitive problem, then I think the individual league should be allowed to make those choices.”

“But they can’t,” Rantz rebutted.

“Well, I think they should,” Smith responded.

Rantz pointed out that the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) stated that even if an amendment to separate genders was passed, the organization couldn’t enforce it because doing so would violate state anti-discrimination laws.

Rep. Adam Smith: Trans people in sports should be an ‘individual competitive decision’

“I don’t agree that those types of laws should be passed,” Smith replied. “I don’t think a law should be passed to dictate to individual sports leagues, on the transgender issue, who they have to play. I think that has to be an individual competitive decision.”

Smith added that he believes conservatives are blowing the issue out of proportion to score political points. He also thinks people are ignoring the fact that the transgender community is facing “massive discrimination.”

“The reason that they don’t want to allow you to be barred from doing this is to try to get to the point where they are treated at least somewhat equally,” Smith said. “When you got a president that is outright banning any transgender person from serving in the military — that is discrimination. That is denying the existence of transgender people, and that is what they’re concerned about.”

However, Rantz countered, saying, “It’s not that they’re denying the existence of transgender people. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. It’s literally acknowledging the existence of trans people.”

“Banning them from being able to — well, I suppose you’re right,” Smith said. “In that particular context, it’s right, but there’s all kinds of conversion therapy issues. ‘No, you’re just a freak.’ ‘You’re wrong.’ I mean, you heard what Charlie Kirk has said about transgender people. He calls them freaks and lunatics and weirdos and crazy people, and then transgender people get beat up and assaulted. So the effort to try to get equality for transgender people is not the joke the conservatives seem to think it is.”

“Democrats argue that allowing and forcing sporting competitions is about discrimination or anti-discrimination?” Rantz asked.

“Yeah. Well, it’s about the broader issue of discrimination,” Smith responded.

Listen to the full conversation below.

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