Women’s Bowling Association

[FindTheTruth]

Story about a Women’s Bowling Association mentioning unique rules such as ‘the transsexual will do best by presenting herself in an understated fashion, including not wearing too much make-up’.
www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/people/hayling-island-transgender-woman-says-portsmouth-league-dark-ages-rules-3012432

The Women’s Bowling Association website rules doesn't mention the makeup though: www.pandwba.co.uk/betp(1).htm

Oh crikey

Those rules actually read as though they were written by an old-fashioned transexual or at least that one such had been consulted.
Eg language like 'en femme', valuing surgical 'transition'.

oml!!! "the transsexual" now THAT is dehumanising language. Looking at the WBA policy it does rather seem the local committee made up some extra rules.

Doesn't change the fact that biological men still dont belong in women's sport though

The old rules were rather sweet but totally inappropriate - sorry to be ageist here (but I am old so I can) but I can see the elderly committee members creating a set of rules which basically came down to - be trans, be welcome, but don’t frighten the horses by being loud or vivid or drawing attention to yourself in any way. Bless them, they had no idea....

The local rules do seem very dated but it’s not those that are being challenged (they seem to have been pulled from the website already) it’s the national rules!
What’s with the capitalisation of TRANSGENDER at the start of the article too? I might think that the newspaper were actually transphobic or something.
As pp said, the local rules were probably written by an elderly volunteer ages ago and never needed revisiting until this new bowler objected...

the old rules are still online

www.pandwba.co.uk/betp.htm

ADVICE TO CLUBS, AND TO COUNTY AND LOCAL ASSOCIATIONS, ON THE HANDLING OF CASES OF GENDER REASSIGNMENT DURING TRANSITION

it does not appear to have been intended to be published online

We the residents & readers of portsmouth news are having our comments deleted & banned, just the normal hate stuff like biology & fairness, I want to hear from the ex wife, what a story she will tell.

sorry they aren't rules; they are 'advice to clubs', which someone put online.

the rules state you can compete with a GRC, which costs £140 and there is help for those on low income.

After 3 years of 'living as a woman', you could get a GRC. What is the problem exactly?

This appears to be someone looking for offence, in that the article claims

"Stella Moore, from Hayling Island, has been a member of Hayling Island Bowls Club for nine months after building up the courage to take part in the sport she had always wanted to play."

"But the 67-year-old, who has lived as a woman for three years, has been left deeply upset by Portsmouth & District Women’s Bowling Association as they refuse to let her play competitively."

Which is fine, ok, Moore can play bowls at Hayling Island Bowls but is excluded from the women's league. But what's that?

www.pandwba.co.uk/

Everyone is excluded.

The season runs from May to August, and was completely cancelled due to covid.

The last matches were played in August 2019, and no matches have been played since then.

A GRC would take less than 14 weeks: www.gires.org.uk/obtaining-your-gender-recognition-certificate

So what is Moore being excluded from exactly?

There seems to be some sense in the original rules and the Portsmouth news article is very misleading implying that there is any connection between surgery and competing. Moore sends in two years of photos dressed as a woman, gets the GRC and can compete exactly the same as anyone else.

If you really truly want to compete in the local league why would you take offence at some rules written by someone probably hundreds of miles away, posted online by some well-meaning aged volunteer, and go running to the local newspaper? Especially when you can't actually compete in the bowls because it's

(a) winter
(b) there's a deadly killer disease which targets people of the demographic profile of bowls players.

Bloody nightmare.

There is a video showing that no women of P&DWA were not able to play any bowls this year

www.pandwba.co.uk/phe.html

Why would you be such an absolute narcissist to complain about something that no-one's competing in?

They give every impression of being a group of nice old ladies, who were unfortunately not able to do their usual activities due to covid-19, so it's not clear why someone's gone running to the press complaining?

