Let Us Play

Winning the Battle for Gender Diverse Athletes

Narrator Avi Roque
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On sale May 27, 2025 | 9 Hours and 10 Minutes | 9780807020784

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“Get your head out of your phone and stop doomscrolling. Read Let Us Play instead.”—Jay Onrait, sports anchor

“A crucial playbook that athletes and nonathletes alike can use to help make sports an inclusive place for all.”—Meghan Duggan, 3-time Olympian and Olympic gold medalist, USA Women’s Hockey

“Will shed light on the unique challenges trans athletes face.”—Chris Mosier, transgender athlete and activist

A crucial subversion of the misconceptions around the participation of gender diverse athletes—advocating for the inclusion of trans and nonbinary athletes across all levels of sport


The debate over the inclusion of gender diverse people in sport has become the latest battleground in the fight for basic human rights and equality. Trans and nonbinary people around the world are facing physical harm and violence—including death—at unprecedented rates. In Let Us Play, trans athlete Harrison Browne and investigative journalist Rachel Browne reveal how the opposition towards gender diverse athletes is fueled by fear and a moral panic as opposed to facts around what makes “a level playing field.” 

Interweaving Harrison’s first-hand experience as a transgender athlete with exclusive accounts—from athletes, coaches, policymakers, and advocates on the front lines—Let Us Play dismantles the illusion that sports have ever been fair, that trans athletes pose a threat to women’s sports, and that gender-affirming healthcare for athletes should be prohibitive to play. 

Calling for a reframing of the binaries from youth and high school levels all the way to the national leagues, Browne and Browne offer a new path forward, led by solutions proposed by gender diverse athletes themselves.
Introduction: She Shoots, He Scores
A List of Terms


CHAPTER 1
The Moral Panic Machine

CHAPTER 2
A Brief History of Gender Diverse Athletes

CHAPTER 3
Fairness Fallacy

CHAPTER 4
The Hormones Question

CHAPTER 5
Panic at the Olympics

CHAPTER 6
The Myth of Saving Women’s Sports

CHAPTER 7
School Battleground

CHAPTER 8
Voices from Inside the Locker Room

CHAPTER 9
The Trials and Tribulations of the NCAA and College Sport

CHAPTER 10
The Future Is Trans

Appendix
Acknowledgments
About the Series
Notes
Index
Harrison Browne is the first transgender athlete in professional hockey. He was part of the NWHL and played for the Metropolitan Riveters and the Buffalo Beauts.He is the inclusion leader for the NWHL advisory board and special ambassador for the NHL's Hockey Is for Everyone initiative. 

Rachel Browne is an award-winning investigative journalist and documentary producer whose work appears in VICE News, POLITICO, Global News, Maclean’s magazine, Discovery+, and elsewhere.

About

“Get your head out of your phone and stop doomscrolling. Read Let Us Play instead.”—Jay Onrait, sports anchor

“A crucial playbook that athletes and nonathletes alike can use to help make sports an inclusive place for all.”—Meghan Duggan, 3-time Olympian and Olympic gold medalist, USA Women’s Hockey

“Will shed light on the unique challenges trans athletes face.”—Chris Mosier, transgender athlete and activist

A crucial subversion of the misconceptions around the participation of gender diverse athletes—advocating for the inclusion of trans and nonbinary athletes across all levels of sport


The debate over the inclusion of gender diverse people in sport has become the latest battleground in the fight for basic human rights and equality. Trans and nonbinary people around the world are facing physical harm and violence—including death—at unprecedented rates. In Let Us Play, trans athlete Harrison Browne and investigative journalist Rachel Browne reveal how the opposition towards gender diverse athletes is fueled by fear and a moral panic as opposed to facts around what makes “a level playing field.” 

Interweaving Harrison’s first-hand experience as a transgender athlete with exclusive accounts—from athletes, coaches, policymakers, and advocates on the front lines—Let Us Play dismantles the illusion that sports have ever been fair, that trans athletes pose a threat to women’s sports, and that gender-affirming healthcare for athletes should be prohibitive to play. 

Calling for a reframing of the binaries from youth and high school levels all the way to the national leagues, Browne and Browne offer a new path forward, led by solutions proposed by gender diverse athletes themselves.

Table of Contents

Introduction: She Shoots, He Scores
A List of Terms


CHAPTER 1
The Moral Panic Machine

CHAPTER 2
A Brief History of Gender Diverse Athletes

CHAPTER 3
Fairness Fallacy

CHAPTER 4
The Hormones Question

CHAPTER 5
Panic at the Olympics

CHAPTER 6
The Myth of Saving Women’s Sports

CHAPTER 7
School Battleground

CHAPTER 8
Voices from Inside the Locker Room

CHAPTER 9
The Trials and Tribulations of the NCAA and College Sport

CHAPTER 10
The Future Is Trans

Appendix
Acknowledgments
About the Series
Notes
Index

Author

Harrison Browne is the first transgender athlete in professional hockey. He was part of the NWHL and played for the Metropolitan Riveters and the Buffalo Beauts.He is the inclusion leader for the NWHL advisory board and special ambassador for the NHL's Hockey Is for Everyone initiative. 

Rachel Browne is an award-winning investigative journalist and documentary producer whose work appears in VICE News, POLITICO, Global News, Maclean’s magazine, Discovery+, and elsewhere.

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