Park run email today - "Living as myself"

[wantmorenow]

blog.parkrun.com/uk/2022/07/27/living-as-myself/

Today of all days after Allison's victory!

Another form asking us to choose a gender or prefer not to say when I just want the word sex. Or non-believer in gender identity woo.

Who do we email to put our protected beliefs to?

I have emailed parkrun today (my goodness they make it difficult with their contact form) and adapted the text above. I made the point that sex AND gender identity are protected characteristics under the Equality Act, so they need to balance them, and that only an elite female could beat a really decent male club runner. The decision by World Triathlon isn't going to help matters here :(

But we will see!

Sorry gender reassignment, not gender identity!

Has anyone received an email reply from parkrun yet? It still makes me so angry that they endorse self-identification. All I got was a reply from the Operations Assistant saying "Thanks for getting in touch and feedback on this point."

Ditto

Ditto. So rude to bot even bother replying.

No reply here either

Sounds like it's firmly under the carpet waiting for it to blow over.

Nothing here either.

Update; they did get back to me. Essentially they don't care women will lose records to this. I will be following this up again.

Or I will change my age to 80+ and start smashing age group records....

No idea if this is related but before he was imprisoned David "Baloo" Challenor volunteered for Parkrun, as did Ashton/Aimee

I wouldn't read too much in to that. There are literally thousands of volunteers at parkrun (and about 1800 new ones each week). A high proportion of people who parkrun will volunteer at their local event a few times every year. That kind of volunteering has no traction with policy

I'm not surprised at the parkrun answer by the way, they are very explicit in their stance that it's an inclusive run or walk (big initiative recently on walking). I don't think it'll ever adopt the racing rules as used in competitive athletics

Not every inclusive for women when male bodied people can get women's records :(

I emailed park run some time ago about this but haven’t had a response. Could someone post or DM me the address I should contact to get a response

Another group brainwashed into believing that 'inclusive' now means 'ideologically compliant to TQ+ political dogma'.

And exclusion, prejudice and discrimination is the New Black.

Did anyone get a proper reply from parkrun HQ? How can they now ignore the rules set by British Athletics? I haven't been to a parkrun since last summer in protest at their inability to give women a fair experience of parkrun.

When I email parkrun HQ I always get a prompt and helpful reply.

Can I have a reminder what the issue is please - do they allow men to say they are women to get better results?

All I get from them is a "thank you for your message". I want an actual reply to my question about why they provide age&gender categories and place within that if its not a competition. They can't have it both ways as its not fair to women.
Either:

1. Have a policy that you must be honest about age and sex (not gender). Publish results according to placements in these groups and name fastest female course record, publish fastest female in the news (like it is now).
2. Allow runners to declare their own gender. Results just say name and place, no age or sex information on anyone, no fastest female, no publicity when someone breaks a parkrun record. They can't have this both ways, it's not fair or inclusive. The fastest female in parke parkrun is still a trans identified male runner as per this screenshot from www.parkrun.org.uk/parke/results/latestresults/ - as long as this record stands, I will not run or volunteer.

Yes, that’s my understanding. But then they pat us on the head and remind us it’s all just for fun so not to worry about it. Who cares if a man holds the women’s course record! 🤷‍♀️

That was sarcasm btw about the who cares! 😁

I has a really pathetic dismissive reply from them.
I will be getting back to them. I won't be being kind that's for sure.

They changed the categories for gender without consulting members and essentially changed the data. It used to be male/female and now it's male/female/another gender identity/prefer not to say. Female/male are not gender identities!

Yes, quite correct, parkrun's computer automatically gives men who register a 15 second quicker time than they actually run.

That runner is supported by Asics as well. So that's Asics and Nike who don't want womens money.

What's the point in this sarcastic comment? That's exactly what parkrun are not only allowing but endorsing through their marketing.