To think it’s completely and utterly unacceptable for men to compete in women’s sports?

[SwainedFreed]

How the hell is this being allowed! I’ve seen the volume of medals they are earning - medals which should be earned by women. Men and women are not physically comparable and this is just a line which once again shouldn’t be crossed.

It’s the funding though.
I know someone affected by this, pro sportswoman never quite getting the top three because of men. Due to the funding model she is massively underfunded. She should be winning and getting all the support that comes with that. But she’s not.

there isn’t enough funding or companies willing to sponsor or fund it.

Speak for yourself I think he’s an arrogant entitled misogynistic self obsessed attention seeking twat

My pint is - change what? This race is under rules of a independent organisation in the US. Trying to blame any British politician for it is nuts. That’s not nit picking. It’s just facts.

Exactly. And with all the time and effort and money that has been spent denying women access to the single sex support they need and deserve, this could have been done.

Mr Izzard is welcome to run as many marathons as he likes.but he never was and never will be 'a she'.

And how would that impact a sports organisation in the US?

Understood, I was pointing out that it's actually very easy to police, as in sports we assume good intent. We assume people put the correct DOB, we assume they put the correct nationality, we assume they aren't doping, we assume they are the sex that they claim to be. If suspicions are aroused, we then investigate (except in the case of doping where we test randomly at the amateur level, and routinely at the elite level).

By setting an example. If nothing else, showing the rest of the world that they don't have to follow this madness from the US. Putting on the pressure in the hope that people like Lia Thomas will never ever be able to compete as women outside the US, and giving female athletes in the US hope that if they start saying "no" loudly enough, eventually they will get somewhere. Showing people like Riley Gaines that outside the borders of her crazy country, everyone acknowledges that she is completely right about this issue.

But it’s nit allowed in cycling (or most other sports) in the U.K. already. We are setting the example. It makes no difference. And people using it to have cheap shots at a new government just reveal who they are and what their political position is.

Reforming or abolishing the GRA would do no such thing as the governing bodies that still allow males to compete in female categories (football, cricket, hockey, tennis) permit self-identification - no GRC required.

The GRA is a red herring, the real problem is sports governing bodies who still permit males in female competition - they need pressure applying from their members, sponsors, and funding bodies.

A dick with a dick.

We (the UK) are setting that example as anyone who follows the issue knows! British Cycling was the first cycling federation to ban males in female races at all levels - this was then adopted by the world governing body (the UCI). Ditto with Triathlon, and Rugby, and Swimming, and Athletics, and Boxing and many other sports.

Sorry, it really pisses me off that people pick up on stories from the US and assume that the same is happening in the UK and other countries. It's not, and its down to years of work by women behind the scenes in the various sporting bodies who's work seems to just be ignored by uninformed commentators picking up on some mad story from the US in the DM.

We'd be setting a stronger example if the government said "this is wrong" and updated the Equality Act to specify that sex means biological sex and added sports to the list of examples of where that matters.

It should be all sports, at all levels. The UK could lead the way in saying, "You trample all over women's sporting dreams in Pennsylvania if you like, but you're not doing it here in the UK."

Yes, progress is being made in the UK. But the problem still isn't completely fixed. And the government could actually help with that.

It. Isn’t. Our. Government’s. Fault.
Less still a government of 3 weeks.
It’s sport governing bodies who, internationally and in the U.K., have mostly made sensible rules now. The US is an outlier and not one we can do anything about.

I'm not saying it's our government's fault.

But wouldn't it be nice if people like Lisa Nandy actually came out on the side of actual women for once? If she clearly said that she agrees with the sporting bodies who have already taken steps to ensure that this can't happen in the UK, and strongly encourages those which haven't yet done so to follow suit?

Clearly that's never going to happen though. She doesn't even think women should be safe from rapists in prison so I imagine sport is even further down her list of priorities.

Yes thanks to the women who spoke up, often derided on here and elsewhere by some posters

Still more can be done

It’s not an issue in Britain in sports so there’s no reason to come out with it, is there?
Also pretty sure she’s rowed back on the prisons thing, plus it’s not her area of government.
I agree with you. Women’s spaces and sports should be just that. Constantly banging on about members of a brand new government with a massive shit show to sort out for not commenting on an obscure American race plays into the hands of people who say all GCs are rabid right wingers.

I fully agree with you! As a woman I wouldn't enter a physical competition for men if I'm not physically able to do it and keep to their strength etc. then expect to be awarded Winner, so it really pisses me off when men enter women's stuff and win everything!

It's like going back a couple of hundred years when a woman invented/discovered something scientific but a man took the title because ... he's a bloke ... and she's ''just a woman''. ''Can't have women having a brain big enough to invent something intelligent like splitting the atom''.

I'm not actually against men entering women's sports and women entering men's, take WWE for instance where there's mixed gender wrestling matches, boxing, martial arts and so on, both genders know that she might win, or him, but when biological men enter bio women's like cycling, swimming or whatever then HE comes away with loads of medals!

No it doesn’t.

I can't stand Eddie Lizard! I love gay out-of-the-closet men like Julian Clary, Ian McKellern and so on but that Lizzardy bloke is vile and unfunny!

OK.
It seems like it does to me. Why else bring the (brand new) government into it?
You are pretty right wing though, so maybe you don’t notice it.

It's another way that men have found to control us women, they hate the thought that we are physically and mentally strong enough to take part in physical challenging sports, not just card games and sewing!

Another way of them saying ''woman, get in the kitchen and the bedroom''.

Shitbags!

Only because one of them is stood behind other people. Here’s a better picture of the cheat in question.

I agree but it doesn't even really require updates to the EA. Just make a policy decision that any sport governing body in receipt of lottery or DCMS funding should not permit males in female competition at all domestic levels. For international competition hosted in the UK they would obviously have to follow the rules set by the international umbrella body, but it's an easy fix for domestic competition.

There will always be events that slip through the net - especially in e.g. mountain biking and long distance trail running where the races are run by random commercial companies that aren't affiliated to British Cycling or UK Athletics, but it will catch the vast majority of the outstanding cases.