“The only way I can describe this is that it’s like grief. It’s like something has been ripped away.”

[inkjet]

Tw react to only women being allowed in women’s rugby.

www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/2022/08/24/trans-women-rugby-cleaned-5ft-4in-girls-how-can-dangerous/

As Helen Staniland comments underneath “This article will have helped thousands more people see the issue. Very glad ages and photos were included.”

Its like they think that some people are blind…and stupid

The comments are robust.

Comments section says it all. Self absorbed deluded men wanting to play rugby with women half their age. A trans woman in their twenties would wipe women out, it is not equal.

Quite

Glad to see the trans person has things in perspective and is thinking about the team rather than only their own wants.

Doesn't come across as a deluded old fool at all.

Why doesn't she play with the men then 🤷🏻‍♀️ or better yet!!!! Create a trans team!!! Go trans!!! 🏳️‍⚧️

Fitzgerald was also interviewed on Irish radio recently, following the IRFU decision to keep women's rugby female:

www.rte.ie/news/2022/0814/1315716-transgender-rugby-players/ (audio)

Fitzgerald, a proud trans woman, is mourning the loss of rugby.

Hmm loss? Fitzgerald played for years before identifying as a woman, I don't think the RFU's decision has removed that option for Fitzgerald.

The comments on blood test results are interesting. Fitzgerald quotes the upper limit for female haemoglobin correctly but then cites the lower level for men (138 g/L) as evidence that Fitzgerald's levels are way below female levels. The lower level for women is 121h/L and Fitzgerald's level is slightly below that but not way below.

WRT testosterone Fitzgerald is a medical miracle given that the best suppression which can be achieved in prostate cancer patients is 0.7 nmol/l. I would imagine an unrecordable testosterone level in a biological male would be of great interest to doctors.

Just made me angry. Really angry. Fucking entitled bastards, all of them. Sod off. Play in the men's teams because you're a fucking man and the rest of them are fucking men. Men, I tell you. Those that are not women. 😡

We’re grieving too. For our words, our rights, our privacy. Welcome to the club, mate.

How many 54 year old women can still play full contact team sports with opponents, in some cases, who are 30 years younger than them? Childbirth, menopause and caring responsibilities (which still largely fall on women's shoulders) are 3 pretty big obstacles.

It’s all so disingenuous. Not getting to play on the team you want to is not the same as not being allowed to play at all.

My STBXH would like to play for his preferred premiership football team but he’ll have to stick with the local 5-a-side teams who actually want a 40-something man who isn’t as good at football as he imagines himself to be. And that’s fair enough. No one is stopping him from playing football; he just has to make the best of the opportunities available to him. Not whinge that it’s so unfair that he can’t just do exactly what he wants.

If being told you can't play on a particular rugby team is really the 'second worst day of your life' then you've lived a pretty cushy life.

I'd like to say also that a simpering 'how am I dangerous?' is a total red flag. All dangerous males insist they're perfectly safe and that you're the one with the problem if you suggest otherwise.

That's what's so good about the photos. There are no female players in their 50s there, are there? Wonder why.

In football both Ellen White and Jill Scott retired this week. They're in their 30s. I imagine they feel upset, but that's the nature of sport. You get to a certain age and your body just isn't what it was. All players go through it, and these people are lucky they got to play as long as they did by having access to the wrong category.

I do have some sympathy. Being trans cannot be easy. However the doctors / therapists who work with trans ppl need to explain to them that there is a cost to transitioning - you have to stop competitive sport. You won't have bathrooms, changing facilities, accommodation (e.g. hospitals, prisons...) that suit you.

But if the only way to save your self from catastrophic dysphoria and the risk of severe mental distress is to do this than you must understand that there are consequences and take support to adjust to those or do deal with the underlying cause for wanted to be a different sex. Instead they just say yes you have dysphoria and here is a bunch of life changing / endangering medication.

It’s amazing there isn’t some self awareness in terms of clearly being much much older than the other members of the team and wondering why it is that you can still compete at that age whereas other women can’t 🤨 The other women in their 50s just don’t try hard enough perhaps?

Fitzgerald played for years before identifying as a woman, I don't think the RFU's decision has removed that option for Fitzgerald.

But there is no way she'd be able to play competitively with a group of men in their 20s. She'd have to join a team in her age range. Also the showers would be less fun for her.

Awww poor diddums

How many 54 year old women can still play full contact team sports with opponents, in some cases, who are 30 years younger than them? Childbirth, menopause and caring responsibilities (which still largely fall on women's shoulders) are 3 pretty big obstacles.

I saw someone in a tweet reply offer up a link to an article about old (50-60) club rugby players, as some sort of attempted rebuttal to someone posing this question.

Every single player in the article was male though. No examples of older women...

I think the age profiles of lower-level male and female teams look very different, with female skewing much younger.

It's got to be much easier for men to keep up a sport at club level a their hobby after having children. I can imagine the drop-out rate of women who never go back is huge.

And maybe there are just more male teams, so there are 5th (or whatever) division teams for older men to play on - there probably is no equivalent female division.

The only 54 year olds I know playing Rugby is at the annual Christmas father vs sons game.

They can still play non contact... (like many teenagers... the boys and girls teams train together at DDs club but split into age and sex categories for Contact training and games)

Why is the Telegraph publishing this shit?

There are sacrifices involved do sport at any level really. But especially, hugely, at elite level.

I'm a naturally fast swimmer but am too vain about my hair to do it more than a couple of times a month. And I'm too wedded to nice food and my social life to have ever tried competing.

Women's lives are full of weighing stuff up. Feeling rubbish on hormonal contraception vs unwanted pregnancy. Career vs children.

As PP said, trans people really do need to be informed of the implications of their choices.

"Old man is sad because he can't play with women half his age anymore" - is that even a news item??

Because the telegraph philosophy is to publish both sides but, unlike the guardian, they actually include enough detail for people to join the dots.

I love this article because it hoists this transwoman by her own petard. It's absolutely clear from the photos and ages what the problem is but the Genderists can't call it transphobic.

When you combine that with the feminist viewpoints they publish as well it means a telegraph reader will understand the arguments much better than someone reading coverage on the BBC (for example).

How can I read this. A pop up is there stopping me asking me to subscribe.