Based on Anti-Trans Spending, Right-Wingers Could Afford to Pay Every Trans Student Athlete a Six-Figure Salary
On Tuesday, residents of four U.S. states — Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, and Washington — will vote on whether to ban transgender athletes from organized sports. Each state has a ballot measure backed by political action committees that spearhead advertising and outreach in its favor.
Together, these committees and their supporters have spent roughly $7.5 million this year on their campaigns. Such a hefty price tag is disproportionate to the actual level of trans sports participation in the states, a new investigation from Them and The Advocate has found.
No official national count exists for trans athletes. But an analysis based on state figures suggests that total ballot campaign expenses have surpassed $151,400 per actual trans athlete who would be affected, Them and The Advocate found. While approximate, this figure suggests that the political significance of trans sports participation in the United States has eclipsed the scale of actual participation.
