parkrun defending their position

I'm not convinced that telling Orgs (especially when they receive public funding) that they can break the law if they fancy it, is, necessarily, a workable solution.

Then why bother with a parkrun - just go for a run by yourself. Which ones again bypasses the whole encouragement and group community feel. Having timed events give people (who are not always motivated club runners) but people new to the sport) that boost to turn up and try… without the fear of being last, slow or joining a competitive event.

They don't want it. We've tried. They only get validation by being in the female category and being listed on the official Parkrun site as female and the fastest female.

They've never wanted their category, they claim it 'others' them, which is bs. They only want validation. Nothing else.

But @Funtime2you don’t have to prove your age? They do t ask for your passport or anything?

so how do you know the age category is any more accurate?

You are dead right OP. The people who are saying it’s just for fun are way off the mark. We run at Bushy. It’s the original site and has thousands of runners. It’s mega competitive at the top (in a good way) and winning overall is a big achievement. Sports men and women are naturally competitive people. It’s what pushes them to train and strive to be the best. Coming second to a trans would be extremely annoying.

Not fair at all.
All the people shouting that it’s just for fun.
But loads of people I know look at their stats and want to know how they are doing in comparison to other of their sex and age.
It makes a mockery of any stats.
all because they can’t just ask for sex on the registration.

Removing publishing the category timings and placings from their website would remove the incentive for the males who want to enter the female category for the attention and rankings. In fact, Parkrun shouldn't even keep any timings at all, let the individuals buy a bloody watch and do it themselves on their wrist.

It's not fair.

Men run faster than women. Ok, so NAMAFTW but most are. There is a female category in park run, the Supreme Court says if it's called a female category then that's what it should be. If park run was really a non competitive fun run, no one would care - but they do.

Some genuinely believe they are female and have always been female; some would lie; some would just like to be agents of chaos: I am reasonably certain that the record-holding runners for several segments on some of my Strava routes are either actually cyclists, or Roger Bannister has returned from the dead and regularly beats his own world record in half running around South East London. I just don’t bother myself about it.

This is so low stakes- a name on a website with a time? If both including those who identify as women and not including them is going to upset people this much the only likely outcome would be to pull the gender separate lists altogether. Small organisations certainly couldn't police it beyond letting people declare what they are, they can't DNA test to confirm, and such a suggestion would be far too invasive for a fun run.

Not "anti-parkrun", it's "anti-sexism".

Same, and it's one of the reasons I like Park Run so much. That it's not competitive, and it's for all abilities.

Isn’t parkrun supposed to be a community organised fun event giving people somewhere to run - families/adults only etc

This is the 2nd anti parkrun thread in two days.

I don’t see why it matters if trans women are registered as women or not, its just for fun. Yes people like to improve their own times/get PB’s but how does anyone else time affect you

Why not set up your parkrun type organisation operating under a sec realistic way, you won't be stopped?
I think this issue highlights where the law doesn't work very well because of the way people are categorised and needs to be more nuanced. Currently all trans individuals are covered by gender reassignment which causes problems. If that was split further into categories of trans men and trans women it would go a long way to address this.
Whether you agree with it or not a lot of organisations desire to be trans inclusive and skills have the right to do so, but after the sc running this is no longer possible, what we need is a pragmatic approach which allows this to occur if the organisation chooses to do so.
This would allow for organisations to set up groups that are exclusive to sex if this is their choice, but also let organisations continue to have trans inclusive organisations if they also want and then people would have the right to choose which organisations they want to join.
Both positions are valid and should be seen as acceptable.

Doesn't really matter if it's competitive or of it's voluntary or if people take it seriously or not.

It's just one more example of publicly reinforcing the notion that being a woman is a feeling. Biology doesn't matter. Pandering to men's feelings.

And Lauren Jeska has nothing much to be proud of. He's a full TWO minutes behind the record holder in the make category.

They have stated such in several previous threads.

How do you know they're a man?.😕

This poster is a man so may not be able to understand your very valid points. Or something.