The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper: Season 2024, Episode 12

2024 - 12: The Playing Field: The Battle Over Transgender Athletes

The series returns with immersive reporting on transgender student-athletes, a community finding themselves at the center of a culture war. 

At least 24 states in the US have already passed some form of ban on trans student-athletes. This episode deeply examines the stories of those targeted by this legislation, following them for more than a year. The episode follows the emotional journey of a trans high school softball player who advocates for her right to play on her school's girls' softball team all the way to the Ohio State Senate. It also features the story of a trans college swimmer in New Jersey hoping to successfully petition the NCAA to allow her to switch from competing on the men's team to the women's team.

"The Playing Field" also features reporting from inside the annual meeting of an advocacy group calling for a ban on transgender women in women's sports divisions, arguing that transgender athletes have an unfair competitive advantage. Although a 2017 Sports Medicine study concluded there is "no direct or consistent research" showing that transgender people have an athletic advantage, psychologists, medical doctors, and former and current athletes gather to argue otherwise.