parkrun defending their position

[Funtime2]

I used to be a parkrunner and do not understand how parkrun can defend their position of allowing trans identfying males into the female category.

I read that 280 published race winners in the female category are actually men identifying as women. How is this fair to women? Some women don’t care about this but some women do, just as some men take it as a race and care about the rankings and some men don’t

The other option of course is they could stop the timing, stop recording winners and records?

AIBU to genuinely not understand why parkrun claim not to be a race when they time the runners, publish times by category, rank times and runners, and have record holders by category.

To Add

The arguments seem to be that’s it’s not competitive but it is very much competitive for some people and parkrun facilitate this competition by posting times and winners as well as everyone starting together and having barcode timings.

Another argument seems to be that they can’t check or police the categories, but that is not a reason to make the rules unfair. Most people abide by rules and I’m fairly certain trans identifying men wouldn’t break the rules if parkrun required everyone to register by biological sex.

Another argument is that it is inclusive for everyone and by this they mean that everyone should be able to run, which is fantastic but registering your actual sex on the form wouldn’t mean a trans identifying person couldn’t run would it? It would still be open to all.

"Another argument is that it is inclusive for everyone and by this they mean that everyone should be able to run, which is fantastic but registering your actual sex on the form wouldn’t mean a trans identifying person couldn’t run would it? It would still be open to all."

Exactly. But that wouldnt suit their agenda.
Who is at the top of parkrun - the management committee etc. Is that mainly men or women? Why are they so keen to be part of the nonsense? Someone should chuck them some copies of Fair Play by Sharron Davies.

I don’t understand, genuinely I don’t.

It’s so blatantly wrong but people defend this in the name of inclusivity.
How would it affect trans identfying men to register by sex. They know their sex, they just pop in on their registration as they would if they filled out a form in hospital and then get on with their day and run identifying how they feel comfortable. That’s inclusive for all, surely.

Make them return all the prize money and trophies

As much as I don’t agree with it the way people register for parkrun does make it impossible for it to be policed.

I don’t know what the answer is but it would be very hard to stop someone registering as male
or female if they wished to.

Recognition comes in all sorts of different ways for different people.

They get a ranking and published winner accolade, which should be an accurate ranking in the categories set up by parkrun

Park run, I thought, was supposed to be a non competitive way to get people running. The system could be tweaked so improved times provide encouragement to the individual (who could register with a username rather than their own which is linked to their barcode). Easy solution is to keep the timings and everyone just sees theirs a no sex/gender info required at all.

trans people just compete with themselves like everyone else.

It doesn’t need to be policed. As far as I’m aware trans people wouldn't cheat the rules in more than anyone else. Would they?

As I said earlier.

The other option of course is they could stop the timing, stop recording winners and records?

One female parkrun record is held by a man called Lauren Jeska, who is currently serving 18 years for the attempted murder of a UK athletics official who was questioning his right to compete in the female category.

Parkrun have completely lost the plot on this one.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-39266777

It doesn’t need to be policed, trans people wouldn’t be any more likely break the rules than anyone else, would they?

I agree. If it’s not a race then they are welcome to stop recording times and categories. Otherwise they will need to comply with the correct legal position, this really doesn’t have to be as big of a deal as they are making it.

So it is "inclusive" to everyone but not actually fair to all the biological women included in Parkrun's timing + placement stats.

But don’t you think a male entering as a female and claiming records and accolades is cheating? You do know a female record is held by a male. How is that not cheating?

It’s not cheating because parkrun rules allow it.

It’s like, if we didn’t have a law to say stop at red lights when driving, people driving through them wouldn’t be breaking the law.

As I said keep the timings!!! - for individuals this is a good measure of progress over time. Just don't categorise them for males - females etc It is not supposed to be competitive - so no winners, losers etc. It should be like a community to encourage people into running and to develop their skills. So many don't go because they don't want to be last - it is not what it is not supposed to be about.

Want to compete - enter a competition.

I don’t disagree with you at all, but there is no way for Parkruns to police it currently. I could register as anyone. I get my barcode scanned by a volunteer, then another volunteer takes all the data and puts it on the website. There is no way to check.

I agree, if you were born a man you should be running as a man, but I imagine Parkrun realistically can do nothing about that. Did they officially make a statement on it? I haven’t seen it (doesn’t mean they didn’t, I will go goggle now)

At the moment people don't have to register in biological sex categories. They register as they identify. Which is bollocks and needs to be changed. They need to register by biological sex. So transwomem are. not technically cheating now. The rules need to be changed. If they then lie and record the wrong sex, well at least Parkrun could strike them off and everyone would know what a despicable person they are.

If it’s not a competition and a race then people can easily time themselves.
Apps galore out there or just put a clock at the start and finish.

I honestly dont see why they cant haave their own category and their own records.

It doesn’t need to be policed, trans people wouldn’t be any more likely break the rules than anyone else, would they?

@tinaabbot

Yes, they say that the categories are gender not sex.

Then parkrun publish winners in the women’s category which includes men obvs.

They are happy with this because it’s their rules that men can self ID as women.

Or trans people could just register their sex as they would at the hospital or GP’s. Then run as their preferred gender identity.

Is this a published record holder in the female category of parkrun?

The policing thing is a red herring. They don't police age categories either, but they choose to collect age data and group results by age. If a 25 Yr old won the under 10s run one week, it would be considered outside the rules not within them. A man getting the fastest "women's" time is running within the rules and can openly celebrate their achievement.

Another suspicion I have with parkrun is that they break gdpr by storing innacurate data on the "gender identity" of lots of runners who signed up before the change of policy. I signed up in 2012ish and I think i answered a question about my sex, but my profile now has my gender identity, which they have assumed.