Trans Women Are Women

Women’s organizations, including the Women’s Sports Foundation, National Women’s Law Center and Gender Justice, along with sports icons including Billie Jean King, Candace Parker and Megan Rapinoe agree that transgender girls and women belong in sports and should be able to participate alongside other girls and women.

we are not enemies, but friends

Surf Equity supports the inclusion of trans women in women’s sports. We oppose gender discrimination. We must move past anti-trans targeted attacks and start addressing the real challenges that prevent all women and girls from thriving in athletics.

Surf Equity’s POSITION on the Inclusion of Trans and non-binary Athletes

Trans, Nonbinary and Gender Expansive people belong in the lineup.

Athletic performance is influenced by biological and psychological factors as well as environmental factors such as access to healthcare, financial stability, housing security, access to youth sports, family support, transportation and access to training and coaching. External factors also impact access to competitive athletics, a partial list includes: human rights, politics, judicial decisions, laws, policies, discrimination, abuse and lack of pay parity.

We oppose the weaponization of any of these factors to target and attack trans athletes.

Support for Inclusion:

• In athletics, we support the inclusion of trans women/girls and men/boys in the gendered category that fits their gender identity.

• We support nonbinary athletes in the category of their choosing and look to them as primary resources in decision-making for the future of pro competition that expands beyond the binary of women’s and men’s sports.

• In professional sports, we support the inclusion of trans women/girls, trans men/boys and non-binary athletes in divisions that fit their gender identity.

  On Aug 9, 2022, Surf Equity published this on our website and social media accounts.

SCARCITY MINDSET?

On May 21, 2022, Stab Magazine reported that Keala Kennelly made anti-trans remarks regarding longboarding champion Sasha Jane Lowerson. In 2022, Lowerson became the first out trans woman to win a surfing competition. She won both the Women’s Open and the Logger divisions of the Western Australian State Titles at her home break of Avalon.

A few hours after publication of the Stab article and related Instagram post, Surf Equity began receiving complaints from LGBTQIA+ surfers and their allies. They reached out because Kennelly is a co-founder of Surf Equity.

We were shocked. Why would Kennelly make statements that harm the most marginalized segment of the LGBTQIA+ community, a community to which she belongs?

Later that day, we reached out to Kennelly via text and asked her to consider retracting all anti-trans statements. We also reached out to Bianca Valenti, co-founder of Surf Equity, to get her perspective. Valenti responded with a statement of support for trans women in women’s sports. Valenti said she had also received complaints about Kennelly’s anti-trans remarks and indicated that she’s in conversation with Kennelly about trans inclusion in sports. Valenti and Kennelly are not currently affiliated with Surf Equity and have not contributed to since June 1, 2020.

We have since learned that Kennelly made a 6-minute anti-trans statement during a podcast interview on May 13, 2022, by Sophie Everard on Wavelength Drop-in Sessions, Episode 001.

interview transcript: Keala Kennelly’s anti-trans remarks and Title IX misstatements

May 13, 2022, Sophie Everard’s Drop-in Sessions podcast, Episode 1, Wavelength Surf Magazine

