British Cycling Consultation on Transgender Policy

Completed. That document was embarrassingly poorly written.

GDPR is another consideration they need to take seriously. Presumably the 'gender marker' they hold for members is held on a database somewhere. Gender is not on the list of permitted data that an organisation can legally hold so they are likely to be in breach of GDPR and maybe liable for a large fine.

Do you have a link for the permitted data categories? I can feel another email to my HR department coming on.

Some good responses above.

British Cycling consultation?

Completed it mate.

I'm appalled by this policy. I'm a volunteer who leads junior & women-only cycling sessions at my local facility, where we have sex segregated changing facilities.

The issues for me fall into two parts:
Competitive cycling - men are physically stronger/bigger etc than women so by allowing males, however they identify into women’s/girls races, it’s unfair and the women/girls miss out.
Recreational cycling - the current policy allows people to self identify there gender which most of the time doesn’t make a difference to mixed sex recreational cycling. This is one area where BC should be focusing on, making sure trans people are treated decently and welcomed. However British Cycling runs women’s only rides to encourage more women to cycle. The current policy allows anyone to identify into these rides which causes multiple issues.

1. They don’t tell anyone these rides are actually mixed sex so women sign up presuming them to be female only
2. Some women do not want to ride with males for a variety of reasons. These women will not attend and are therefore excluded from women’s rides
3. Female volunteers who run these rides often arrive for a ride not knowing who will turn up. They do so on the basis the attendees are female. Not knowing whether or not your attendees are actually female can cause reluctance to volunteer.

I have responded. Thank you for the advice others offered earlier in this thread.

Thank you so much for letting us know about this OP. Will be completing and submitting mine over the weekend. Not sure who on earth has made the decision that it’s fair in any way to allow males to compete in female sporting categories. Onward the struggle! 🚴‍♀️

Lunatics running things everywhere.

I've pretty much followed everyone else's responses as they're so right but I have put in a comment at the end which I hope might at least make some of the sensible ones feel a bit of shame

"It is deeply disappointing to see yet again that the needs of women and girls are being set aside. You know what a woman is and the physical advantages men have over them - I find it baffling that you tie yourselves in knots pretending that you do not"

If anyone is on twitter (I was mysteriously banned last year) would it be possible to # a few people? I have just had a quick read through Jo Rowsell's twitter feed and she seems a very down to earth person. I think she retired last year. Also the usual suspects, such as Sharron Davies and Dame Kelly Holmes.

Thank you all for taking part. ❤️

Thank you for your answers I did some cut n paste editing and completed the survey. As a parent of two sporty young women my blood boils at erosion of some of their fundamental rights to access sport at all levels. We watched some world tumbling gymnastic coverage a few months ago and it was very obvious a Chinese tumbler was a male in a female medal winning team my teenager DD just couldn’t compute what we were watching.

and echo what Cazskids said.

Gender, Birth Gender, Gender Identity are not defined in law and have no consistent, centrally agreed definition (that no one has yet been able to explain adequately, despite many attempts). I mean, their definition of Gender is purely about the sex based stereotypes and implying that any deviation from a very narrow definition of those means you are trans.

The concept of Gender is not externally or independently verifiable (ie. it relies entirely on self-definition) and therefore it would be inappropriate to base a policy on this.

The comparator when considering discrimination against a transwoman (a male with the pc of Gender Reassignment) would be another male without the pc of GR. If they exclude one group of males from a female only group for eg. it is unlawful to include another group of males.

This is one of the most common misconceptions that Stonewall have lied about about the EA 2010. The law is very clear that it is lawful to exclude ALL males from certain spaces and services as long as it is proportionate and a legitimate aim. A likely proportionate aim would be to have a woman only cycling group because it has been found that women are more likely to participate.

I pointed out the issue of exclusion of certain groups of women who are either not willing or able to share groups or facilities with males. The inclusion of a male person in such a group effectively excludes all the women from that group or service.

GDPR is another consideration they need to take seriously. Presumably the 'gender marker' they hold for members is held on a database somewhere. Gender is not on the list of permitted data that an organisation can legally hold so they are likely to be in breach of GDPR and maybe liable for a large fine.

I suggested they ditch their legal advice and get someone who actually can read the EA 2010.

www.liv-cycling.com/global/liv-design-data

www.cyclingweekly.com/fitness/cycling-and-gender-how-and-why-male-and-female-cyclists-need-to-train-differently-344365/amp

Cazskids. The p/c in the equality act is called 'gender reassignment' not gender recognition.

CazSkids

Excellent work!
If only the sports bodies had people like us advising them.

Not sure how useful my comments will be, as I'm quite new to this kind of stuff and not articulate, but here they are:

Do you have any comments on the Definitions that have been used in the Policy? Sex is not "assigned at birth" it is observed and recorded. "Gender Identity", "Non-Binary" and "Self-Identified Gender" are the same as "Gender" i.e. a nebulous social construct of stereotypes.
Do you have any comments on Section 3 of this Policy (Membership)? The protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010 include Sex and gender recognition. "no medical evidence" required - so any bloke can say that he's woman and would have to be accepted on his say so? This is appalling from a safeguarding point of view. Predatory men will try anything to have access to the vulnerable, your policy should not be making it easier for them.
Do you have any comments on Section 4 of this Policy (Recreational Activity)? The protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010 include Sex and gender recognition, not "Self-Identified Gender, without providing additional evidence". Again, so any bloke can say that he's woman and would have to be accepted on his say so? This is appalling from a safeguarding point of view. Predatory men will try anything to have access to the vulnerable, your policy should not be making it easier for them.
Do you have any comments on Section 5 of this Policy (Competition)? The work done by Emma Hilton and Ross Tucker in relation to World Rugby's policy should show you that males who have been through puberty still have an advantage over females no matter what drugs they take, and they should not be allowed in female cycling at any competitive level. If you do this, female cycling will lose its current momentum, as girls will be discouraged. It is bad enough in all sports to keep girls in their teens committed and losing places to trans-identified males will make it infinitely worse.
Do you have any other comments? Section 7 is does not follow the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010 especially with regard to claiming there are no restrictions and that the transgender person should be supported in "their choice of changing facilities". They can be restricted in specific circumstances. Also, what about the feelings of women and girls who do not want to ride with men? I thought the Breeze rides were set up to combat low participation rates from women and girls due to this. What about safety and dignity for women and girls in changing facilities? It is obvious from this policy that you have not carried out any impact assessments on women and girls of transgender participation. You have merely followed the instructions of transgender lobby groups, which seek to undermine women's sex-based rights. The whole of this policy is to promote the feelings of men over the rights, safety and feelings of women and girls.

Completed. This is such a farce - how can they do this to women and girls.

Has anyone flagged this up to ScienceofSport and FondofBeatles on Twitter? I’m sure they’d love to weigh in.