- Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth
Media Contact
Shaplaie Brooks, Executive Director
"If you free the most marginalized person in the room, you free everyone."
For 250 years, the United States has professed liberty and equality as foundational principles. Yet our history tells a more complicated story. Time and again, our nation has reserved those promises for some while asking others to wait. Today, we find ourselves standing once again in that contradiction.
The Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth strongly condemns the United States Supreme Court's decision allowing states to prohibit transgender girls from participating on girls' school sports teams. While this ruling centers on athletics, its implications extend far beyond the playing field. At its core, it asks a much larger question: Who is afforded the full promise of belonging in America?
The Commission is deeply concerned that transgender girls have become the singular focus of legislative and judicial attacks despite the longstanding existence of gender-diverse participation in youth athletics. Girls assigned female at birth have participated on boys' athletic teams for decades when opportunities were otherwise unavailable. Coeducational sports have existed for generations, and boys assigned male at birth have participated on all-girls cheerleading teams. These realities have rarely inspired the coordinated legislative response we are witnessing today.
That inconsistency requires us to ask a difficult but necessary question: If this were truly about sports, why has the overwhelming focus been on transgender girls?
This moment cannot be understood in isolation. It exists within a broader national effort to restrict the visibility, autonomy, and participation of transgender people in public life. When government repeatedly singles out one group of young people for exclusion, it communicates something far more damaging than who may compete in athletics. It tells transgender youth that their humanity is conditional and that their participation in school and community life is subject to political debate.
Sports have never been solely about competition. They teach leadership, resilience, teamwork, discipline, and belonging. Every young person deserves the opportunity to experience those lessons in an environment where they are valued for who they are, not scrutinized for their identity.
The Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth has long maintained that if we free the most marginalized person in the room, we create systems that work better for everyone. History consistently affirms this truth. Rights are rarely taken from every community at once. They are narrowed incrementally, beginning with those society believes it can exclude with the least resistance. Every generation is then faced with the same question: Will we accept a smaller definition of freedom, or will we insist that liberty expands to include us all?
The Commission remains unwavering and unapologetic in its commitment to advancing policies that protect the dignity, safety, and well-being of LGBTQ+ young people across the Commonwealth. We will continue working alongside young people, families, educators, policymakers, and community partners to ensure every LGBTQ+ youth has the opportunity to thrive.
The measure of a democracy has never been how well it protects those with the greatest power. It is measured by how faithfully it protects those with the least. If freedom is not extended to the most marginalized among us, then it has never truly belonged to any of us.
About the Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth
The Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth is the first and only independent state agency of its kind in the United States. Established in 1992, the Commission identifies opportunities to improve policies, programs, and services affecting LGBTQ+ young people through research, advocacy, education, and cross-government collaboration. The Commission provides recommendations to the Governor, the Legislature, and state agencies to advance the health, safety, and well-being of LGBTQ+ youth throughout the Commonwealth.
Media Contact