“This is like a really serious topic. That’s really hard to talk about without getting people fired up and angry. This is a big topic and I hope I don’t step my foot in it right now. You know when it comes to inclusivity and including trans athletes into women’s surfing, it’s a very complex topic and I have a lot of feelings about this as a female athlete and I’m all about inclusivity, I’m very pro trans, I’m also very pro women and very pro women’s equality. So when it comes to letting trans women compete in women’s competitive sporting events it’s really hard to square those three, it's hard to be all those three things at the same time. You know, I think we need to start having these conversations about how do we include trans people in sports while still making sure it’s fair for women and not taking opportunities away from women. People keep treating this like it’s a very black-and-white issue, you’re either for it or against it. You know, I think we need to stop being so polarizing and start having these difficult conversations. Okay, how do we make it inclusive and still make sure it’s fair for everyone? You know, when I started pushing back on allowing trans athletes to compete in female sports the entire gay community tried to cancel me for that. They started calling me a TERF and I didn’t even know what a TERF was. I had to Google it, it’s like Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist. And I’m just like, I’m not a TERF. I just wanted to be fair for everybody, I‘m all about inclusion, I’m very pro trans and I’m very pro, we’re all humans, we all deserve, if you identify as a human you deserve the same rights as every other human, period, full stop, okay. But as somebody who has fought so hard in women’s sports to get some level of equality, you know and equal opportunity for women in sports. You know, like here in the US they actually repealed this piece of legislature [legislation] called Title IX that was put in place back in the 70s and offered all these protections to female athletes to give them more equality, to give them more equal access, so then to allow trans women to compete in women’s sports they actually repealed that legislation. So even though it was a big win for trans people, and we celebrated that for them as a female athlete we weren’t sharing the same enthusiasm. We felt like we got something taken away, somethings stripped from us. It was a threat to our sport as we know it and to our equality and protections. So I just think this is a really heated topic that we need to start discussing. In a way that’s not polarizing, in a way that’s just coming to the table with understanding and ideas. I don’t have a solution for this, but it’s not as black-and-white as: include or exclude. Like I said I think everybody should be included. I think trans people should be included in everything, but it shouldn’t be at the detriment to female athletes. It shouldn’t take away. You shouldn’t give rights while taking away from another group. It's a very, very complex issue, it's a much bigger conversation. We need to start being brave enough to have these conversations in a productive, nonaggressive, nonjudgmental way of like okay let’s just come to the table and let’s see how we can figure this out. There needs to be a solution to this that is fair and inclusive to everyone. I don’t know what that solution is yet but.”

Surf Equity OPPOSES Bills, laws, & policies that target & attack trans People

Over the past several years the U.S. has experienced an unprecedented level of attacks on trans adults and youth in the form of state level anti-trans legislation. To learn more about these issues checkout this July 15, 2022 video produced by The Nonprofit Quarterly.

On March, 20 2022, NBC News reported that nearly 670 anti-LGBTQ bills have been filed since 2018, according to their analysis of data from the American Civil Liberties Union and LGBTQ advocacy group Freedom for All Americans, with nearly all of the country’s 50 state legislatures all having weighed at least one bill. 

Throughout that time, the annual number of anti-LGBTQ bills filed has skyrocketed from 41 bills in 2018 to 238 bills in less than three months of 2022. And this year’s historic tally quickly follows what some advocates had labeled the “worst year in recent history for LGBTQ state legislative attacks,” when 191 bills were proposed last year.

The slate of legislation includes measures that would restrict LGBTQ issues in school curriculums, permit religious exemptions to discriminate against LGBTQ people and limit trans people’s ability to play sports, use bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity and receive gender-affirming health care.

As the number of anti-LGBTQ bills hits record highs, research shows that so, too, has support for LGBTQ rights and policies prohibiting discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. Nearly 8 in 10 Americans, or 79 percent, support laws that protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in jobs, housing and public accommodations, according to a Public Religion Research Institute survey released Thursday. That same survey also found that nearly 70 percent of Americans support same-sex marriage, up from 54 percent in 2014.

LGBTQ advocates and political experts say the uptick in state bills is less about public sentiment and more about lobbying on behalf of conservative and religious groups. 

Surf Equity sees the bills as part of a conservative political strategy to use transgender people as a “wedge issue” to motivate right-wing voters.

“Conservative politicians, conservative religious leaders, religious organizations, and sometimes conservative scholars, often present themselves as defenders of traditional values and traditional institutions in society,” said Gabriele Magni, an assistant professor of political science at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. “LGBTQ rights have become a natural target because they go against one of the most traditional institutions of society, and that is the family.”

NBC News’ analysis of the ACLU and Freedom for All Americans data found that among anti-LGBTQ bills, measures targeting trans Americans have significantly increased in recent years. For example, 22 of 2019’s 60 anti-LGBTQ proposed bills, or 37 percent, were anti-trans bills, compared with 153, or 80 percent, of 2021’s 191 anti-LGBTQ bills. This year [2022], about 65 percent of the anti-LGBTQ bills filed as of March 15 — 154 — were anti-trans bills.

“The authors of these bills and the dark money groups pushing for them do not want it to be possible to be a trans kid in this country,” said Gillian Branstetter, a longtime trans advocate and the press secretary for women’s advocacy group the National Women’s Law Center. “They’re responding to trans kids as if they were responding to a contagion.”

