The weekend after this past Fourth of July, I hit all the marks for a stereotypical American.
Slept in (laziness). Signed some petitions (patriotism). Watched three episodes of Law & Order (binge-watching) and baseball (pastime). Ate hamburgers and hot dogs (diet). Blew sh!t up (violence). Drank Pabst Blue Ribbon (cheap beer). Not sure, honestly, what else I could have done to meet the cliche.
It’s that second one that is the most legitimate. With the Olympics now underway from France (the nation that gifted us the Statue of Liberty, mind you), patriotism has been at the forefront of the literal world of athletics. We cheer for our home country or ancestors’ with fervor. Locally, we tend to root for our home-state folks even harder. It was quite a coup here in Northwest Arkansas when Haley Batten, who trains in Bentonville, won silver in mountain biking, became the first American to medal in the event, and she isn’t even from the Natural State.
Olympics Patriotism For Thee, Not For Me
But the fervor can extend negatively, too. In America, women’s soccer is often the receiver of anger from a certain segment of Americans. Women’s basketball may be this year, as the team did not include Caitlin Clark, a move seen as a slight by that segment. And loads of folks have already gone up in arms because they don’t understand art or Greek mythology.
Personally, I’m curious to see how my home-state brethren will react for Nikki Hiltz. The former Razorbacks athlete will run the 1,500 meters for Team USA on August 6 and is considered one of the favorites. That Hiltz is a former Hogs runner, the team for which they earned All-American status in that same 1,500-meter run, will earn them (yes, them) some fans. That they are transgender and non-binary, however, will turn some of those would-be fans into proverbial haters.
Hiltz came out as gender non-binary in 2021, about three years after they left the Bible Belt where they competed in college. And the same year Arkansas became the first state in the country to ban gender-affirming care for minors.
A federal judge has since blocked that ban. But that the law was passed in the first place is no surprise. Of the top five (bottom five?) states with the lowest acceptance of LGBTQ+ acceptance rates by population, Arkansas is ahead of only Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and West Virginia. S-E-C, S-E-C, indeed. Arkansas lawmakers, last year, also enacted restrictions on trans student pronouns, meaning students must use the pronoun corresponding to their birth sex unless otherwise approved by a parent.
The South Lost the War
It’s strange that the American South, long an area that considered itself a bastion for personal rights and liberties, is so off-put by those who don’t, or choose not to, fit the status quo. Hiltz has not spoken much of their time in Arkansas, but has said that they enjoyed it. They’ve also remarked on the difficulties encountered, especially initially when they came out.
“I was running into hurdles,” Hiltz said. “Things like people stumbling over my pronouns or purposefully trying to invalidate my gender kept happening.”
If Hiltz has success in Paris, their story will draw attention, as it should. With that attention will come backlash from people like crazy uncle Bart from Mena, who is likely to post something purposefully inflammatory. It always happens. Hiltz could own a semi-automatic rifle as far as such people are concerned, but can’t be called by their preferred pronoun. A bridge too far, apparently. Take, for example, some of the comments on the post from their recent interview with NBC:
Cheer For Those Who Give It Their All
To be clear, Hiltz is biologically a woman, so there’s no need for any potentially angry readers to get all Lia Thomas-like upset that Hiltz is running in women’s events. Thomas, for the record, is not competing in the Olympics as the World Aquatics association banned athletes who went through puberty as the male sex to compete as the female sex.
That hasn’t stopped weird people from basic understanding. No, in fact, that group of people have lost their collective mind – hive mind – as Imane Khalif has rolled through women’s boxing in Paris, forcing one opponent into practical submission. Khalif, too, was born a woman, but has some biological advantages over some of those in her fellow sex. You know, the same way Michael Phelps, perhaps the United States’ most celebrated athlete, does.
“I don’t care if you understand or not. It’s not about comprehension, it’s about compassion,” Hiltz said in their NBC interview. “And if someone’s asking you, ‘Hey, I go by Michael, but I want to be called Mike.’ You don’t go, ‘Why would you want to be called that?’ You say, ‘Oh, OK.’ And you have compassion for them. It’s the same thing, right?”
Be a True Southerner
Back in Adair County, Oklahoma, the weekend after the Fourth of July this year, I asked my mother how long our family – her side of the family, that is – have been doing big get-togethers on that holiday. We grill and shoot off fireworks just like everyone else. Except at various points over the last 40-plus years, an upwards of 150 people attended our shindigs. People bring their husbands, wives, girlfriends, boyfriends, some of whom are the same gender, some of whom are not, and we all celebrate America together and no one bats an eye on what anyone else is wearing or, after too many beers, not wearing.
At its most fundamental, this isn’t just about transgender or non-binary or gay or straight or whatever else. It’s about those personal liberties, of which non-hetero or binary folks deserve just as well. It’s about treating people with decency and kindness, what should be the hallmarks of being American, what I hope to see when Hiltz takes to the track for the *United* States.
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Nikki Hiltz on their time at the UA at 2:50 here:
NBC’s interview with Hiltz
Hiltz clinches Paris qualification
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More on track and field from Best of Arkansas Sports:
