Fair Game: Trans Athletes and the Future of Sports

by Ellie Roscher

A timely, illuminating plan for how trans and cis athletes can both fairly play sports



Fair Game offers an insightful, timely examination of the ongoing battle for equality in athletics. As LGBTQ athletes break barriers in the Olympics, transgender athletes still face harsh restrictions in many areas. With twenty-four states passing anti-trans sports legislation in the last two years, nearly half of Americans live under laws that restrict or ban transgender individuals from participating in sports. Fair Game explores why taking the next step and increasing the acceptance of trans athletes is important not only for everyone with an Olympic dream but also everyone whose kids just want to join the town soccer league.



Fair Game explores the role of sports in the lives of transgender youth and adults, offering a comprehensive, nuanced, and multivoiced picture of the transgender athletic experience. Through a woven collection of the narratives from a marginalized population, Fair Game examines the patterns of fear and gender stereotypes that undergird anti-trans legislation and offers helpful historical and political context about sex segregation in sports and how bodies (including trans bodies) work in sports.



Timely, accessible, inspiring, and rigorous, Fair Game presents a sports landscape beyond our current conceptions, a world changed by unrestricted and joyful movement in sports.

Genres: Nonfiction, LGBT, Sports

304 pages, Hardcover

Published January 27, 2026

About the author

Ellie Roscher is the author of Fair Game, Remarkable Rose, The Embodied Path, 12 Tiny Things, Play Like a Girl and How Coffee Saved My Life and the host of the Unlikely Conversations podcast. She teaches writing and yoga in Minneapolis. Her writing can be found in the Baltimore Review, Inscape Magazine and elsewhere. She edits the Keeping the Faith series: Keeping the Faith in Seminary, Keeping Faith in Rabbis and Keeping the Faith in Education. Ellie holds a master's degree in Theology/Urban Ministry from Luther Seminary and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction Writing from Sarah Lawrence College and is a certified yoga teacher.

Reviews

[Kelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was an eye-opening and thoughtful read about the realities of trans* people who want to participate in sports in the United States, both at youth and adult or professional levels. This book addresses common myths and misunderstanding very clearly, providing scientific evidence along with anecdotal commentary from a wide variety of trans* athletes from all walks of life.

This is a great primer on the topic and gives the reader many talking points and resources to better advocate for trans* inclusion in sports, particularly for children. If you want a deeper personal perspective I can also really recommend Cecé Telfer's memoir (she was interviewed for this book as well): Make It Count: My Fight to Become the First Transgender Olympic Runner. If you want to know more about the perspective of a cisgender parent dealing with these issues in the deep south, including access to safe sports environments for their child, I also strongly recommend another amazing recent release: And the Dragons Do Come: Raising a Transgender Kid in Rural America.

[Juniper L.H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was well written and well done. Considering how much of a hot topic this is today I think that everyone could benefit from reading this novel. I am fairly informed on this topic yet I still learnt a few things. I like seeing a topic like this addressed with statistics and verifiable facts, while also packaged with human stories that show you the real impact of these discussions.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a free ARC. This honest review was left voluntarily.

[Elysha Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great book on trans inclusion in sports!

It’s broken down into chapters about common myths about trans inclusion in sports and uses data driven evidence as well as personal experiences from trans athletes to refute them.

The combination of studies and evidence and personal stories are the perfect mix. The data is great as it provides hard to refute evidence arguing for trans inclusion in sports. The personal stories though add a face to it and show how people are being harmed by exclusionary policies. It also adds a sense of individuality and shows that trans athletes just want to compete and enjoy themselves.

I enjoyed the individual chapters being used to refute specific myths as well. It provided good structure and allowed for focused evidence and stories.

I’d recommend this book to anyone.

Thank you for NetGalley and The New Press for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent treatise for trans equality at all levels of sport, in and outside the professional arena.

You might be surprised to hear that this was written by two cis athletes. I highly recommend reading the author notes at the end. The authors are open about their journey to trans acceptance in general and in sport. Reading this part alone could help cis people with misgivings understand how a shift in mindset could happen and why.

The authors cover all of the arguments for and against trans inclusion in sports. Naysayers should be satisfied if they're reasonable. There's so much we don't know, but what we do know paints a rather clear picture.

The drawbacks of this text boil down to repetition and structure. The authors repeat themselves over and over. Maybe this is needed, especially for those who aren't on board and need certain facts drilled into their heads. But it does drain a little. I also found myself lost without a clear structure. There's chapters loosely organized around themes, but (perhaps due to the repetition) the ground covered is peripatetic and I lost the thread of the argument in various places.

I was also puzzled about why the authors still seem to support sex/gender-segregated sport to some degree. For years now I've been utterly perplexed about why we can't just dispel with sex/gender as a category for sport and come up with other valid categories, like weight classes.

I also felt that the authors didn't always understand the why and where of transphobia. Cis bigots aren't necessarily afraid of trans people. They don't understand the difference between trans people and predators taking advantage of transphobia by pretending to be trans or women. The answer to that is, of course, any predator can use any tactic at any time, and to focus on the (extremely low) likelihood of a predator using this tactic is transphobic.

I'd like to highlight a couple of points that might help the uninitiated have an epiphany. Why is the female category of sport regulated and not the male? If athletes come in all shapes, sizes, and power, why isn't this regulated over generalizations by sex/gender?

