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...

We have to keep puuuulllllling.
The rules are being sorted at the elite level but it mustn't stop there.

It was bound to happen there first because there is so much public attention on high level sport, there's much more close management (control?) of players and categories at that level with drug testing etc. And also that's where the campaigning has been in both directions. The tra's did a really impressive job of getting the ioc to adopt their favoured policy, and it trickled down. Campaigners like Martina & Sharon Davies have concentrated on elite sport. World Rugby saw the issue - perhaps because Bill Beaumont went to 'a woman place is on the podium'- and had a great process to change the policy, but that's all elite level. The English women cyclists effected change via a boycott (it seems) but they might not have had such clout without the big-names eg Kenny.

It worries me that there will be a loss of interest for the grass roots level, so it's up to us to keep it on the agenda. Fair play for women wont be dropping it.

"Transgender players banned from international rugby league"
Presumably this isn't correct, I haven't read the report but I'd have thought that transgender females would be welcome to play in the women's teams (assuming not taking testosterone) and that transgender males could still play in the men's teams.
What they mean is, males can't play with females. But when you've mangled the language so much and made some things unsayable it becomes pretty difficult to explain in words that people who haven't necessarily been aware of the issue until now can understand.

Twitter is being interesting as usual, apparently this is a 'genocide'.

Like a house of cards now.

Considering that has been supposed outrage from TRAs on social media and more sports are banning male bodied athletes from female sport, TRAs are losing their power. Seems like one all sports were waiting for one to be brave enough to do it.

Sport is slowly waking up from this delusion and may well see a drop in people claiming a transgender identity so that they can unfairly compete in women's events.

just complained about the headline to the BBC

And me.

That headline is not factual.

I do wish the media would stop saying transgender sportspeople are "banned from competition". They are not banned. They are welcome to compete in the competition for their biological sex.

Twitter is being interesting as usual, apparently this is a 'genocide'.

And this is exactly the sort of response the inflammatory headline seems intended to generate.

The headline thing is so funny. On Sunday when Fina announced their decision the headlines were,

BBC: Fina bars transgender swimmers from women's elite events if they went through male puberty
Sky: Swimming world body FINA votes to restrict participation of transgender athletes in elite competition
And in Ireland,
RTE: FINA to have 'open' category for transgender athletes

For those who don't know, TRAs at Dublin Pride tried to censor RTE last week for allowing discussion around the removal of the words 'woman' and 'mother' from the maternity act. Nearly leading to RTE being called to a government committee to answer questions on why they allowed 'trans hate' on the air. So I read the headline as quite a deliberate choice to not play up to the usual trans outrage.

Come on, puuuuuulllllll!

Things are moving, slowly but surely.

Sport is a real visual demonstration of the developmental differences between the sexes.

I note that the TRA have changed from TWAW to transgender female.
How handy, it helps hide the disadvantaged females taking drugs thus baring them from sports; within the group of males taking drugs yet insisting that they get to dictate the competitions classification policy.

That Twitter video of a girl running rugby-style into a boy and rebounding off him to the ground horrifically really brings it home how dangerous it is.

Nobody would advocate to start mixed sex rugby teams. But trans clouds things.

Need English Rugby (union) to follow suit now - so far they have not as far as I am aware. How they can ignore the safety
aspects is beyond understanding

If any of you and your family are involved with sport in any way NOW is the time to write to them. We’re pushing at an open door here.

Killing myself laughing. Not.
You start to wonder what planet these people are on.

Exactly.

And what a truly inclusive image that would be. The sport would have superb ambassadors for a shift away from the usual culture.

Did anyone see that article in April where 3 high school girls were injured by one trans player in a rugby (union?) match in Guam. Understandably the coach was livid. Safety and fairness should be a priority in all sports.

So unbelievably obvious why this is wrong

www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/watch-transgender-rugby-player-slams-female-athletes-coach-says-three-injured?_amp=true

I received a nice reply from the BBC acknowledging their originally misleading headline.

^Many thanks for contacting us about our report covering news that transgender players have been banned from women's rugby league internationals (www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/61875651).^

While the scope of the ban has been made clear throughout the article, we do agree that the initial headline of the piece could have been clearer in informing readers that the ban only applied to women’s internationals. As such, we’ve updated the headline of the piece to the following:

‘Transgender players banned from women's international rugby league’

We’re confident the article itself accurately and impartially informs readers of the news, reflecting a range of views both in favour and against the move.

We would like to thank you for taking the time to share your concerns with us, which we’ve discussed with the appropriate teams. This helps inform decisions about current and future content.

All the best,

BBC Complaints Team
^www.bbc.co.uk/complaints^

Actually still an incorrect title. The title should read male transgender people banned from women's International league.

Or just "male people banned from women's rugby league".

@mrshoho i think I got exactly the same letter. Should really say trans women not transgender but it’s better

Still not right.. because transmen would be welcome assuming they are not doping on testosterone..

Yes not 100% correct but a small step in the right direction.

The article links to a press release which includes this paragraph:
Until further research is completed to enable the IRL to implement a formal transgender inclusion policy, male-to-female (transwomen) players are unable to play in sanctioned women’s international rugby league matches.
Which is clear enough, so I struggle to see how the BBC keep getting it wrong, unless it is deliberate.