Lavender League creates a safe space for queer women, nonbinary, and trans people
Why can't women do that?
At the risk of sounding so 2005, HUGE shoutout to Lavender League PDX, a queer soccer league in Portland, OR. This is one of the most universally positive, win-win-win, life-affirming stories I’ve ever read. So, please do.
Lavender League’s history is short and sweet, as described by OPB: “in 2023, a group of trans and queer players sent out a survey to people in other LGBTQ leagues saying they were thinking of creating a new league for queer women, trans and nonbinary players. They specifically asked what kind of league people wanted. Hundreds responded, many loving the idea. The consensus was that potential players wanted to play competitive soccer, with tough competition. But they also wanted to build community and create an accepting soccer culture.”
Launched a year ago, the league now has 12 teams with 13-17 players each, and a list of subs. Registration for the Spring 2025 season filled in two weeks.
So, here are a bunch of people who didn’t feel like they fit in existing leagues, and instead of trying to make other leagues accommodate them, decided to create their own space. Bravo! That’s the way it’s done. So much support for Lavender League PDX!
And now, I’m going to point out some things, ironic things, things that the Lavender League’s leadership team tiptoes around and plays word games with, things that are at the very foundation of the group and its success.
THIS SHOULD IN NO WAY BE TAKEN FOR CRITICISM.
The organizers of this fabulous group have done everything right—surveying their members about what’s important to them, making policies accordingly, and defining and defending their group’s boundaries. They’ve created a sport space just for a specifically defined group.
Going back to the kernel of the idea for Lavender League, OPB spoke with a member of its Leadership Team and league player, Milo Braxa. Braxa, who first identified as lesbian, and later transgender, I’m going to assume, is female on testosterone (Braxa, below, from the Lavender League website).
I’m making assumptions about Braxa’s sex and using she/her pronouns because her sex, and sex in general, is integral to Lavender League’s story. From OPB:
“Baxa decided to start playing soccer again after the COVID-19 pandemic, as a way to be more social. They joined a Portland LGBTQ league. But Baxa said trans and nonbinary people were not the focus.
“It was still very much like a lot of cisgendered gay men playing and it just wasn’t safe,” Baxa said.
They [Braxa] saw significant injuries, like knee dislocations and ACL tears. In addition, they said, some male players were reluctant to pass to women or trans people.”
Braxa articulates perfectly the problem with mixed sex teams. LGBTQ leagues, by definition, include males and females of various sexual orientations and identities. But in Braxa’s experience, males dominated the play, and caused injury to “women and trans people.” Braxa clearly identifies the sex difference that’s at the foundation of female sports. And though Braxa identifies as a trans man, it’s clear from her experience that, as far as soccer is concerned, a trans man is not a man, as orthodoxy declares. She comes pretty close to saying that sex matters in sports. Braxa counts herself as one of the “trans people” who are at a safety risk and not being passed to by “males.” That’s what prompted her to create another league.
Braxa, and other trans-identified females like Canadian soccer star Quinn and US Olympic middle distance runner Nikki Hiltz, are keenly aware of sex differences, but maybe for self-preservation within the trans community, cannot say those truths out loud.
Another Lavender League leader and player, Amber Vidal, told OPB:
“when games got close opposing teams questioned the gender of players — implying transgender women were lying about their gender to pack teams with more male players than permitted.”
Vidal says a lot here—that sex and gender are not the same, that “transgender women” are male, and that “transgender women” have sports advantages over females, and everyone knew it. As a note: there were no cries of bigotry or hate speech over Vidal’s statement.
Braxa, Vidal, and apparently a large number of the LGBTQ people they surveyed had had the same understanding of sex differences in sports through similar experiences. They addressed sex differences, particularly safety, right up front in their Accountability Agreement. The very first sentence is:
“While competitive play is allowed, we prioritize safety over everything else.”
Since some nonbinary and trans people are male, Lavender League leadership did some fancy wordwork and addressed male advantage this way:
Respect the physical boundaries of fellow players and remember that accidents can happen, so be attentive and cautious during gameplay.
Be aware of your body and how you occupy space. Be mindful of how your style of play, strength, and expertise compare to other players.
“Respect physical boundaries,” “be attentive and cautious,” “be aware of your body,” “be mindful of your strength”—these statements rarely if ever appear as policies of single-sex teams. In fact, being “attentive and cautious,” and “mindful of your strength in relation to other players” seems a tricky balance with competitive play. These statements are clearly aimed at male players, but articulating what they all know to be true—male advantage is a safety and fairness risk—is ideological apostasy. Regardless of word games, Lavender League saw the issue, addressed it, and by all accounts, the policy has been embraced by players and the LGBTQ community.
I’m going to go ahead and make another gigantic assumption and say, because Lavender League was created out of negative experiences with “males,” the majority of league players are female. Everyone in the league understands who is male and the reality of male advantage, so those trans-identified males who join Lavender League are on notice. While they don’t exclude males, they very aggressively police male sports advantage. It’s why Lavender League was created! (Where have I heard that before?)
