NWSL Player Barbra Banda Facing Transphobic Hate Again

Unfortunately, today we’re seeing how transphobia hurts more than just trans people. A player for the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) on the Orlando Pride team has been harassed again with transphobic comments. Barbra Banda is a dark-skinned woman from Zambia who has repeatedly faced torment for not fitting what transphobes and white supremacists deem to be an appropriate mold for a woman. In 2022, Banda was reportedly “sex tested,” and it was deemed that her testosterone levels were “too high.” Even though the Council of African Football did not have a maximum level of testosterone allowed, she was deemed ineligible to play in the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations because of this.

In 2024 Banda was named the BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year after being voted on by fans and was again attacked by U.K. transphobes. Even infamous TERF J.K. Rowling gave her unsolicited opinion and said that Banda’s win was, “spit(ting) directly in women’s faces.” A member of Parliament at the time, Sharon Davies, also took to social media to call Banda a man and say the award was “trolling.”

This time Banda was facing hateful speech being thrown her way during a match between her team, Orlando Pride, and Gotham at Gotham’s home field. A Reddit user made a post saying they witnessed the event of a fan cheering after Banda fell, saying, “She shouldn’t be on the field anyway!” The user wrote that security acted swiftly but only gave the fan a warning. Both the Orlando Pride and Gotham teams have made statements addressing the issue and denouncing the hateful behavior displayed towards Banda. They both mention that they will continue to stand by her and support her.

Let me be very clear, this kind of treatment is deplorable for any person to endure, but Barbra Banda is a cis woman. She’s not even trans. However, her being treated this way is no coincidence. Treva B. Lindsey, a professor of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at Ohio State University, says, “Really what we’re talking about is the spectacle of surveillance on women of color’s bodies, especially when they’re winning and performing in ways that exceed the expectations of white women.”

Black women face transphobia all the time because of their lack of proximity to white/European beauty standards. We saw this during Barack Obama’s presidency when people were saying that Michelle Obama was a man or ‘too manly’ because she had muscular arms. We even saw this last year when boxer, Imane Khelif faced similar attacks based on her looks as a cis woman. Because Black women and other women of color do not fit into the white supremacist beauty standards, they are demonized, masculinized, over-sexualized, and harassed.

White supremacy tells us that women should look and behave a specific way. It enforces strict and, often times, unattainable gender roles and definitions of femininity that even white people struggle to adhere to. It does not make spaces safe for people who do not fit into those roles or standards, whether or not they are choosing to, and it damn sure doesn’t make safe spaces for people of color. This makes navigating any kind of gender expression increasingly dangerous, especially during a time like this where conservative and white supremacist ideologies are pushing back against all of the societal progress we have seemed to make in the past few years. And encouraging that pushback is what emboldens people to go out on a whim and attack anyone they deem appropriate, regardless of their gender, and more often than not, because of their race.