Rugby League bans transgender athletes from top events

[2Paws]

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/61875651

"The International Rugby League (IRL) said it had considered "relevant developments in world sport" in coming to its decision to ban transgender athletes until it had completed research on its final inclusion policy."

Baby steps for now, but so important for rugby. I just hope World Rugby is listening...

National sporting bodies follow the international rules and guidelines so that they can take part in international competitions, and local clubs generally have to be affiliated to the national body and therefore have to follow the national rules and guidelines in order to be able to compete in national or more local competitions. So you would hope it would trickle down!

I always wonder how the discussions in the male dominated meetings go? What on earth can outweigh the evidenced risks to women from being harmed by much larger men? What is said that makes presumably literate and intelligent people ignore the facts and evidence about risks?
There must be some pretty extreme levels of manipulation? to get this through.

Yes it's interesting- my son Plays in a boys football club that's part of the FA. There have been girls playing though they've left to go to girls clubs now.

There's loads of groups within the club so it could be possible to have mixed teams.

This could be really good for womens sport as more womens clubs will be set up?

They see it, they just don't care.

My 9yo is in Mini rugby (u12s). Only girl. The care they take with her is amazing. There is the option to play down an age group to take into account size/strength for example. Soon she will be able to train with the girls team (she too young to play with them).

She 8snt allowed to share a changing room with the boys which means they have to be creative... luckily we have a large car with privacy glass!

It does surprise me they can have these rules in Minis but permit men to play in older age groups

Its not a suprise when you think that the childrens l team management will be organised around child safeguarding rules.
So risk assessment has to account for multiple stages of puberty, various cognitive levels, age, experience and sex.

We really do have to stop accepting these headlines. They are inaccurate and inflammatory.

It's like writing "Rugby League bans [religion X] from top events", when what they've done was stop permitting [religion X] men playing in top women's events - they were getting a pass.

I know the "transgender" religion in question makes it very hard for them to phrase it accurately, because the male participants don't want to be called "men" or "male"; and the "transgender" religion IS relevant, and should be mentioned - it's them who have had the exception and are effectively having policy changed now, so saying "Rugby League will no longer let any males play in women's events" is not clear enough. Maybe a "Transwomen will be required to play in men's events" as a subheading?

"It's hard to write an accurate headline cos it upsets people" is not an excuse. Especially when your alternative to telling the truth and upsetting them is telling the a lie that they want to hear and they want propagated so they can claim persecution.

The reporting in that BBC article is so biased it’s unbelievable.

Is BBC in cahoots with stonewall?

Yes, this. It’s a very inflammatory title and article, and focuses on trans being excluded rather than, you know, ensuring the sport is fair.

Totally agree @NecessaryScene most ppl will not bother to read the story. They’ll simply absorb the headline which is completely misleading

The headline certainly fuels the victimhood doesn't it?

Dr Emma Hilton is doing a review on the advantages held by prepubescent boys over girls now I believe.

That will also be interesting.

I take it there are going to be mass public protests about this. Nz will withdraw from international competition and US civil rights campaign groups will throw their toys out of the pram and start legal action to change the minds of these governing bodies. Everyone will talk about how unfair all this trans stuff has been to Caster Semenya. There will naturally be a massive boycott of sport by all these trans athletes denied their rights to compete as women and thinking competing in an open category is too demeaning and violates their dignity and privacy. Obviously other athletes, will also boycott in solidarity. And effigies of JKR will be burnt to symbolise the injustice and how its all her fault.

Or everyone will nod along saying actually thats pretty reasonable whilst effigies of JKR are still burnt by a tiny minority.

"International rugby league" when its highlighting the 'inequality' for men or indeed referring to men's sport.

'women's rugby league' when it's just boring old dinosaur women

Not anymore I think, since the Nolan podcasts. Now I believe they are in cahoots with Global Butterflies… 🤔 someone will be along to correct me if I am mistaken no doubt.

However this is more good news

"Transgender players banned from international rugby league"

No they aren't.

Males are banned from WOMENS rugby. They can still compete and train with the other men. I can't stand this constant hyperbole.

Another small victory even if the headline is badly expressed. The dominos are falling ...

Why only ban men from women’s top games? How will the new sportswomen ever get to the top if they are being consistently beaten by men in the lower tier games?

It’s a long overdue and very welcome acknowledgment of the issues here, yes- but either: women’s sports should be ruined because of entryism by those with male physical advantage and women players should be injured or killed unnecessarily in order to be inclusive to the wishes of a tiny subset of men (who literally believe themselves to have become female) which everyone knows is not a physical possibility ….
or….. we do want to preserve female sporting competition and we don’t want to literally sacrifice women’s lives and their physical safety to the fantasies and political demands of men.

Which is it?

Grassroots level is so true. It has made my DHs life to have been football Captain at school and one of the best players, it also helped him gain confidence at school when times were tough for him. He earnt it fair and square.

This was not elite level and those grassroots / school sports can still mean the world to people.

I said this on another thread but will say it again here, the obsessions with elite sports drives me nuts. The vast, vast majority of people involved with amateur sports do it because they love the game, they love to pit themselves against people of a similar ability and they have no expectations of ever reaching elite levels.

Transwomen are already allowed in many amateur contact sports (including my own) and it's a disaster for women who have to play against them. I found Megan Rapinoe's comments pretty rage inducing. I don't care how many there are, I don't care if they're not 'winning' all the time.

One single transwoman on a football pitch can change the entire tenor of the game. As a female player you start to doubt yourself. You don't want to tackle them, you can't run anywhere near as fast as them, you can't contemplate going up for a header against them. Football is a dangerous game. I've had many injuries over the years and I've seen friends receive life changing injuries on the pitch. We still need to go to work on Monday. Women will just walk away.

Well said Truthlikeness I understand that there are a group of young women rugby players weighing up how to challenge transwomen playing against them. They have university places, careers, families and have to consider which is worst, the risk of being maimed by one of these born males or the risk of accusation and attacks in their professional and personal lives.

A toxic decision for them - and they're completely abandoned by the male governing bodies. Who interestingly are currently in difficulties about the number of head and brain injuries happening to male players that are inadequately treated. They know the risks but ignore them in favour of the trans zealots in their midst.

I don't think they consider women and the impact their decisions have.

The main focus is the men's game / sport and then women's sport is a tag along.

I've actually had a discussion about women's football with my brother (who used to play rugby for his school until the rest of the team outgrew him).

He was advocating for a smaller ball, pitch and goal size.

I was of the opinion if you change things like that then you will remove school and grass roots teams.

Agree elite players come from grassroots

you ain’t got grassroots where are the elite going to come from

No, for historical reasons when the game split into Rugby Union and Rugby League, (different attitude on playing players), rules have diverged significantly since, the bbc and people involved in Rugby Union would refer to Rugby Union as "Rugby" and generally not refer to Rugby League at all if they could possibly help it. World rugby is the governing body of Rugby Union and therefore nothing whatsoever to do with Rugby League.

If you aren't from 'up north' its possible to not know the sport of rugby league exists at all. Just to cheer you up Australian Women's Rugby League (professional league) is kind of a huge deal, google jillaroos if you haven't heard of them.

Rugby union has been saying yes and letting tw play women - league has been steadfast in it's 'you having a laff mate?' attitude. As someone said totally untrue to say tw can't play, they just can't play women. So in that sense today's announcement isn't any kind of reversal I'm afraid but is still very good news.