Trans athletes who competed on women's teams feel victimized after being featured in Trump's ads defending women's sports

As the election nears, the Trump campaign and Republicans across the country have been pushing advertising hammering Democrats for the allowance of biological males on women’s sports teams, taxpayer-funded sex changes for trans-identified prisoners, and other topics related to trans issues.

One trans-identified male, Gabrielle Ludwig, who was featured in an ad on the participation of biological males in women’s sports spoke out, telling The Hill, "I haven’t been able to sleep. I don’t want my family affected. I have granddaughters, daughters who are in college. I only did this because I love to play basketball. That’s all it ever was." Ludwig played women's college basketball as a 50-year-old biological male claiming to be female.

The ad in question, which read "no men in girls’ sports," featured photos and video of Ludwig from the early 2010s when Ludwig played basketball on the women’s team at Mission College in Santa Clara, California. These photos and videos were featured in at least eight other ads targeting Dem incumbent Senators Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Jon Tester of Montana, and Sherrod Brown of Ohio, and were paid for by the Republican super PAC the Senate Leadership Fund. Ludwig towered over the female players and was decades older.

Another photo of Ludwig appeared in a Trump campaign ad, showing the then-mid-50s Ludwig playing alongside college-aged females. Ludwig said the ads have put the former athlete back in the spotlight. "I fear for my life, for my family. There are trans people killed for no other reason than because they’re trans. By Trump coming out and using my image, I feel that he’s feeding the fire."

Ludwig is considering taking legal action against the Trump campaign and the Senate Leadership Fund for unauthorized use of the former athlete’s image, but said, "If I go that route, and it ends up in litigation, my life is going to be splayed. I wish I never lost my anonymity. I wish I never, ever joined a women’s basketball team."

Former collegiate swimmer Meghan Cortez-Fields had a photo that appeared in a campaign ad for Senator Ted Cruz, which criticized Cruz’s opponent for allowing trans-identified athletes to compete on sports teams that don’t match their biological sex. Cortez-Fields swam on the men’s team for three years and switch to the women’s team during the athlete’s senior year of college.

"The amount of people that saw this ad before I knew about it is crazy, and it means that I might not know of people who actually feel strongly about this," Cortez-Fields said. "I might be in public, and they might be like, ‘Oh, I remember that person. Let me, you know, spew hate towards them.’ It’s a weird feeling, because I don’t know who does know and who doesn’t."

Cortez-Fields sought legal counsel after learning of the ad, but was told there was little chance of arguing the case. 

Other ads featured Navy sailor and drag performer Joshua Kelly, drag performer and environmental activist Pattie Gonia who promoted the National Parks, transgender assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services Rachel Levine, and Arizona drag performer Lil Miss Hot Mess.