How transgenderism in sports shifted the 2024 election and ignited a national counterculture

The same slogan played over and over again.

“Kamala is for they/them, Donald Trump is for you,” the line echoed in the ears of millions of American parents and children. The ad often played during the commercial breaks of NFL, college football and MLB postseason games. 

The phrase was launched by the Trump campaign in September. It was repeated in ads, not just for Trump, but candidates down-ballot on the Republican ticket. It has been hailed as the most effective campaign slogan of the entire 2024 cycle.

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The ad presented imagery of transgender people in designer clothing, while highlighting Harris’ previous support for legislation that would allow trans athletes to compete against girls and women in sports.

The Trump transition team provided an exclusive statement to Fox News Digital, vowing to make good on its campaign stance on this issue. 

​​”The Trump Administration will not be deterred by the Biden Administration’s dirty tricks. President Trump will use every lever of power to reverse the damage Joe Biden has done to our country and deliver on his promises to the American people, including protecting women and girls by keeping men out of women’s sports,” Trump’s forthcoming press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

Vice President Kamala Harris never addressed the issue head-on during her campaign. Democratic allies backpedaled on it. Then people went to the polls, and data suggests the issue mattered too much for one side to simply ignore. 

A national exit poll conducted by the Concerned Women for America (CWA) legislative action committee found that 70% of moderate voters saw the issue of “Donald Trump’s opposition to transgender boys and men playing girls and women’s sports and of transgender boys and men using girls and women’s bathrooms,” as important to them. 

And 6% said it was the most important issue of all, while 44% said it was “very important.”

“The American people saw an administration committed to putting men in women’s private spaces, so this kind of leadership and promise hit straight to the hearts of voters. The conclusive election results, as well as exit polling, certainly affirms that,” CWA legislative strategist Macy Petty told Fox News Digital. 

Trump’s campaign seized on the issue in the homestretch of the election cycle. He boasted about his stance and his pledge to ban trans athletes in women’s sports at nearly every rally in the final month. 

And in the background, a brewing cultural movement stirred in nearly every corner of the country, focused on this singular issue. It was fueled by women’s rights groups and young female athletes who felt as though they were being dismissed by an unfair system – a system most common in blue states. 

The Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS), which was founded in 2023, emerged as a leading advocacy group in the protection of women athletes from trans inclusion this year. It has spearheaded viral conversations on the issue, and has taken the lead in multiple lawsuits focused on the protection of women against trans athletes.

But many of these advocates wish it didn’t have to be a political issue.

“This shouldn’t be a partisan issue – it’s a matter of truth, biology, and justice. Elected officials who abandon their responsibility to defend women and girls in athletics will face political consequences, as evidenced by last month’s election,” ICONS co-founder Marshi Smith told Fox News Digital.

Still, for Trump and the Republican Party, it was a movement that provided a sudden surge in support among young college-educated women. Biden’s 35-point lead among young women over Trump in 2020 shrunk to a 24-point lead for Harris this year, per an NBC News exit poll. 

It was an issue that helped re-shape the electorate. 

Trans inclusion debates divide Democrats

Before and after the end of the election, multiple Democrat congressional representatives have spoken out against the party’s platform on trans-in-sports issues. Rep. Seth Moulton D-Mass., and Rep. Colin Allred D-Texas, are just two of the most prominent examples. Liberal media figures, including HBO’s Bill Maher, have preached backpedaling on the issue too.

Allred and Moulton previously endorsed legislation that would allow trans athletes to compete as women, including the Equality Act and Transgender Bill of Rights. 

But then Allred ran his own TV ads dispelling his support for “boys in girls’ sports” after the Ted Cruz campaign used it as one of Allred’s weak points to defend Cruz’s Senate seat. 

And Moulton repeatedly condemned Democrat support for trans inclusion after the election. His comments sparked a massive pro-trans rally outside his Salem office on Nov. 17. 

Salem city councilman Kyle Davis was a key organizer for that rally. 

Davis, a lifelong Democrat and LGBTQ activist, has vowed to help campaign against Moulton in the 2026 midterms. Davis will throw his support behind Massachusetts state Rep. Danny Cruz to primary Moulton in two years. 

“I was incredibly disappointed,” Davis told Fox News Digital. 

“[We] were looking toward Seth Moulton and other Democrat figures to kind of reaffirm their support for us.” 

Davis, a member of the LGBTQ community, says the other Democrats he has associated with have no plans to tolerate the key figures in their party running away from their support for trans inclusion. That includes President Biden, whose Department of Education withdrew its support for a proposed rule change that would have outlawed states from banning trans athletes in girls’ sports on Dec. 20. 

“I think it’s disgraceful,” Davis said of Biden’s withdrawal of the proposed rule. “To see, not just our congressmen, but also our president on his way out ending in this rollback of trans rights is completely inexcusable and disgraceful.”