Does bowling need to be sex segregated? It's not a contact sport. I suppose bowling bowls are quite heavy and an average man could move them further than an average women, but I thought it was more about skill than strength. I know sod all about bowling so I could be completely wrong.

Isn’t it a comfort thing? Sometimes its nice to be able to go out somewhere where there are no men. This shouty person rather proves the point.

A little confused with this statement in the interview:
"‘When I was 10-years-old my father found me in the bathroom trying on mother’s clothes and he was angry. It was the 60s and it was against the law back then. I tried to hide my femininity throughout my life and now I am being who I am."

Since when has wearing your mother's clothes been illegal?

It was illegal in new York in the 50s. Lesbians used to have to wear at least 3 pieces of feminine attire.
www.history.com/news/stonewall-riots-lgbtq-drag-three-article-rule

The only law I can think of in the UK though was about homosexuality.

"Any male-to-female transsexual who underwent gender reassignment surgery before puberty will be accepted in bowls as female. This also applies to individuals who have undergone female-to-male reassignment before puberty, who will be regarded as male."

I suppose if puberty has been prevented altogether then the surgery won't have had to happen at an age at which it is illegal in this country.

But I think they are on dodgy ground with the word "transsexual", which many transgender umbrella people find offensive.

But I think they are on dodgy ground with the word "transsexual", which many transgender umbrella people find offensive.

it's 10 years old, and not rules but guidance for clubs; not long ago 'transsexual' was perfectly inoffensive and there was no such thing as 'transgender umbrella'.

the fact that some tiny bowls club for elderly ladies left some slightly dated advice on their website doesn't seem like headline news.

sorry bowls league, not bowls club

it's 10 years old, and not rules but guidance for clubs; not long ago 'transsexual' was perfectly inoffensive and there was no such thing as 'transgender umbrella'

It's not "transsexual" which is shocking but referring to a transsexual as "the transsexual" . It is terribly dehumanising.

Aaargh !!!

It's not "transsexual" which is shocking but referring to a transsexual person as "the transsexual" . It is terribly dehumanising.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8874275/Trans-woman-three-years-67-banned-ladies-bowls-team-sex-change-surgery.html

In the Daily Mail.
Also the print edition of the Daily Telegraph.

There is a perception that bowls should be a genuinely mixed sport much like equestrianism. I don't know if there's any validity in that argument.

I'm not sure that was intended. I looked on Google books, and there is e.g. Still Standing: Musings of a Christian Transsexual [2008]

which refers 'the place of the transsexual in church'

'Transgender' as a noun is standard English usage in India. Possibly if you talk about a 'third gender', then such language makes sense. E.g., 'the man and the woman'.

I don't know where it came from in this document, but it does read like the sort of thing that in the past might have been written by a transgender person. E.g.,

www.ifge.org/books/transsexuals_survival_guide_2.htm

"Two years ago I wrote the Transsexual's Survival Guide to Transition and Beyond. ... I realized, however, that there was more to it than that. So, a transsexual goes through transition, and possibly has sex reassignment surgery. "

It strikes me that the language is something probably written by an elderly transwoman, a decade ago.

It strikes me that the language is something probably written by an elderly transwoman, a decade ago

I'm sure it is in the same it used to be common to refer to "the homosexual" to mean a homosexual man . It doesn't sound right now.

That advice is comedy gold.

though many transsexuals will not expect to be visually undetectable, partly because they were reassigned after many years of life in their genetic sex, a proportion of transsexuals will be undetectable in their altered gender role. In practice, however, many will just be realistic enough to hope that society and other people will accept them in the role that they have chosen

It's actually really well meaning and emphasises the importance of acceptance. It also really emphasises women's rights. The advice isn't bad, it's just weirdly formal and doesn't remotely pretend that 'the transsexual' is a woman.

Clearly whoever wrote it thought through this issue a lot and got to grips with specifics, then wrote it in a way that would see them burned at the stake by the blue hair brigade.

EA guidance has referenced passing since 2010 so it's not surprising to see it in policies.