British Taekwondo - trans policy

[MKDmumofflash]

I'm a long term MN lurker, new to this board and learning a lot, but have NC for this.

After reading the Kickboxing thread I searched for British Taekwondo's equality policies and found their specific trans policy www.britishtaekwondo.org.uk/equality-introduction-policy/

My dd is 10 and competes at club level. At first reading (apart from the Olympic policy stuff) I am reassured by the acknowledgement that it is a gender affected sport and the mentions of fairness for female competitors/girls and assessing trans competitors to ensure there isn't an unfair advantage.

My experience of club competitions is that the officials do take fairness very seriously but am i being too naive?

To me 'assessing' implies wiggle room. Any club that doesn't have this sport is single sex for safety and fairness in black and white letters has left the door open for exceptions.
Once you leave it up to people to decide on a case by case basis they lose the power to say no in a detached, unemotional way. The 'no' becomes very personal and loaded and I would say is far more likely to turn to a yes.
So your dd is safe until someone challenges it and doesn't come across an 'official' barrier or stance.

The only assessing of trans competitors that should be being done is ensuring that transmen are not taking testosterone when competing in the female category. As to transwomen, their male physiques give them an insurmountable advantage against female competitors of all gender identities and British Taekwondo should acknowledge this and exclude them from the female category.

We've been heavily involved in TKD for many years and often officiate at national level competitions.

We are being advised that non contact events such as patterns are fine to be mixed sex.

Full contact sparring remains single sex over age 8 and up to age 17. After that we are advised to consider fairness.

Most members consider it to be unfair for TW to compete against natal women so wouldn't agree to it.

Until someone puts a challenge in, I think it's pretty safe.

Don't forget, until your child is 18 or you are at the highest levels of competition, you are always free to ask your coach to remove them from a fight, even during the fight. A good coach will often do it on their own initiative rather than see a child come off too badly.

What could possibly fair about any adult member of the male sex fighting any adult female competitor? Contact sports should stop being mealy mouthed and support their female competitors.

Thank you for all your replies, that's helpful at firming things up in my mind. I can see why a blanket ban is the ultimate protective outcome and anything else relies upon the discretion of the instructors/judges. We've just moved club so I may quizz the instructor on his approach.

It's good to read your response @AngelicInnocent about how it is currently working in practise. Luckily my daughter massively prefers patterns and it's her aim to be eliminated in the first sparring bout, however having seen her (aged 7) being pummeled by a 13 year old girl in a comp was a wake up call. If you're ITF we might see you at a comp at some point

Thank you

From the docs:

British Taekwondo follows the rules and regulations of World Taekwondo for domestic competitions and article 5 definitions for male, female categories and cadets. World Taekwondo has yet to determine rules and regulations for Transgender athletes and in the absence of those the following applies to British Taekwondo Domestic Competitions (as per Equality in Sport guidelines).

Any transgender male (female to male transgender person) may compete in his affirmed gender in the appropriate weight and/or age category, subject to an individual assessment being made.

Any transgender woman over 16 and post puberty (male to female transgender person) may either compete in her affirmed gender by providing evidence that her hormone therapy has brought her blood-measured testosterone levels within the range of her affirmed gender. British Taekwondo adopts the ruling of the International Olympic Committee and requires the athlete's total testosterone level in serum
to remain below 10 nmol/L throughout the period of desired eligibility to compete in the female category. The athlete is responsible for the provision and cost of any test.

Full IOC definition:

Athletes would also be required to demonstrate that their total testosterone level in serum has been below 10 nanomoles per litre for at least 12 months prior to their first competition - with the requirement for any longer period to be based on a confidential case-by-case evaluation, considering whether or not 12 months is a sufficient length of time to minimize any advantage in women’s competition.

OR

She may compete in any male competition if she has not started hormone treatment.

(emphasis theirs)

So it starts out all "gender-affected sport", then throws women under the bus in the details with the bullshit IOC guidelines.

Also 10 nanomoles almost 10 times as high as average female, so how is that even fair?

If you're ITF we might see you at a comp at some point

Aha!

That changes everything. British Taekwondo is affiliated with World Taekwondo, formerly known as WTF.

WT isn't looking good, because it's the Olympic variant, and the Olympics are completely captured. But ITF won't be governed by that. Do you know which ITF organisation you're affiliated with?

Sorry op but ITF is a different kettle of fish.

Although my DD has competed since she was tiny and fought on a regular basis, I would never have let her fight ITF style as they allow direct punching to the head.

Same for DS to be honest.

Slight change of subject there, sorry.

As pp poster said, it depends which organisation you are affiliated with and their individual policies.

Thank you @AngelicInnocent, I really appreciate it. I've tried to find the affiliation beyond ITF and am struggling. So many schisms! There's APTI and TKD schools listed on the website, both of which seem to have been set up by the owner of the club.

It seems that IFT follows BTC, even if its not the Olympic form, but none of the smaller groups seem to have any sort of policy that I can find.

Taekwondo politics, eh? You could be here another week finding that out.

I suspect that for the smaller organisations, they haven't thought about it yet, and they may not until the situation arises. I would suggest that if you have the opportunity, raise the subject locally. The data collected by World Rugby will be useful.

This also might be useful: phys.org/news/2020-02-males-powerful.html#lightbox

I normally use the phrase "more schisms than the medieval Christian church"

Thank you for the encouragement, I will try a pre-emprive strike/approach to the instructor.

The policy is very clear.

Competition has some restrictions.

Everything else is self ID.

Non binary people can choose.

Changing is wherever you feel most comfy.

Training etc will be mixed sex.

HTH