Anti-trans legislation — specifically, measures that would block trans students from competing on school sports teams that align with their gender identity — have been among the most successful of the anti-LGBTQ bills filed in recent years. Since the start of 2021, 11 states have written trans sports bans into law, according to tallies from the ACLU and the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group.

Advocates also point to the mental health risks plaguing trans youths and how anti-trans policies can exacerbate them.

A survey last year by The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization, found that 42 percent of the nearly 35,000 LGBTQ youths who were surveyed — and over half of trans and nonbinary youths — seriously considered suicide within the prior year. Separately, two-thirds of LGBTQ youths said debates about anti-trans legislation have impacted their mental health negatively, according to a small survey The Trevor Project conducted in the fall. 

Keala Kennelly

Co-Founder, Committee for equity in women’s surfing 2016-June 1, 2020

Born and raised in the beautiful Hawaiian islands, Keala is one of the best female surfers in the world and arguably the best female big wave surfer on the planet.

She spent over a decade ranked in the top 10 in the world on the WSL World Championship Tour finishing runner up to the World Title in 2003. She left the WCT tour in 2007 to star as a season regular on HBO tv drama series John From Cincinnati. After the shows conclusion Keala instead of returning to the WCT competition circuit decided to chase her passion of surfing big waves. Keala helped establish a Women’s Big Wave Tour and was part of a committee that was responsible for getting women included in the Titans of Mavericks Big Wave Event and winning the fight for equal pay in surfing in 2018. A true pioneer Keala’s groundbreaking performances in some of the heaviest waves in the world have shattered glass ceilings in her sport. She continues to challenge peoples perceptions of what a women is capable of in the water and break through the gender barrier by doing things that no one ever believed was possible for a female. On land Keala has another career as an international DJ playing events all over the world. She has also had acting roles on the popular film Blue Crush and HBO’s John From Cincinnati. She has been in numerous award winning Documentaries including She is the Ocean and Out in the Lineup (a film about LGBT Surfers). Keala is a role model for women and a crusader for LGBT rights and equality in women's sports.

Nelscott Reef Big Wave Classic Women’s Exhibition

• In 2010, Keala Kennelly won the Nelscott Reef Big Wave Classic Women’s Exhibition. Three women became the first to surf at Nelscott Reef, during the world’s first Women’s big wave event: Hawaiian Keala Kennelly, Argentinean Mercedes Maidana, and Californian Savannah Shaughnessy. The Nelscott Reef Big Wave Classic was in its sixth year, but this was the first year as a paddle in only event, and the first to include women.

  • Surfer Magazine 

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

• ESPN’s Surfer of the Year 2002

• XGames 13 Gold medalist 2007

• 4x Champion at Teahupoo (Gotcha Black Pearl Pro WQS Pro 1998, Billabong WCT Pro 2000, 2002, 2003.

• Roxy Pro Fiji WCT Champion 2003

• Triple Crown Champion 2003

• Runner up to the WCT World Title 2003

• Won the first women's big wave contest (Nelscott Big Wave Classic in 2010) opening the door for more female big wave surfing competitions in the future.

• WickrX Super Sessions Women’s Overall Big Wave Champion 2014
  Won multiple XXL Big Wave Awards Women’s Performance of the Year Awards. 2011, 2013, 2014

• 2013 “Woman of the Year” inducted into Surfing Walk of Fame in Huntington Beach

• 2013 Inducted into the Surfing Hall of Fame

• 2013 Speaker at TEDX Malibu

• 2016 Won the Pure Scot Barrel of the Year award at the XXL big wave awards making her the first woman in history to win an open gender category.

• 2017 WSL Peahi Big Wave Challenge 2nd place

• 2018 WSL Peahi Big Wave Challenge Champion

• 2017 WSL Big Wave Tour Ranking #2

• 2018 WSL Big Wave Tour Ranking #1

• In 2018, Keala became the first woman in history ever invited to compete in The Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational, a prestigious big wave event held at Waimea Bay. It was a great honor to be invited to compete against the best male big wave surfers in the world.

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MEDIA

• New York Times Magazine

• USA Today
  

Puerto Escondido, Mexico | July 26, 2019

Los Angeles | Aug 18, 2019