I haven't read the whole thread but in the last couple of months, I've seen similar ones.
The focus whether on professional or amateur sports usually turns to the rights / discrimination against the trans women who wish to compete and discussion often becomes about specific individuals.
Inclusion policies in sport start from this point and are often written by or with people who are transgender- which is logical.
Who would deny the importance of all people taking part in sport especially groups who have experienced exclusion?
The issue though is that in supporting one group's inclusion, there seems (from what I have read) rarely a consideration of the possible impact on women and girls. How might we hear from those women and girls who have become excluded?
If the ideology behind the policy is that 'trans women are women' & 'trans girls are girls' how can there be?
When Liz Truss MP supported Mumsnet's allowing of free speech, The Daily Mail quoted,
"Last night Delia Johnston, the former head of a charity campaigning for trans sportspeople to be allowed to compete in their chosen gender, condemned Ms Truss. Ms Johnston said: ‘She is giving kudos to Mumsnet who are particularly vicious on this particular front. Truss could be investigated for backing a group that is effectively advocating violence against the transgender community. She may be a terf in disguise.’"
Delia Johnston talked very positively in an article about how she had been involved in improving inclusion policies in sports a couple of years ago:
metro.co.uk/2015/10/21/transgender-woman-on-her-desperate-struggle-with-her-new-identity-and-how-she-was-accepted-by-the-fa-but-not-her-daughter-5376352/
She raised the question, "I play a lot of badminton. When I started transitioning, I was getting involved in my local gym. The NHS demand you keep yourself fit and healthy [if you are transitioning]. But how the hell can you do that if a gym is against you? It’s a Catch 22."
I believe that when #ManFriday demonstrated the potential impact on women & girls of SwimEngland's policy, Jane Fae raised a similar point about how important it was for trans women to swim.
However it is also true that some women and girls may be impacted by these policies, especially if what it is to be a woman or girl is determined by self-id whether that is in losing positions in weightlifting teams, places to run in the Boston Marathon, attending women-only swimming sessions or because they are not able to share changing rooms etc for reasons which should not be blanketly dismissed as 'bigotry'.
Delia Johnson also comments in the article,
"Another hot topic that surrounds transgender people in sport is the issue of gender categorisation – something which Delia feels strongly about: At what point is it fair for a man who has transitioned into woman to play for the women’s team, and vice versa? According to their 2003 rules the IOC [International Olympic Committee] says you need to be on two years of medical hormones before you can play on the team of your assigned gender – something Delia believes is the wrong approach. ‘I think those rules are stupid,’ she says. ‘The requirements are extremely demanding and not all individuals can achieve what is required in time. By then, they may have passed their peak in terms of performance.’ Delia argues that physically, you change greatly, quickly, once you start taking female hormones. ‘When I play badminton now, my mind says I can do that shot but my body says, “in your dreams”.
Her focus is on the physical impact of transition, not a comparison with those born female and this is significant.
The need to encourage increased participation of girls and women in sport is widely accepted. www.sportengland.org/research/understanding-audiences/sport-and-women/
www.sportengland.org/our-work/women/this-girl-can/
We need to be able to support the inclusion of people who are transgender and also women and girls.
To discuss this is not transphobic.