Australia Sets New Guidelines to Make Sports “Inclusive” for “Transgender & Gender Diverse” Athletes

I agree that at first reading this actually makes it possible for sports to remain sex segregated based on biology, while outlawing unnecessary sex segregation, e.g. in ?shooting? and any other competitions where biology is nor relevant.

Aren't these guidelines potentially exactly what a GC woman would like to see?

As an Aussie moving back home soon, I'm appalled by this. In fact I've just put an angry post up about it on Facebook and I don't care how many 'woke' friends I lose. 🤬. And yes to PPs who said it's still a very sexist society; it very much is (thank goodness I was brought up in the family I was)

FFS

“Authorities” policy work on this has clearly been shit.

Might be an idea if someone with a twitter account could tag martina Navratilova Sharron Davies and Kelly homes and bring this to their attention

Sport is a huge deal in Australia and Women's teams are finally getting long overdue recognition

Which is possibly why certain charming individuals have decided it's now worth barging in and taking over.

Yep she is GC has even spoke on radio about it. Her twitter is @ tamsynlewis. I would do it myself but not on twitter, boys are asleep or I'd get to set me up a vpn so my account is secure.

IIRC Tamsyn Lewis has been fairly gender critical I've seen her retweet some of the UK gender critical athletes. I'll see if I can find her twitter handle maybe someone on twitter could bring it to her attention. She may be able to get media attention, if she is comfortable to do so.

"Breach of guidelines for players to refuse to compete....."
So female athletes have no rights in regards to their physical safety.
Nice to see 1984 is alive and well down under. Be quite interesting to see how this would effect insurance coverage, might be away of getting this overturned.

Of course Hannah Moucey was involved. Not seen anything about this in the media. Another sneaky change by stealth. It needs to get out, because the public won't stand for it. Sport is a huge deal in Australia and Women's teams are finally getting long overdue recognition.

Given the diversity of sports and the role of different skills and physical characteristics (strength, stamina, physique) in each sport, the assessment should be specific to the sport in question.

Isn’t “strength, stamina, physique”, pretty much the whole point of sport? If it wasn’t about jumping higher, running faster, kicking harder, they’d hold it in the library.

Equestrian sports are the only ones I can think of where the sex of the physique involved isn’t an issue. I suppose shooting, darts and billiards come into that category. Every other sport involves tests of skill based on physical capability. So it’s complete nonsense to say that each of those exemptions need to be done individually.

Men are stronger, faster and more powerful than women, whether they’re wearing lipstick and pearl studs or not. Therefore in order to ensure a “level playing field”, keep men out of women’s sport.

This bit is very relevant:

(iii) Permanent exemption—competitive sporting activity

The Act contains a permanent exemption in relation to ‘competitive sporting activity’.44 This is commonly referred to as the ‘single-sex competition’ exemption, although it does not operate to make all single-sex or single-gender sporting competitions lawful.

The exemption allows for discrimination on the grounds of sex or gender identity only in ‘any competitive sporting activity in which the strength, stamina or physique of competitors is relevant’.45

The words ‘strength’, ‘stamina’ and ‘physique’, and the term ‘competitive sporting activity’, are not defined in the Act. Their meanings have not been conclusively settled by the Federal Court of Australia.

However, in considering an equivalent exemption in the Victorian legislation, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal has stated that the exemption will operate if, when both sexes competed against each other, the competition would be uneven because of the disparity between the relative strength, stamina and physique of male and female competitors.46 This interpretation was approved by the Federal Court of Australia47 and the reasoning is likely to extend to people of different gender identities.

The objective of the exemption is to restrict competitive sporting activity to people who can ‘effectively compete’48 with each other. This is intended to recognise that ‘biological differences between men and women are relevant to competitive sporting activities’.49 It can be understood as ensuring a ‘level playing field’.

If a sporting organisation decides to rely on the ‘competitive sporting activity’ exemption to exclude a person from a particular competition, it will need to satisfy itself that ‘strength’, ‘stamina’ or ‘physique’ are relevant and how the organisation assesses this. Given the diversity of sports and the role of different skills and physical characteristics (strength, stamina, physique) in each sport, the assessment should be specific to the sport in question.

So it’s possible for women’s sport to protect their competition permanently.

“It will need to satisfy itself” of the bloody obvious. That won’t take long, will it?

to permit transgender and non-binary athletes to compete against members of the opposite sex,

Erm... isn't that a bit self contradictory? Or did they mean to say you must let men compete against women so blatantly?

