High school is supposed to be fun, at least that's what I've been told. Many people have participated in various sports and other school activities. I bet if you wanted to play tackle football and they said no because your a girl and that they have a powder puff team that you could play on you'd probably be infuriated. If you were a guy and you wanted to do dance force and they told you no because you were male you'd also be quite angry. Well trans students deal with this everyday. High school is sheer hell for trans students and they are also excluded from participation in any school sport that is segregated based on gender. I am a FTM(female to male) student in high school and football and wrestling are the only sports up for grabs, but we have swimming, soccer, track, and even golf. I want to know why a trans student can't compete with his/her preferred gender. A female to male trans student would have no physical advantage, so why can't I compete in track with my gender. I can understand why a MTF is not allowed to compete with her preferred gender because there are biological advantages when it comes to athletics. How do we as trans students go about competing? What if we were placed on hormones, which I plan to do at the beginning of the next school year. For a MTF her muscles would atrophy and she would have to work twice as hard to compete with females, but she will have to compete with males. A FTM will experience increased muscle mass and will have a physical advantage in many areas; this won't be fair to the competitors. When a bio male transitions into a women she will take estrogen and when a bio female transitions into a man he will take testosterone in small amounts, because too much testosterone will convert to estrogen. A MTF will develop breasts, nipple enlargement, muscle atrophy, and will adopt all the increased health risks for females. A FTM will grow facial and body hair, a possible growth spurt, cessation of menses, increased sweat, and he will also adopt all increased health risks for men. This also means that his risk for female related health risks will go down. So if we begin hormones can we even compete but if the answer is no, isn't that a violation of our rights. Wouldn't that be discrimination based on gender, what about Title 9 stating that "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance". I feel that some issues are best reserved for states but when it comes to the LGBT community I think it should be decided on by the federal government. America used to be one of the best countries to live in; it was a free country without prejudice. Now, each day, I realize that this country is filled with more hate but it's not just the people it's the government too. This is no longer the fantastic place to live that people make it seem to be.