Davis is confident, based on conversations with Democrats in his state, that large factions of voters in his party will continue to prioritize protecting trans rights, including trans inclusion in sports. He wants to see his party’s future candidates publicly support transgenders, unlike Harris in 2024. 

“We’re going to remain firm in what has always been core to the foundation of the Democratic Party, we stand up for marginalized groups, I don’t think that’s negotiable,” Davis said. 

The country, by state laws, is split right down the middle on the issue. 

Currently, 25 states have laws in place to restrict or ban trans inclusion in girls’ and women’s sports, while the other 25 don’t have any such laws, and some, like California, have laws in place to protect trans athletes. 

But even the states with laws in place to restrict it have been under siege by Democratic-appointed federal judges. 

Judges Landya McCafferty of New Hampshire and M. Hannah Lauck of Virginia, who were each appointed during the Obama administration, issued rulings this year that enabled biological males to play on high school girls’ soccer and tennis teams. McCafferty issued an order that allowed two transgender athletes to compete in New Hampshire, while Lauck ruled that an 11-year-old transgender tennis player was allowed to compete against girls the same age in Virginia. 

Many similar incidents have gone on to earn intense national attention in 2024.

The Blaire Fleming controversy and the rise of an anti-trans merchandise industry

Trump made one of his strongest pitches to women voters during a Fox News all-women town hall event with Harris Faulkner in October. 

During that interview, Trump shifted the national spotlight onto a situation in northern California when he made reference to San Jose State volleyball player Blaire Fleming. Trump pointed out an incident where Fleming spiked the ball at an opposing player on San Diego State during a match on Oct. 10. 

“I saw the slam, it was a slam. I never saw a ball hit so hard, hit the girl in the head,” Trump said during the interview “But other people, even in volleyball, they’ve been permanently, I mean, they’ve been really hurt badly. Women playing men. But you don’t have to do the volleyball. We stop it. We stop it. We absolutely stop it. You can’t have it.” 

San Diego State shortly after put out a statement clarifying that Fleming’s spike did not strike its player in the head, but shoulder. 

But the damage was done at that point. A controversy that had already garnered some national attention steamrolled into mainstream political discussion. San Jose State’s season became a regular talking point on national political talk shows and at Trump campaign rallies leading up to the election.

Spartans co-captain Brooke Slusser became involved in two lawsuits throughout the season over Fleming’s presence on the team. Slusser alleged that she had been made to share sleeping and changing spaces with Fleming in their first year as teammates together in 2023, but was never informed that Fleming is a biological male. 

Slusser has told Fox News Digital that the entire experience involving Fleming was “traumatizing.” 

“This season has been so traumatizing that I don’t even have a proudest moment,” Slusser said. 

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And just days before the election, Slusser spoke out in favor of Trump’s proposed ban on trans athletes in women’s sports – the same ban he proposed after claiming Fleming “slammed” a young woman in the head with a volleyball. 

“I think it’s completely necessary,” Slusser previously said of Trump’s proposed ban. “I don’t think this should have ever been allowed to be a thing and legal and allowed to happen. And I think so many people know it’s not right and, for some reason, they still decide to support it, for whatever other reasons they have, and I think in the back of everyone’s heads, you know it’s not right. I mean, if you’re having to hide something for so long just like SJSU did, you have to know it’s not right.” 

Slusser, and many other young women who have been affected by this, laid the blame squarely on the shoulders of the party that allowed it to happen. 

“There is more so one side of a political party that kind of agrees with what I’m doing compared to the other, but then there’s still so many people on both sides of the political parties that agree with this,” Slusser said. “It’s engaged in politics, but it has nothing to do with politics at the end of the day. One side is fighting it, and the other side has decided not to.”

Weeks before that, San Jose State’s scandal-ridden team was scheduled to make a road trip to the key battleground state for an Oct. 26 match at the University of Nevada, Reno. Nevada players were well aware of the situation involving their upcoming opponent. And those players wanted no part in the contest against Fleming, so much so that they pleaded with their athletic department to forfeit the match. Four other teams had forfeited vs. SJSU up to that point in the season. 

But the university declined their players’ request, initially. The program put out a statement insisting it would play the match, but players wouldn’t be punished for opting out. Then the players went public with their grievances over the disagreement, thrusting Nevada into its own controversy in the weeks leading up to the match. Tulsi Gabbard even made a trip to one of their games for a photo-op.

When Fox News Digital pressed Nevada about why it wouldn’t forfeit, it wasted no time throwing Democratic lawmakers responsible under the bus. A university spokesperson cited an amendment in the Nevada Constitution, which outlawed the canceling of an athletic event to avoid facing a transgender person. It was an amendment added in 2022 by state Democrats. 

“As a state university, a forfeiture for reasons involving gender identity or expression could constitute per se discrimination and violate the Nevada Constitution,” the university’s statement said. 

