The ongoing controversy surrounding Algerian boxer Imane Khelif at the 2024 Paris Olympics highlights a disturbing trend with roots tracing back to North Carolina. Khelif has become the latest victim of the nationwide and now global panic over trans women in sports. Despite being assigned female at birth, living her entire life as a girl and woman, and being legally recognized as a woman in her conservative home country, she faces widespread accusations of being transgender. This baseless claim has subjected Khelif to bullying and threats for no reason other than assumptions about her appearance and body.
This story, along with the recent surge of anti-transgender sports bills, can partly find its origins in the Center for Sports Law and Policy at Duke Law School, led by Professor Doriane Coleman. During the Paris Olympics, Coleman published an article on the right-wing, phrenology-defending website Quillette specifically targeting Imane Khelif and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting. She heavily suggests — without any concrete evidence apart from speculations around IOC language — that the two boxers have XY chromosomes. In her piece, Coleman directly argues for banning transgender women and women with DSD from participating in women's sports, and implies that Khelif should be banned from women’s sports.
Coleman wrote a follow up op-ed for The Washington Post on August 16th. In this article, she again implies that Imane Khelief has XY chromosomes.
Coleman's advocacy for discrimination poses a significant threat to trans rights, women's rights and human rights in general.
Coleman began advocating for anti-trans laws in 2019. Testifying before the U.S. House of Representatives, she called on Congress to remove protections for transgender women from the Equality Act — specifically, removing "women with testes" from "Title IX and opportunities for girls and women in sport."
In her testimony, she laid out the benefits to girls and women of participating in sports beyond the physical, pointing out that those who participate in sports have better social and economic outcomes. She stated, “Girls who play sports stay in school longer, suffer fewer health problems, enter the labor force at higher rates, and are more likely to land better jobs… Our numbers in c-suites are notable, as are our contributions to public service.” Coleman never claims that it’s athletic prowess or physical speed that got these women into board rooms and elected office at a higher rate, but only that the experience of participating in sports is beneficial. In her recent piece for The Washington Post, she claims that elite sports exist "to produce economic, political, developmental and health-related benefits for stakeholders and society."
While Coleman pays lip service to alternative "avenues for transgender inclusion," she never lays out a specific way for what that might look like. In reality, trans girls and women would be denied those economic and social benefits. For example, she suggests that trans students be shunted into their own “open” or “nonbinary” category, which is an unworkable idea given the minuscule number of trans athletes. As of summer 2023 when North Carolina passed its own trans sports ban, there were about fifteen student trans athletes in the state, certainly not enough for a "category."
And by Coleman’s own logic and evidence, trans girls who receive gender-affirming care are also disadvantaged compared to cis males, limiting their participation in men’s sports. As she wrote, "The evidence also shows that trans women who are competitive athletes and who’ve taken feminizing hormones see a drop in performance — more in events centered on endurance and less in those centered on power and strength — but the drop doesn’t eliminate their male advantage."
In her words, "I encourage you to consider revisions to HR 5 that provide for protections for LGBTQ people that don’t risk these invaluable goods, and that are otherwise considered about the circumstances in which sex still matters." While that might sound more polite than how Donald Trump speaks about trans people and sports, it’s the same message. Polite-sounding calls for laws against minority groups are often even more dangerous.
Since 2019, Coleman's work has been cited in both proposed and enacted anti-transgender bills in at least 13 states, in addition to a policy response letter calling for advocating for similar restrictions signed by attorney generals from 18 states. According to The Washington Post, states that have passed restrictive anti-LGBTQ+ laws, including anti-trans sports bans, have seen a wave of hate crimes against trans children in schools. Her work contributes to a nationwide wave of legislation not only banning transgender athletes but also restricting trans medical care and imposing bathroom bills.
Prior to Coleman’s involvement, the number of anti-gay and anti-trans laws being introduced in state and national legislatures was declining. However, since 2019, the introduction and passage of these laws have skyrocketed. While there are many factors that contributed to the significant increase in anti-trans laws starting in 2019, Coleman’s testimony marks a distinct turning point. Before she testified to the US House in favor of legal trans sports bans in April 2019, there were no anti-trans sports laws, and since her testimony there have been many, and they often cite her by name.
In the past, Coleman has claimed not to support three of the bills that cite her work by name because they didn’t include exceptions for trans girls who “have never experienced male puberty.” However, in her recent piece for The Washington Post, she now claims that “even a trans girl who doesn’t experience male puberty holds athletic advantages from experiencing male sexual development in childhood,” suggesting a change from her original position. Even if Coleman’s objections against the anti-trans laws that cite her work were not dishonest years ago, she has now rejected her own former theoretically semi-inclusive statements. Ultimately, she is advocating for the kind of discrimination that leads to anti-trans laws and violence, against both trans people and people accused of being trans.
Coleman has not condemned the more recent anti-trans bills citing her by name, such as Virginia’s 2024 SB 723 — even after being reached out by the local activist group of which I am a member. And as seen by her opinion pieces in Quillette and The Washington Post, she hasn’t stopped advocating for these sports bans and other forms of discrimination. Certainly, the legislators citing Coleman in these trans ban laws have no doubt about the meaning of her work.
Finally, a peer-reviewed scientific paper she cites in The Washington Post to provide proof of trans women on hormone replacement therapy’s ongoing “biological advantage” includes the following disclaimer showing the scientific rigor of its claims after its discussion of trans women’s bodies: “Key questions and opportunities remain for high-quality, well-controlled, and impactful longitudinal studies on the trajectory of performance changes in transgender athletes and the physiological and anatomical mechanisms involved.” Given that even the scientists Coleman herself chose to cite are not totally confident in these findings, how can that be enough to support laws that have been shown to lead to violence against a tiny population of vulnerable children?
Despite Duke University's professed commitment to inclusivity, it continues to support and award Coleman. This support has global repercussions for transgender individuals and women who do not conform to traditional feminine norms. It is easy to sell a rainbow flag and host drag queen fashion shows, but what does it mean when that same institution promotes laws and policies that harm transgender people and those accused of being transgender? What does it mean when that institution’s faculty feel free to publicly attack trans people? What does it mean when that institution promotes policies that lead to violence against children in schools?
Vivian Taylor graduated from Duke’s public policy and divinity programs in 2020. She is part of the leadership team for Stand Up for Trans Women, a group of Durham locals and Duke alumni who are calling on Duke University to stop promoting anti-gay and anti-transgender laws. To get involved, please reach out to NoTransphobiaDuke@gmail.com
Editor's note: An earlier version of this column incorrectly stated that Professor Doriane Coleman testified before the U.S. House of Representatives as a guest of Sen. Marco Rubio. Coleman did testify before the U.S. House of Representatives, but not as a guest of Rubio. The Chronicle regrets the error.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.