They say opposite sex and surely that is a non existent/transphobic thing?

Well it's put it square on the line now hasn't it for women.

Submit and obey, or band together and stand up to this crap.

So self-exclusion is explicitly forbidden from the outset. Clever. Whoever put this together at least knows that women and girls tend to walk away from hostile environments or from people who makes us feel uncomfortable or scared. And has determined that we must be forced to stay.

Unapologetically showing their colours here, these men claiming womanhood. But of course they cannot be validated by being in women's spaces when women leave.

Let’s hope there’s not a male takeover of beach volleyball ...

How can uniforms fit both sexes? Do they think athletes magically change shape because they say so? Well, yes they do think such crap. They need to read Caroline Criado-Perez's latest book about the gender (sic) data gap.

and frankly 'involved in her events' really boils down to a polite term for cosplay. (Anyone else seeing ads at the moment for Drag SOS and wanting to throw things at the tv?)

Bottom line, clearly laid out: the primary job of a female athlete is to indulge the ego of any males who wish to be involved in her events.

It's that sexist. It's that male supremacist.

Yes to the march. I'm there. I'm sick of this shit. #notgettingbackinthebox #iatethefuckingbox

... of biology.

I can’t imagine this playing well with the mums and dads of middle Australia, I really can’t.

I imagine women will have to slide away and start their fight for women’s sport all over again, which is absolute bullshit.

Sportswomen are unlikely to share the wokeness of their non-sporting friends, when they will, quite literally, be crashing into the reality of the difference between male and female physiology.

The rare, exceptional trans man will get a guensey in male sport, but female sport will be full of men winning, because of their greater speed, power and size. Women will get hurt.

Men like Hannah Mouncey, are narcissists, who care nothing for women or equality, only the satisfaction of their own wants. They cheats and opportunists.

How did we end up in a place where some amorphous feeling trounces the observable, measurable reality of material reality?

If you remember early Superman ...

What are the women (and men) of Australia doing to protest this ludicrous crap?

What would we be doing in the UK? Marching on Downing Street?

Who will validate the poor dears when all the women have abandoned sports, and only trans women are left competing against each other?

And women not allowed to refuse to take part? How's that going to work?

There’s more, but there’s too much to C and P.

Have a look at the section “what does the law say” and scroll down. I think it does give clubs ways out.

origin.sportaus.gov.au/integrity_in_sport/transgender_and_gender_diverse_people_in_sport#A_4_what_does_the_law_say

I would also note that every “case example” so far has been about trans women/girls

So there is this:

4.3 When is discrimination allowed?
Discrimination on the basis of sex or gender identity in sport will be permitted under the Act if:

the different treatment amounts to a ‘special measure’, or
an exemption applies.
(a) Special measures

Special measures are positive actions used to promote equality for disadvantaged groups. They are often referred to as ‘positive discrimination’ or ‘affirmative action’, and address the unequal position of two groups of people (for example, women and men) by implementing a practice which favours the disadvantaged group.

The Act allows for a special measure to be taken for the purpose of achieving substantive equality between women and men, and people of different gender identities.32

While the Act does not define ‘substantive equality’, the Federal Court has held that ‘substantive equality’ means equality in substance, rather than ‘formal’ equality.33 Equality in substance recognises that, for disadvantaged groups, formal equality before the law—or treating everyone the same—is not always sufficient to eliminate the effects of historical discrimination, and may actually entrench existing discrimination. Positive actions that confer an extra benefit on members of a disadvantaged group may be required to attain ‘real’ or substantive equality.

Depending on the circumstances, taking steps to encourage the participation of transgender and gender diverse people in sport may constitute a special measure under the Act. If a sporting organisation wants to adopt a ‘special measure’, it will need to determine that the action it is taking is for the purpose of achieving substantive equality between women and men, or people of different gender identities. Examples of potential special measures are set out below.

My early reading of it is this document is a guideline not a proscription for a start, so women’s organisations can tell them to go fuck themselves, and second, they fail to highlight the bit I posted above, just the part about how it’s illegal to discriminate against gender identity (which is the term in the Act, not gender reassignment). There seems to be the same misrepresentation as with the Equality Act in the UK, but I need to read the whole thing first.

NotBad so orgs can choose whether to provide same sex spaces/services and follow the Discrimination Act 1984, or they can choose to follow these guidelines that harm women?
Shouldn't they be following the law?