So instead, the university let the situation play out for weeks, while the people of Nevada watched. They watched the young women on the team agonize, publicly slamming the university and administrators while praising conservatives for pledging to fight back. 

Nevada captain Sia Liilii took on the role of representing her teammates, just as Slusser had for hers, in speaking out against the protocols that were preventing the team from canceling the match. 

In an op-ed by Liillii and teammate Sierra Bernard published on Fox News Digital, they too came out in support for Trump. 

“President Trump has our back, and this election is more important than politics but about leaders who will be standing with women on and off the court, defending our right to compete safely and fairly,” Liilii and Bernard wrote. “As proud female athletes, we will continue to fight for fairness on the court and in women’s sports. But it shouldn’t be a fight we have to take on alone.”

Eventually, Nevada had to cancel the match on Oct. 25, just one day before it was scheduled to be played, and less than two weeks before the election. The university said it canceled because it wouldn’t have enough players to compete, which it claimed did not make it liable for violation under the Nevada constitution. 

But Liiliii and her teammates, as well as Slusser, who had to continue playing with Fleming that season, were just getting started in their activism. 

And they soon had support.

Slusser and Liilii were just a handful of women’s athletes to sign NIL endorsement deals with the startup athleticwear brand “XX-XY Athletics” in 2024. 

The brand, founded just this March by 1986 U.S. women’s gymnastics all-around national champion Jennifer Sey, merchandises athletic gear that promotes “standing up for the protection of women’s sports.” 

Sey told Fox News Digital that her business has hit seven figures in sales in under eight months. Sey has achieved this despite frequent backlash and harassment from critics, and even having her brand completely banned from TikTok in June. 

“Woke capitalism has been rejected and normie capitalism is back – outstanding product and uplifting marketing, underpinned by financial discipline,” Sey said. 

And Sey is actively expanding the industry of athletic merchandise with anti-trans, pro-women messaging. Her company recently launched ​​the first NIL program exclusively for female athletes who believe that women’s sports are for women only. 

The program, called “GXME CHXNGERs,” has already signed seven college athletes: Heather Arnett (softball, Pittsburgh State University), Sara Casebolt (track, University of Idaho), Ainsley Erzen (soccer and track, University of Arkansas) and Emma Vorpagel (track, Northern Illinois University) joined the three volleyball athletes. 

So now, an entire generation of young athletes, currently in college and college hopefuls, will have the opportunity to make NIL money from those same messages, if they choose to pursue it. 

And as the culture movement grows, so too could the revenue. 

The LPGA and how banning trans athletes has been accepted

The NCAA and even the International Olympics Committee (IOC) haven’t been able to appease women’s rights groups who want trans athlete bans. But one major women’s sports organization has proven it’s possible with almost no repercussions. 

The LPGA issued a sweeping rule to ban post-puberty biological males from pro women’s golf competition in the first week of December. It is a move that has been widely accepted by the general golf community.

Pro women’s golfer Amy Olson even said in an interview with Fox News that women’s golfers were “thrilled” about the rule change. 

But the idea of such a ban caused legitimate fear for the backlash a year earlier for one major women’s golf tour owner. 

Venture capitalist Stuart McKinnon purchased and took control of the NXXT Golf Tour in January 2023. Transgender golfer Hailey Davidson was already a participant of that tour when McKinnon bought it.  

A year later, when considering whether to ban Davidson, McKinnon said he had to have a hard conversation with his family, warning them of any potential hateful backlash for it. McKinnon also sent out a poll to the tour’s players asking what they wanted. McKinnon said the poll had to be anonymous so players wouldn’t have to fear retaliation, but almost all the responses were “overwhelmingly” in favor of banning Davidson. 

“I sat down with my family, I sat down with all of my daughters and said ‘We’re in this together or not. We potentially will get a lot of backlash, a lot of hatred, people will be against us for this,’ and we decided we needed to do what we felt was the right thing, and we did it,” McKinnon said during an ICONS X spaces on Dec. 5. 

McKinnon pulled the trigger on banning Davidson. Then, he says the decision did not prompt the backlash he warned his daughters about. 

“We didn’t get sued yet, and we didn’t get the negative backlash, it was minimal at best, our lawyers were astonished how much little backlash there was, and it was a lot of love and support,” McKinnon said. 

McKinnon’s ban of Davidson set a precedent that the rest of the LPGA chose to follow in December, one month after Trump’s election victory.

The culture war rages on in high schools, overseas and in Washington DC

The Harris campaign and other Democrats attempted to dismiss the issue of trans athletes in sports as “remote.” So too has the president of the NCAA, Charlie Baker, who has repeatedly pointed out that there are fewer than 10 transgender athletes in the NCAA, out of 510,000 in total.

