ABOUTOn October 26, Elizabeth Eddy of Angel City posted her first post on X in nearly two years. In it, Eddie essentially responded to a Guardian report that the NWSL fell quietly its policy of inclusion of trans and intersex athletes, leaving the league's future position on the issue unresolved.
The next day, the New York Post gave Eddie the impetus to write about it. I'm republishing it in full.
“I am concerned that without clarity about who the league is for, it will lose its identity and its momentum,” Eddie wrote in an article in which he widely advocated for a ban on trans athletes in NVSLto protect the “integrity of women's sports” to prevent the league from losing “its identity and momentum.”
It is unclear how Eddie believes the integrity of the NWSL has suffered, either due to previous policies allowing trans athletes to participate in the league or the current lack thereof. The league, now in its 13th season, has developed a clear identity. It's very competitive. It's commercially and culturally powerful. It's, well, integral part of world women's football. The league's momentum also appears to be generally good: if you take just two metrics, viewership is growing every season, and the league will expand to 16 teams in 2026, nearly doubling its size in the last five years.
Eddie quotes the English FA last time on transgender athletes in women's football as success stories. And yet England prohibit It is believed to only affect about 20 grassroots players out of 5.5 million registered athletes. There is reason to believe that the effect here in the US will be similarly small. In 2021, with the league's transgender inclusion policy taking effect, the NWSL two trans players: Quinn and Kumi Yokoyama. Both have since left and no trans players currently play in the league. On the opening weekend of the 2025 season, the league welcomed its 1000th player. These are just two trans players out of more than 1,000 in league history.
Eddie's article is written as if there are a whole host of trans players ready to take over the league at any moment. There is no such thing. There are currently no trans players competing at the professional level in the United States. Federal legislation directly prohibits trans players participating in NCAA college football. And on top of all this, numerous peer-reviewed research showed that trans athletes do not have a biological advantage over cis athletes.
In the absence of transgender people, racially motivated transphobic attacks continued. There was a wave of online abuse when Orlando Pride's Barbra Banda was named BBC Player of the Year. NVSL was painfully slow come out in support of your star player. Kansas City Currents Temwa Chawinga and her sister Tabitha suffered similar abuse. This is all due to either the complex world of gender testing standards, players who appear to some to be insufficiently feminine in appearance, or a combination of both.
In his article, Eddie manages to identify that such legislation is harmful, stating, “This uncertainty serves no one as questions and controversy abound around intersex and transgender athletes.”
But she doesn't seem to recognize how her article further contributes to this harm. How Suzanne Rack expressed it in the Guardian earlier this year: “Hysteria over an almost impossible hypothetical situation opens the door to transphobic and racist attacks on female footballers and creates an environment in which trans people, young trans people or those questioning their gender identity at a grassroots level feel as if they don’t belong in football or sport.”
This harm is magnified exponentially by the New York Post's disgraceful decision to publish Eddie's article with a photo of Banda, who, like many athletes of color, is often subject to transphobic attacks. And Eddie's teammates know it.
“This article is not about this team in this locker room,” Angel City captain Sarah Gorden told reporters Thursday. “We disagree with what is written for a variety of reasons, but basically the subtext also seems transphobic and racist. The article calls for genetic testing of certain players, and the headline includes a photo of an African player. And it is very harmful. As a mixed woman with a black family, I am devastated by the subtext of this article… There are players in this league and in this locker room who are directly harmed by what was written in the article.”
Even if one were to ignore all of this and believe that trans inclusion is a real problem for the NWSL, it's hard to see how it would trump any number of other issues that have effectively blunted the league's momentum and impacted its integrity.
after promoting the newsletter
Problems continue with the working conditions of the professionals who run the league. Six former San Diego Wave employees sue the club and the NWSL are accused of, among other things, racial and disability discrimination, sexual harassment and negligence in preventing discrimination and sexual harassment. Guardian reported The NWSL denies wrongdoing, saying it has “no duty of care” to the six employees.
There are problems with caring for players. In May, City of Angels defender Savi King collapsed on the field and suffered a medical emergency before leaving the field on a stretcher. Play on the field resumed, although the players were visibly upset. The NWSLPA called on the league reconsider your medical protocols. Then in August, when a nationally televised match between the Orlando Pride and KC Current experienced a severe heat delay, NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman reportedly threatened fine Current due to differences in the league's extreme race procedures.
There are also simpler problems on the field, as European leagues such as the WSL gain financial strength to the point of attracting some of the NWSL's best players away from the league and country where they made their careers.
Trans athletes did not take any of these issues into account. And they are unlikely to do this, regardless of whether Eddie's proposals come to fruition.