Another thing Lavender League has done that’s integral to their success is that they’ve defined and defended the boundaries of their group. Prominently on the home page, and throughout the website, Lavender League is unequivocal: “We center queer women, non-binary and trans players.” The OPB article, too, listed those constituents in the headline, and ended by saying: “All adults are welcome so long as the focus remains on queer women, trans and nonbinary players.” While Lavender League talks about inclusivity, it’s in service of the idea that the league is an inclusion measure for queer women, nonbinary, and trans people. Their constituents. What anyone, ever, who has established a group knows is that to “center” or “focus” on a certain demographic necessarily requires excluding others. It’s pretty apparent that Lavender League is not for non-queer women, or straight or gay men, and that’s fine. There are leagues for those demographics. Lavender League’s success is due to the fact that they clearly define and defend for whom the league is designed.
Lavender League would, rightly, be outraged if they were forced to accept, say, gay men for the sake of inclusion. That’s literally the reason the league was created—because “males” made play unsafe and unfair. Hmmmm, you’re saying to yourself, that sounds very familiar. Yes, yes it does.
I say again, bravo to Lavender League! They’ve created a space, an inclusion strategy, for queer women, nonbinary, and trans people who want to play the beautiful game, and it’s going brilliantly. It’s just painfully ironic that weapons-grade liberal Portland and other “progressive” outposts hail Lavender League, and deem their identity-rich constituency worthy of privacy, safety, fairness, and opportunity, but not women.
Dang, you get right to the meat of the matter Sarah. Great insights.
“Queer women” is an expression that indicates discomfort with the label Lesbian. Decades ago, there were lesbians (same-sex attracted females) who called themselves “gay women.” Same problem, different generation: the word Lesbian (and Lezzie) has always been used as an insult. Even though lesbians have always fought for our rights, it wasn't until gay men joined our movement en mass that we were taken seriously. Then queer theory started infiltrating society with it's exciting ideas about tearing society down. Not just gay rights, but revolution! Once universities and schools began glorifying the word Queer, those wanting to appear cool began using it to describe both their sexual orientation and their gender nonconformity. The label infiltrated mainstream culture once it became a status symbol.
Remember, everyone can self-identify as queer, not just homosexuals and those who call themselves transgender. Straight people can be queer. It's easy for a heterosexual guy to pierce his ears, grow his hair, don what he believes to be feminine attire and speak with an affect often demonstrated by gay or gender nonconforming actors in popular TV shows or movies. A slightly effeminate man who emphasizes that feature will have women flocking to him because he seems safer than some big masculine guy, especially to teens and early 20s women. That's why straight women have always flocked to gay men for friendship – the safety factor. Or because they want friends who aren't constantly pressuring them for sex. The man who emphasizes his feminine side seems safer to young women, many of whom will eventually have sex with him. That's my theory, at least. I've ever heard many young lesbians say they gave in to pressure from their “friend” to have “penetrative sex.” Lol. In a sense, it's like the “sneaky fucker” dynamic with other animals that result in low status males getting sexual access to females. (It's actually a thing, look it up.)
Most importantly, giving yourself a label is an easy way to opt into an oppressed category, something many young people are desperate to do today. They have been brainwashed into believing that white people are inherently bad, which instills a deep sense of white guilt in Caucasian youth and adults. They've also been indoctrinated to believe if you are “cisgender” then you are automatically the oppressor of “transgender” people. You can't opt out of your race, but if you're desperately trying to not be assumed to be an oppressor, you can opt into the lgbTQIA2S+ via self-identifying as queer. Hence, this self-victimization is mostly a white phenomena, albeit the coolness factor has created inroads into darker skinned communities. Yes, the lowercase lgb was intentional there. Lesbians are irrelevant in youth circles and at universities. The label is just not as cool as queer. It's a fad thing.
If I wrote this up as an article, would you guest publish me?
I see your point that these gender identitarians are close to recognizing that sex is real and matters, and that they are saying that some people get to have boundaries. BUT:
1) Are they stating that females get to have female-only sports? Or are they still fighting us on that point? I would bet the latter. Are they no longer participating in vicious mobs and other attacks against those who resist gender ideology? Or are they still attacking us and throwing women/girls/children/the First Amendment under the bus? I would bet the latter.
2) Your title says that a "safe" place has been created for the women in this "queer"-etc group, but that claim hinges on hoping that males don't show up, or if they do, they're unusually weak. As we know from the invasion of female sports, even one man can disrupt the rights and safety of vast numbers of females. Its not accurate to say they've created a safe space.
3) By creating their so-called queer-trans-nonbinary team, these women are funneling women away from women's sports, and funneling attention and money that could/should go to women's sports away from women's sports. We need more money, attention, and female participants in female sports, not less, and
4) I can't celebrate anything that promotes the self-loathing madness of gender ideology. This "queer" team sends a message to vulnerable girls and boys, that there's something heroic, rational, liberating, authentic, kind, healthy, etc etc etc about rejecting their sexual anatomy. It's part of full-blown indoctrination leading to ever-increasing body dissociation among children, and severe psychological and physical harm. .
So, yeah, they're at least sort of saying sex matters (for gender ideologues). But this is not a good development. Praising this league and/or attending its matches is short-sighted. It undermines the work we are doing to re-establishing rationality and reclaim our rights. Publicly ask them to apply their same logic to female sports: sex matters, boundaries are valid. Point out the hypocrisy if they don't. But don't celebrate and elevate a further entrenchment of gender identity madness. Don't make the indoctrination of children and the failure to address sexual assault and other causes of children's body dissociation, worse than it already it.