But no matter how remote they claim the issue to be, it has happened enough times to resonate with a sizable number of Americans. Even if those Americans haven’t had to encounter it themselves. 

Idaho Gov. Brad Little was one of many Republican governors to take direct action on the issue this year. In August, he passed an executive order to enforce the “Defending Women’s Sports Act” in his state, which required schools to take steps to prevent biological males from competing with girls. 

Little previously told Fox News Digital that there wasn’t a single instance of trans inclusion that occurred in his state, which prompted this executive order. But that didn’t stop the people of his state from supporting a ban anyway. Little also cited former college swimmer Riley Gaines as an influential figure in his decision to pass the order. 

Still, Idaho could always fall victim to the ruling of a federal judge even with their ban in place, just as the schools in New Hampshire and Virginia have. 

Idaho falls under the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which is shared with California, Oregon and Washington. 

“You always worry about it,” Little said. “We are in the Ninth Circuit, Idaho is, which, there is a lot of judges out of California, but that’s a problem that we meet with on all kinds of fronts.” 

California has become a national epicenter for the issue, not just with San Jose State, but several examples at the high school level. 

Stone Ridge Christian High School’s girls’ volleyball team was scheduled to face San Francisco Waldorf in the Northern California Division 6 tournament but forfeited in an announcement just before the match over the presence of a trans athlete on the team. Gaines later held a ceremony with Stone Ridge Christian to celebrate their decision to forfeit. 

A transgender volleyball player was booed and harassed at an Oct. 12 match between Notre Dame Belmont in Belmont, California, against Half Moon Bay High School, according to ABC 7. Half Moon Bay rostered the transgender athlete.

In response to complaints of boos and harassment, athletic director Steve Sell of Aragon High School in San Mateo, California, intervened. In his capacity as co-chair of the Peninsula Athletic League Athletic Directors, Sell informed Notre Dame that there could be consequences, according to ABC 7.

Martin Luther King High School in Riverside, California, is currently embroiled in one of the most contentious local controversies on the issue. A recent school board meeting by the Riverside Unified School District on Dec. 19 featured a parade of parents berating the board for allowing a trans athlete on the Martin Luther King girls’ cross-country team. A lawsuit filed by two girls on the team allege that their T-shirts in protest of that player were compared to swastikas, simply because they say “Save Girls Sports.” 

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And then, hundreds and hundreds of students at the high school began wearing the shirts every week, multiple sources told Fox News Digital. The school even revised its dress code to outlaw the shirts, and put students in detention for wearing them. But after so many of them began to wear the shirts, the school gave up on its efforts to continue enforcing the dress code. 

And the shirts have since become a local social media phenomenon in the community, as multiple protesting parents were seen wearing them at the Dec. 19 meeting. 

Dan Slavin, the father of one of the girls involved in the lawsuit, told Fox News Digital this issue may cause his family to take an active hand in campaigning in the 2026 California gubernatorial election. 

“If nothing changes here in the next couple of years, it absolutely should be part of the next election,” he said.

“I want to see policies change,” Slavin added. “I keep saying the system is broken, and it’s doing more harm than good. And I want to see people understand that and admit that. Sometimes, we make mistakes, and it’s OK to admit that, but we need to make changes and get out of those mistakes we make.” 

And well beyond the borders of California, it’s an issue that has garnered scrutiny on a global level, especially in 2024. 

The United Nations released study findings saying that nearly 900 biological females have fallen short of the podium because they have been beaten out by transgender athletes.

The study, titled “Violence against women and girls in sports,” said that more than 600 athletes did not medal in more than 400 competitions in 29 different sports, totaling over 890 medals, according to information obtained up to March 30.

“The replacement of the female sports category with a mixed-sex category has resulted in an increasing number of female athletes losing opportunities, including medals, when competing against males,” the report said.

And with the next Olympics set to take place in the U.S. in 2028, the final year of Trump’s second term, the world will look to see which athletes are allowed to compete in the women’s category while on American soil. 

And as much as states have tried to wield their autonomy on the issue in recent years, Trump’s return could signal wider executive action on it, especially after a Biden administration that has made attempts to act on it as well. 

On Jan. 20, 2021, just hours after President Biden assumed office, he issued an executive order on “Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation.” 

This order included a section that read, “Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports.” 

It was just the first in many steps taken by the Biden administration and Democratic lawmakers at the congressional and state level that enabled a sudden wave of trans athletes to compete as girls and women in the U.S. during the current president’s term.

Since then, Biden has proposed the rule that would outlaw states banning trans athletes, a proposal his administration has since withdrawn, and issued a sweeping Title IX re-write in April. The Supreme Court struck down a Biden emergency request to enforce its policies in 10 states that were trying to contest it. And then Harris didn’t give many answers on the subject during her campaign. 

So now Trump is set to take office himself on Jan. 20 with a promise to keep from his famous campaign ad.

The ball is in his court.

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