Why a 14-year-old boy is outlawed from playing on his golf team

Luc Esquivel hits in silence, too engaged with carving trajectories through the Knoxville sky to chat. When he does speak, the words “My bad,” or “Agh, sorry” tumble out, prompted by a shot that didn’t follow his directions. That’s the type of 14-year-old Luc is, apologizing for things that don’t need an apology. He’s dressed in a black hoodie, ripped jeans and gray Chuck Taylors, and by himself. If it were up to him, he would be practicing with the high school team. But Luc was not allowed to try out because the Tennessee state legislature said he could not.

It’s hard, Luc says, to have a group of people he has never met take control of his life, to define who he is and just as importantly who he is not. “I have to tell myself to stop thinking about it for too long because I can’t make sense of this,” Luc says. So he hits in solitude, the weight of a lawsuit on one shoulder and the hopes of a community on the other, wanting to stay sharp for a day he knows might not come. This is what he’s good at and what he enjoys, and for now it’s what he has got.

https://www.golfdigest.com/story/luc-esquivel-transgender-high-school-sports-ban-tennessee