Overall, this is an important addition to the pro-trans in sports literature. Maybe it's time to dismantle sex/gender as a category of play and focus on the actual factors of athlete embodiment that matter in sport.

Thank you to Edelweiss+ and The New Press for the advance copy.

[Mandy]

Fair Game is essentially a persuasive essay on why trans* people should not be barred from participating in sports that align with their gender. The authors also mention issues in women’s sports that are pressing, including equal pay with men’s teams and reduced media coverage for women and girls’ sports teams. Some of the points made are compelling, which include that male bodies are considered as the default in sports, and that only women’s sports have invasive testing to determine sex, which has led to traumatic incidents for intersex athletes. There are other points, however, that I would say are more controversial, especially the point that “creating and maintaining women’s sports as a category, then, deepens the subordination of women by assuming women cannot beat men” and that “women’s sports remains a patriarchal tool”. I do not agree with those points as well as multiple others in the book – I personally believe women should be able to engage in sport away from men in women’s teams or leagues, as not every woman wants to be on the field with men. However, I do think it is important to read books that challenge your viewpoints, and for many, it will likely be the first time they are reading testimonials from trans* and intersex athletes. I am a believer in listening to people’s stories, so I do applaud the authors for taking the time to collect those. I think that sports are a much healthier avenue for many of the individuals who shared their stories in this book, especially those who were using sports as an outlet for communication, connection, and finding peace in their bodies. I think that everyone should have the ability to participate in sports, and policy-wise, I do not know what that will mean for the future – what I do know is that limiting access to sports will likely have more negative effects than positive. Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fair Game does an effective job of grounding its arguments in both empirical data and personal stories from trans people, which helps underscore that these issues aren’t theoretical or abstract, they’re about real lives being directly impacted. I appreciated how accessible the book is overall. The writing is clear, engaging, and easy to follow, making it a solid entry point for readers who may not already be deeply familiar with trans or queer issues. Roscher also does a good job addressing many of the most common myths and talking points frequently raised by anti-trans rhetoric, breaking them down in a way that feels approachable rather than overly academic.

This book is very much aimed at people who are already sympathetic to trans inclusion in sports, so unfortunately, the readers who would benefit most from this book are also the least likely to pick it up. While the arguments are generally persuasive, some felt a bit underdeveloped. In particular, the idea of completely dismantling gender segregation in sports, which was talked out frequently, didn’t always feel fully explored when it came to certain kinds of sports.

Overall, Fair Game is a readable, well-intentioned, and often compelling book that contributes meaningfully to the conversation. While some arguments could benefit from deeper exploration, it offers valuable perspective and clarity, especially for readers open to engaging thoughtfully with these topics.

I received an eARC of this book via NetGalley.

[Chelsea Knowles · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

Fair Game discusses the role of trans people in sports. It deals with myths perpetuated about trans people. For example, this book discusses if trans athletes are dangerous and provides a response to the myth that trans women are dangerous to cis women. This book exclusively discusses the laws in the United States regarding trans people and also discusses the ways cis women can be supported in sports alongside trans athletes.

To start with I want to say that I agree with everything that is discussed in this book. The myths around trans people are so harmful and the vast majority of trans people just want to live their lives. However, whilst I agree with all the points made in this book there was nothing groundbreaking in this for me. In one of my university seminar’s a student mentioned a lot of these points in the discussion. The writing in this wasn’t very sophisticated and whilst I think this does good in that it provides access to real trans people’s experiences I do think some of the things mentioned in this were too generalised. That said, I don’t mean to be too negative about this because I think this is a great book for people who are just thinking about this topic and want to learn more.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley and the New Press for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As someone who grew up in the world of competitive gymnastics in the early 2000s, which also happened to be one of the most gendered, sexist, and potentially abusive environments for an athlete, this book really hit home for me. Gymnastics was also where I had met one of my childhood friends who came out as trans decades later, long after he had quit gymnastics even though he and I had always competed for the top spot on the team. Reading this book made me think of how both of our lives would have been different if we had been able to train in a more inclusive and significantly less gendered environment.

While anyone who has done recreational mixed gendered workout classes or sport can tell you that cis men certainly are almost never the "best" in the class (in terms of form, stamina, strength, or ability), I think this book does a wonderful job of explaining why such thinking as prevailed and why this notion directly connects back to the issue of trans exclusion in sports, both recreational and professional.

Would recommend this book as all required reading for anyone with even a small connection to sports - whether as a viewer, an athlete, or a coach.

[Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who wanted to learn more about the policing of trans people in sports, this book was an incredible one to stumble across. It was eye opening and has given me alot more information on policies in place, and made me think more about the general sex-segregation in sports as a whole. Drawing on examples from kids and adults across all backgrounds, the inclusion of stories from people's real lives really helps give this book an edge of humanity.

I'd highly recommend to everyone to read this as an education on a subject which is so loudly shouted about by news sources, most of the time who are plastering false ideologies upon the public.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers and authors for access to this book.

[Horace Hudson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book interweaves the stories of transgender athletes along with some science, history, and kindness. It was an interesting read. There were a lot of facts that I did not know and found interesting. I do believe that the personal stories allowed me to get a better scope of the issue that the people experiencing it face. If a person wants to hear from a variety of transgender athletes, then this could be an enlightening book.

ARC provided by Netgalley & The New Press

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to have an opinion, this book should absolutely be required reading. Beautifully written and asking all of the right questions of the right people.