from the Daily Mail article linked above:
(extract)
Delia Johnston, an adviser to several sporting bodies on transgender issues, said the pair have already represented Britain at ‘a European championship sporting event’.
She described one of them as a potential Olympic medal-winner, having achieved an ‘awesome’ personal best earlier this year.
Their gender status is known to the organisations governing their sports but not to rivals from other nations.
The Mail on Sunday can reveal that dramatic changes to International Olympic Committee guidelines have given hope to transgender athletes across the world.
New rules mean they can now take part in the Games without having reassignment surgery.
Instead, competitors born male need only declare themselves female and demonstrate that their testosterone level has been below a specified point for a year.
Delia Johnson, pictured, an adviser to several sporting bodies on transgender issues, said the two athletes have already represented Britain at a 'European championship sporting event' +2
Delia Johnson, pictured, an adviser to several sporting bodies on transgender issues, said the two athletes have already represented Britain at a 'European championship sporting event'
However, the two Britons transitioned from men to women some years ago and have since ‘competed in their assigned gender’.
Their emergence on the international scene was confirmed by Ms Johnston, who has advised the Football Association and UK Athletics, and helped shape policy on transgender issues.
She was also an ambassador at the London 2012 Olympics.
Ms Johnston said their recent performances ought to automatically guarantee them places on Team GB.
‘They should be selected but they fear they will be deemed too tricky – too many issues, too much negativity,’ she said. (continues)
2013 Ted Talk
The Real Life Test: Delia Johnston at TEDxMiltonKeynesWomen
2015 BBC 'Transsexual Delia Johnston - I hated sport before my sex change'
(extract)
When Delia Johnston turned up at a netball taster event, the coach quipped she must have been a great player at school because of her height.
In truth the 59-year-old had never played the game in her life, as Johnston was born male.
"I had to come up with some excuse," she told BBC Sport.
"After that first night I had to go and buy the complete idiot's guide to netball as I knew nothing about the game. But it's great fun now." continues
www.bbc.com/sport/get-inspired/31748076
2015 Metro interview & background
'Transgender woman on struggle with new identity – and how she was accepted by the FA, but not her daughter'
(extract)
The thorny issue of changing rooms, and particularly which one to use, is an issue that troubled Delia at first too. It took her a while to make the move into the women’s changing rooms. ‘In my early days it was always an issue of confidence,’ she says. ‘Where I am now, when it comes to changing rooms I’m female – end of. ‘It’s like me saying to you: “As a female, what’s it like going to a male changing room?” She admits that the transition and learning to live as a woman takes time. After a while though, Delia says she began to ‘get on with life and blend in’.
Delia now works as specialist diversity consultant for Trans In Sport, Northamptonshire Police and England Netball (Picture: Delia Johnston/Metro.co.uk) ‘I am unbelievably fortunate,’ she says. ‘I worked for London 2012 for a year… I’ve met celebrities, politicians and sports stars. I met some other super-tall women – the British women’s rowing team are mostly 6ft plus. ‘I even remember chatting to one female taller than me!’
There have been mishaps along the way, of course – but Delia says that comes with being tall, not just transsexual. ‘I occasionally get called “Sir”;’ she says. ‘Tall women in general get mislabelled. In my early days, understanding that was difficult. ‘I’d be standing in the queue at a railway station and someone would say “Can I help you, Sir?” ‘To be honest with you, I knew there was going to be a problem [with getting mislabelled], so I avoided those situations.
On using women’s loos ‘When I first started transitioning I was on a trip with some women and we stopped at service station. ‘They all dashed into ladies; I didn’t. I said “I don’t need the toilet”. I avoided public toilets at that stage. It goes back to the issue of being self-confident. ‘People stare at you as if you’d walked into the toilet with a missing limb. ‘The same happened in clothes shops. I would buy clothes, try them on at home and take them back. I avoided the confrontation. Trans people have to grow accustomed that others will look at them differently, she says. ‘But, over time your confidence grows. Once I got my head round the idea that people will always stare, I didn’t have a problem with it. ‘People will look at me. I’m 6ft 2in, long hair, long legs. They think I’m interesting,’ she says. On which changing room to choose… Delia has always been sporty, but transitioning posed problems for this area of her life too. ‘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. ‘In the gym I used the disabled access changing room all the time, and I didn’t go walking around naked,’ she says. ‘Unless you’re looking for confrontation, you just have to be sensible. If you look and behave with confidence and you don’t scare the living daylights out of people, you’ll be okay. ‘If you go in like rabbit in headlights, you’ll be picked on.’
Delia says communal changing rooms posed the greatest problem. ‘In shops to try on clothes you go into cubicles – but in sports facilities on the whole, changing rooms are communal, and that was difficult. I would quickly learn the layout of a changing room. (continues)
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”. ‘I believe sport is so important. It helps you socially physically and mentally,’ she says. ‘Sports UK and Sports England have now rolled out new guidance. They’ve issued a Transsexual Inclusion In Sport document for domestic, national and international competitions. ‘But there’s not enough actual sports governing bodies implementing changes and policy review in light of this. ‘More still needs to be done. I’m not letting them get off lightly!’
On the ‘trans-friendly’ FA As Delia says, some bodies deserve credit where it’s due. Namely, the English Football Association, or The FA. Delia worked for the organisation despite, she says, having been told they were ‘homophobic’. Undeterred, she went in and examined the structure of the organisation from a transgender perspective, and found The FA to be the most inclusive of all sports organisations she’d come across – and in fact, the most instrumental in getting transsexuals involved in football." (continues)
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/?ito=cbshare
April 2018 in response to Liz Truss support for Mumsnet allowing civilised free speech despite pressures from some TRAs:
"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.’"
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5642853/Cabinet-minister-prompts-transgender-row-backing-Mumsnet-users.html
thread
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3228488-Liz-Truss-MP-breaks-cover-backs-MN