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.

Why do people have so much sympathy for males and none for the women impacted by all this?

Men on women's teams impact women's participation, women's safety, women's dignity (if they insist on using their changing rooms).

This man could have played with other men, or with a mixed team, but he chose to put himself in this position without worrying about the impact he was having on women. He doesnt deserve sympathy.

Who knows how many women would have liked to have joined this team, but didn't because it wasn't actually single sex?

I agree. It’s unbelievable how people can’t feel sympathy for the women.

There may have been women from religious backgrounds who were excluded.

How about @dizzydizzydizzy you start from the premise the transwoman couldn’t have known whether he would be displacing a woman. That he might have injured a woman or excluded a woman from religous background.

Rather than saying you don’t know whether he was taking the place of another woman.

Ridiculous

Yanbu.
Pity parkrun can't be bothered to even try to make the runs fairer for women and girls. I'm hoping they get taken to court now, they've had a few years to get their act together.

That one male effected every other single player in the league. That is the unfortunate truth.

True, I wonder how all the other women playing in other teams felt playing against a man?

Hmm….I wonder why they had a women’s league?

Can’t think why…just for a man to claim a place because of his feelings

It’s conjecture on your part that there were no issues. You have no way of knowing if all the women on opposing teams were happy to play against a male. Of course some ‘women’s’ teams have been delighted to have a male ringer on their side!

Are we meant to sympathise with this player if he's told he can longer play on the women's team?

YANBU and it needs to start at primary school sports days and teams these schools field. In a sports day boys pitted against the girls will beat them and I’ve seen it. Year 5 & 6 when my DD was there were mixed and the boys always won. What does this do to a girl’s self esteem.

I play in my club tennis leagues and I noticed that the LTA this year have published new rules that state that the women’s teams must be biological females. Last two years no such rule existed as far as I could see and males were permitted to play.

But let’s start with kids/grass roots.

Agreed my DD’s were pitted against boys up to 11 years old too and the boys won every race.

This was a change in policy to be inclusive.

https://simplyputpsych.co.uk/global-psych/trans-athletes-in-2025-a-science-first-direction

Even the dangerous point is not at all clear cut. It has not actually been researched much.

In most cases, I agree that competive women’s sport should be only for biological females but at the grass roots level, I don’t think it should be viewed in such a black and white manner. The particular person we are talking about here is clearly mature or even elderly. We don’t even know how tall they are. how much they weigh, how fit they are and what the age of their teammates are. Also, I don’t believe that local female football team were overrun with applicants from transwomen, so it all feels rather heavy handed.

Why do we have women’s and men’s categories?

Answer that

so you think it’s fine for women’s sports to be for women and unfit old blokes?

That seems a bit unfair for unfit old blokes who don’t have a feeling of being an unfit old woman.

At it's simplest, he was not supposed to be on the team full stop. None of my "conjecture" is even necessary had he respected that simple, single fact.

Second, you are falling into the trap of only thinking about your one nice example. That is not any sort of way to make rules or laws for the entire sex class of women, and as the mounting evidence shows, men in women's spaces are overwhelmingly unsafe for a multitude of reasons. Perhaps instead of feeling sorry for him, you could have felt sorry for women instead?

Is there the same sympathy for this transgender player, "forced" fo leave a couple of years ago?

https://www.doncasterfreepress.co.uk/news/people/discrimination-sees-doncaster-transgender-player-quit-womens-football-league-club-after-rivals-knee-break-4418843

yes, not one fuck given when they said this

"In a statement seen by the Free Press the 30-year-old transgender player, which has since been removed, she said she was considering taking legal action for discrimination after opposing teams refused to play against her."

The statement read: “As some of you may have heard, Rossington Main Ladies FC has faced challenges from teams unwilling to play against us while I am on the field. This unfortunate circumstance has prompted me to investigate pursuing a case of discrimination, as I believe it represents a breach of the code of conduct regarding diversity and inclusion, as well as safeguarding of adults in football established by both the Football Association and the Sheffield and Hallamshire Women and Girls League.

The boycott is said to have followed after the transgender woman, who played for Rossington Main Ladies FC, caused an injury to an opponent on October 29 that resulted in a broken knee. Rossington Main Ladies wrote that the accident was as a result of “passion and commitment from a very talented player”.

As I keep saying, he could have joined a unisex team if he wanted to play with the opposite sex.

This was a woman's team. He's not a woman, he never had any business there. It's that simple.

I have answered this. I have essentially said I agree with you on most levels. Our only point of difference is that I think that transwomen should be considered on an individual level in village/small town/very local sports. If I understand you correctly, you think there should be a blanket ban on transwomen participating in female sports at any level.

I think for example that it would probably be inappropriate to have a 6’ broad-shouldered 20 yo transwoman in a team where the women are an average age of 40. But a slight 60yo 5’7” transwoman puts a different picture on things.

If I understand you correctly, you think there should be a blanket ban on transwomen participating in female sports at any level.

Well yes, because they are men.

If you want more unisex teams then go set them up 🤷‍♀️

And for complete clarity... sharing a changing room with 16/17yo girls?

Would it make a difference if the 60 year old man was playing on an over 60s female team compared to him playing on a team where the average age of the women was 40?

I've had a transwoman as an opponent and later on as a teammate in football. Well, that i know off.She was taller than an average woman they kicked the ball really hard. But is wasn't a massive difference from the other women who had a hard kick or who were bigger built. And let's face it, I'd rather go in front of her kick than the woman who had retired from the national team few years earlier. That was quite something.

I agree with these rules and checks for elite sports. But I can't get too bothered with some hobby leagues. There are so many problems with womens hobby sports that this doesn't crack the top 10. This is not much of an issue for us for now. If it becomes an issue in the furute where we have hords of transwomen in all teams, I'm happy to reconsider but for now, it doesn't seem like a massive everyday issue.

But yeah, maybe we need more mixed leagues. Some of our players prefere to train with men. Many kids are in mixed teams so I'm all for more teams and leagues being created.

At what point are you going to decide it's a problem though? How many women need to be affected?