- In nine states, there are now laws that ban trans kids from playing
sports with their friends. - I would feel so
disrespected and left out. - Would you rage? - Probably. (laughter) (gentle music) - Hello. - How's it going? - [Both Boys] Good. - What's your names? - Atlas. - And I'm Oscar. - My name's Vritika. - I'm Malikhi. - I'm Aiden, my pronouns are he and they. - Awesome. I'm Chris. My pronouns are he and him. Do you know why you're here today? - No. - Uh, no. - I'm a Team USA athlete. - Ooh. - And I was the first transgender man to participate in a men's
Olympic trials race. - That's amazing. - Do you know what transgender means? - I think I know pretty well. If like a man or a woman, transitions to another gender. - Yeah, so it means I do not identify with the way that I was assigned at birth. When every person is
assigned a gender at birth, that's done by a doctor. As I got older, I realized that what
people thought that I was didn't match how I actually am. - Huh. - What are some of the sports
you play to be an athlete? - Yeah, so I'm on Team USA in duathlon, which is run, bike, run. They can be different distances. So I've done a race that
has taken me under one hour and I've done a race that took
me seven and a half hours. - Dang. - The last thing that I did
actually was the Olympic trials in a different sport. - Let me guess that sport, track? - Close, it is a track event. - The thing where you swing it like that? - No, but that would be super fun. Race walking. - Race walking? - Can you explain race walking? I don't... - It is walking as fast as you can and it's like a running race, but there's a very strict technique. - Can we see an example of race walking? - You have to have one
leg straight on the ground until it's under your body and it has to look like
one foot is on the ground at all times. If I show you, you're going to have to try it too. - Yeah, sure. (claps) - Yeah, there you go! (breathing heavily) - And in the Olympic trials
it was a 50 kilometer race, which is 36 miles. (laughs) - What did you place? - I didn't finish the race
cause I tore my meniscus, unfortunately. - Where's that? - Your meniscus is in your knee. - I had that happen. Well, I didn't tear the same thing, but I had knee problems. - Did you? It doesn't feel good. - What is the biggest event you've done? - World championships. In 2016 I was the first
transgender athlete to compete internationally. And that was a really big
moment for trans athletes and just an awesome race. - When did you know that
you were transgender? - I think I knew from a very early age that I wasn't like the girls in my class, but I also wasn't quite like my brother. I don't know. I think I took pride in being
different than other people. And then as I got older, the adults in my life
and the kids in my class started to tell me that
I wasn't girly enough to be a little girl, but I also wasn't a boy. And so I had a sense that I was trans, but I just didn't know the
words until after college. - Oh, interesting. - Do you think you know any trans kids? - Oh, I forgot her name. - I had a friend in middle
school who was trans and my little brother is actually trans. - Were you surprised when your
sibling came out as trans? - No, I wasn't. We all saw it coming. He
goes by she/her, and... - So she goes by she/her? - Yeah, that's...yeah. - Yeah. How are you adjusting to it? - I treat him the same. - (whispering) Treat her. (laughs) No, it's okay. My family had a hard time
getting the pronouns right. It took a while. The important part is that you try, right? - Yeah. - Of like, making that effort. - I came out as non binary
originally, so I use they/them. And then I'm like, oh, actually I identify as like a demi-boy. So then I'm like, oh,
can you add he in there? - Will you explain what demi-boy means? - Demi-boy means that you
partially identify as male, but not like all they way. - Identity is fluid and
it can change over time. And so it's cool that you
are open to changing it because you don't have to know right now. - Mm hm. - Do you ever get hate for
being like a trans athlete? - Yeah, unfortunately I do. A lot of people say men are
bigger, faster, stronger, and better athletes than people
assigned female at birth. But we know that's not true. I know lots of boys who can't play sports. - Yeah, me too. - Who are awful at
playing sports, and yeah. Do you play sports? - [Both Boys] Yeah. - We play flag football,
basketball and baseball. - Swim and basketball. - I play rugby. - Awesome. Rugby is a pretty inclusive
and welcoming space for a lot of queer and
trans folks, is that? - Yeah. It is. They stand up for me, or they're
also one of the few people who actually use my correct pronouns. It's fun to be around a community that accepts you for who you are. - Yeah. - And it just makes the
sport so much better. - How did your athlete friends
react when you transitioned? - When I told them, I think
because we're athletes together, they were like, okay, cool. - Yeah. - And I was like, really? Like, it's cool? That's all you have to say about it? And they were like, yeah,
we love you as a teammate. And we know that you're gonna show up. So they were very supportive. - Why were you worried? - Trans people are really mistreated. There are always people
who are saying that we don't belong in certain spaces or that we shouldn't have
the same opportunities as our peers. - Yeah. - And so I was worried
that people would tell me that I wasn't allowed
to keep playing sport. Like, how would you feel if somebody said you couldn't play baseball anymore? - Probably wouldn't feel very good. - Yeah. People in government are
trying to keep transgender kids from playing sports with
their friends in schools. - That's so bad. - Yeah. In nine states, there are now laws that ban trans kids from playing sports with their friends. - That is insane. I would feel so disrespected
and like left out. - It's kind of weird. - It's like, if you're
like, you play a sport, you're not thinking,
'he used to be a girl.' It's not like that. It's like, oh dang, he's
pretty good at sports. - Exactly. People in our country are
trying to prevent trans people from having the same
opportunities as everybody else. And it's not just about sports. It's also about healthcare, housing, jobs, you know, it's about so
much more than sports. And we all just want
to feel like we belong and we all just want to
be seen for the people that we are. (laughs) There you go. - Like to support somebody
that's transitioning, is it good to like, make it a big thing? Like tell everybody
about it or is it like, keep it small and normal? - You said normal. And I think that we need to normalize everybody just being themselves. - Yeah. - Right? But it's never our job
to tell other people about other people's identities. So if somebody comes out as trans to you, it's not your business to
tell other people, like, let your friend share their information with who they want to share it with. Thanks for chatting with me. - Yeah. Thanks for chatting. Nice talking. - Thanks for watching kids meet! Bye!
