Photo by Heinz Kluetmeier/Sports Illustrated; Illustration by SI Art
Emily Wilson likes basketball. Before the seventh-grader came out as transgender a year ago, she played with boys for three years at her local Boys & Girls Club in coastal Mississippi. There, she had coaching, teammates, camaraderie.
Now, at school, she’s relegated to practicing her dribble in PE class. She’d love to be part of a team again next year, but her school district allows kids to play sports based only on the sex on their original birth certificate, not their gender identity, says her mother, Katy Binstead.