AIBU to think female sports categories should apply at all levels not just the olympics?

[Fastline]

In light of the welcome news that biological males or people with SRY (Y) gene are no longer allowed to compete in the women’s category in the Olympics, AIBU to think that it shouldn’t only be elite sports women who should have fairness and safety in sport?

AIBU to think that all women and girls deserve the protected female category for both fairness and safety from grass roots sport to county level and beyond.

I mean, what is the point of having separate categories, which are there for biological differences if anyone can self identify into them.

I thought it was now?

You are not unreasonable, but who's going to fund the testing at other levels?

Of course.

Absolutely agree. Fairness and safety for women should be non negotiable at all levels.

Meanwhile there should be more work on inclusion such as having a women’s category and an open category and ensuring everyone feels welcome in the open category however they present if they are not eligible to compete in the women’s

The Olympic committee doesn’t rule other levels, they all have their own ruling bodies. I agree they should all rule the same but other than other international or national competitions there’s very little funding for testing.

Of course it’s reasonable to expect fair and safe sports for us at all levels.

Most amateur sport has rules against doping, but doesn’t actually test. Or rules about ages to be eligible in different teams, but doesn’t actually demand birth certificates.

Yes some people would try to break the rules. But that doesn’t mean the rules shouldn’t exist

While this is true, isn’t it a shame that people cannot be trusted to enter the correct category for their sex?

Also, it may force identification to reflect sex and not gender identity in the future

I think this will eventually trickle down to non elite sports. When the elite sporting organisations have policies that allow men to participate in womens sports then the more grassroots organisations base their policies on those and can say they are following practices that the larger organisations endorse. As more and more of the elite organisations protect female categories then hopefully the grassroots organisations will follow.

The SRY tests are unlikely to be used at grassroots levels but they're really only relevant in DSD cases. In the situations where trans identified men are talking part in the women's categories it's usually obvious they are men without the need for tests

Perhaps people could just be more honest.

Firstly, all trans people know their sex. For example, there's nothing to stop trans women running in women’s kit etc. but they should register that their sex is male.

Secondly, people with a DSD would very likely know by puberty that they are male or female.

I mean this is a picture of Caster Semenya from the autobiography when he was 15. But still ran in the female category.

The posters that have disagreed please explain why women and girls shouldn’t be protected from competing and playing with boys or men if the category is for women or girls only.

Only at top level in some sports.

It applies to some grassroots near me, but maybe that’s a regional decision.

Everyone has a birth certificate stating their sex.
Im not sure if it’s possible to retrospectively change a BC, but if it is, it shouldn’t be as (as we all know) it’s not possible to change swx.

Even in some school changing rooms, teenage girls are being forced to change with biological teen boys for P.E. if they say they are trans.

I believe that if something is segregated by sex it is done for a reason and therefore no girls should have to accommodate, play against, change with, the opposite sex.

Someone with a gender recognition certificate can obtain a new birth certificate showing the wrong sex

But they know their biological sex don’t they?

My DC swim. Swim England have adopted this rule right through to grassroots. When you register at a club you have to register and self declare.

You register as female or open/male.

Not sure how it is policed though.

I thought other sports were doing the same.

Girl Guiding have.

Yes. But they use language to justify them claiming to be female if they are male and vice versa. They claim ‘legal sex’ which we know from the Supreme Court judgement does not get priority over biological sex. However, then some people claim it is in dispute because a group might challenge this in a higher court meaning until that is settled, they don’t have to act as if the Supreme Court is settled and clear.

It’s an on going issue within guides unfortunately.

Girl Guides at war over trans ban

Hostilities within organisation after splinter group tries to reverse ban on biological boys from becoming members

The Girl Guides have become embroiled in infighting over a ban on boys who identify as girls.
A splinter group has formed in an effort to force the organisation to reverse the trans ban, introduced last year following a Supreme Court ruling on the meaning of sex under equality law.
Calling itself Guiders Against Trans Exclusion (Gate), the group encourages Guide leaders to oppose the policy through activism, including writing to politicians and attending protests.
It encourages members to show opposition to the ban by wearing the Guide’s promise badge upside down, changing profile pictures on social media to show support for trans allies, and wearing a trans pride necker scarf.

newspaper report March 2026

Hopefully change will continue to stop stupid stuff like that. But it’s fair to say it’s not only olympic or elite sport that stop men competing as women, quite a lot of the sporting world now prevents this, although more needs to be done.

There’s even push back on human rights grounds already.

Over100 human rights groups criticised the International Olympic Committee’s new gender eligibility guidelines as “a blunt and discriminatory response that is not supported by science and violates international human rights law”.

I didn’t see those human rights groups critising the biological men boxing in the women’s category

It’s insane that sporting bodies are allowing men pretending to be women like this transwoman pictured (the one in red and black, no he’s not the referee) to play contact sports and share changing rooms with women and girls. It’s a violation of female dignity safety and privacy, not to mention unfair.

Another quote from the backlash of the IOC’s announcment to test all athletes with a cheek swab.

"As several UN independent experts have noted, binary definitions of sex reinforce harmful stereotypes and erode progress toward substantive gender equality. Any testing of athletes needs to be individualised and evidence-based, not arbitrary or degrading.”

I can’t think of anything that requires using gender stereotypes more than the trans ideology.

How else does a biological man identify as a woman if he doesn’t use gender stereotypes.