On August 19, 2025, two stories—one from the United States and another from Canada—cast a stark light on the intensifying debate and real-world consequences surrounding transgender rights, sports participation, and public discourse in North America. Together, they reveal a landscape where both the personal experiences of trans athletes and the professional boundaries of public speech are under scrutiny, often with profound human costs.
In the United States, the campaign against transgender athletes has become a flashpoint for broader cultural and political battles. According to Uncloseted Media, the harassment of trans athletes is less about fairness in sports and more about weaponizing animosity against women and gender minorities. The story of 16-year-old AB Hernandez, a high school track and field athlete, is emblematic of this trend. Earlier in 2025, Hernandez was doxxed and publicly outed as transgender by a local school board president, sparking a wave of national harassment. Right-wing activists misgendered her, targeted her mother with vitriol, and turned sporting events into hostile arenas as adults heckled her from the stands. Influential figures like Charlie Kirk pressured California Governor Gavin Newsom to denounce Hernandez, while former President Donald Trump threatened to withhold federal funds from the state over her participation.
Such incidents are not isolated. Across the country and even internationally, transgender athletes—who remain a small minority—face harassment and exclusion. In Bow, New Hampshire, a trans girl was targeted by adult protestors wearing XX/XY armbands, a symbol of an anti-trans sports movement. In British Columbia, a nine-year-old cisgender girl was accosted by a man who wrongly accused her of being trans, demanding she "prove" her sex. These episodes underscore the toxic climate enveloping youth sports, fueled in part by organizations like the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Leadership Institute, which have pushed anti-trans narratives since at least 2014. Their efforts have contributed to the passage of laws or regulations banning trans athletes from competing according to their gender identity in 29 U.S. states—21 of which enforce the ban starting in kindergarten.
The stakes are rising. In July 2025, the majority-conservative U.S. Supreme Court announced it would review the constitutionality of these state bans. Meanwhile, the federal government is pressuring states without such laws to fall in line with a Trump executive order seeking a nationwide ban on trans athletes. The resulting environment has been described as a "toxic and ruthless ecosystem" by Uncloseted Media, where far-right influencers like Riley Gaines have built careers on attacking trans athletes and spreading misinformation.
The impact on individuals is severe. Grace McKenzie, a lifelong athlete and member of a women's rugby team, described how the anti-trans backlash left her "sobbing uncontrollably and unconsolably," struggling with feelings akin to grief. After World Rugby implemented a ban on trans athletes in 2020—despite a petition with 25,000 signatures—McKenzie and others felt their sense of belonging and community slip away. Sports psychologist Erin Ayala, founder of Skadi Sport Psychology, has seen many trans athletes abandon sports altogether, citing the mental toll of constant exclusion and hostility. "It can be really difficult when they feel like they’re doing everything right … and they still don’t belong," said Ayala. She warned that depression can rise as athletes lose the social support and health benefits of team participation.
Andraya Yearwood, who made headlines in high school for winning Connecticut track competitions alongside another trans girl, ultimately quit running in college to avoid further harassment. "I understood that collegiate athletics is on a much larger and much more visible scale. … I just didn’t want to go through all that again for the next four years," Yearwood told Uncloseted Media. Her story is a painful reminder that for many, the cost of participation is simply too high.
The collateral damage extends beyond trans athletes. Cisgender women, too, have found themselves accused of being trans in a phenomenon dubbed "transvestigation." Notable athletes like Serena Williams and Brittney Griner have faced baseless scrutiny, while Black women, in particular, endure intensified stereotyping and dehumanization. During the 2024 Paris Olympics, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif was falsely accused of being trans by high-profile figures including Donald Trump and Elon Musk, prompting her to file a cyberbullying complaint.
Despite the heated rhetoric, the science remains unsettled. Joanna Harper, a post-doctoral scholar at Oregon Health & Science University, emphasizes that research on the athletic performance of trans versus cis women is ongoing and inconclusive. "People want simple solutions, they want things to be black and white, they want good guys and bad guys," Harper observed. She added that many of the loudest voices in the debate are uninterested in what the data actually reveal, preferring narratives that cast trans people as villains. Harper herself has faced attacks from right-wing outlets for conducting research, particularly when Nike funded her study on hormone replacement therapy's impact on athletic performance.
Amid the furor, some experts argue that the focus on trans athletes distracts from more pressing issues in women’s sports, such as sexual harassment by coaches and chronic underfunding. "If the real goal was to help women’s sports, they would try to increase funding [and] support for athletes," said Harper, noting that women’s sports receive only half the funding of men’s at the Division I collegiate level.
In Canada, the boundaries of professional speech and free expression are being tested in a different but related arena. On August 14, 2025, the B.C. College of Nurses and Midwives suspended nurse Amy Hamm for one month and ordered her to pay almost $94,000 in costs after finding that she made "discriminatory and derogatory" statements about transgender people on social media and other platforms between July 2018 and March 2021. According to CTV News, Hamm's comments included referring to trans people as "penis people" and suggesting their gender identity was a fetish. She also sponsored a Vancouver billboard supporting author J.K. Rowling, who has herself faced criticism for remarks deemed transphobic.
The disciplinary panel concluded that Hamm’s conduct violated college bylaws and the Health Professions Act, arguing that using her professional designation while making such statements undermined public trust in the health care system. "It is unacceptable to use a professional nursing designation in conjunction with the public expression of discriminatory and derogatory statements targeting vulnerable and marginalized members of a community as such statements risks that members of that community will lose trust in the health care system and may be reluctant or unwilling to seek health care," the panel wrote in its decision.
Hamm, who has appealed the decision to the B.C. Supreme Court, did not respond to media requests. Her lawyer, Lisa Bildy, argued in a statement that the panel made "legal and factual errors" and that the ruling "imposes a chilling effect on free expression for all regulated professionals." Bildy maintained, "This decision effectively penalizes a nurse for expressing mainstream views aligned with science and common sense."
As these stories unfold, they highlight the complex interplay between individual rights, public policy, and the lived realities of both transgender people and those who speak about them—sometimes with compassion, sometimes with hostility. The debates are far from settled, but for those caught in the crossfire, the stakes are deeply personal and, at times, life-altering.