Telegraph: "Exclusive: Boxing to introduce new transgender category"

[ResisterRex]

Seems no one is up for mixed-sex boxing. Whoever would've guessed?!

It would be amusing to watch Stonewall et al denounce this as "exclusionary" and "transphobic" but presumably they'd be well-advised to sit this one out.

www.telegraph.co.uk/boxing/2022/12/29/exclusive-boxing-introduce-new-transgender-category/

"Boxing will put out a call for transgender athletes to come forward in 2023 with the World Boxing Council looking to introduce a new category solely for trans fighters.

Mauricio Sulaiman, the president of the WBC, believes the sport needs to look closely at the issue for “safety and inclusion” reasons, revealing his plan to Telegraph Sport.
In an exclusive interview, Sulaiman says his proposal is that:
The WBC will next year issue a “global call” for trans athletes to come forward if they want to compete, with the aim of setting up their own separate league or tournament
Trans athletes will not be allowed to compete against non-trans fighters
The sport would look to adopt the “at birth” rule, meaning a trans fighter born a man would only be able to compete against a fellow trans fighter born a man"

In the Mail:

www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/boxing/article-11582745/Boxing-plans-form-category-solely-TRANSGENDER-athletes-2023.html

Archive of Telegraph:

archive.ph/51lPd

This is a very interesting development to watch play out.

Interested to see how many transwomen will actually be interested in this league…

Good.

Great news. There'll be some weeping and wailing from the usual suspects presumably?

Another men's category then. How progressive.

No - two further categories as I read it. One for transmen, one for transwomen. Apparently sex matters!

I read it as potentially 4 categories because the article cites FtM boxers. So it would be:

Men
Women
FtM
MtF

I think - from looking at this in the article:

"Boxing has had cases of transgender fighters enjoying success in recent years.

Patricio Manuel was a five-time women’s US amateur champion before failing to qualify for the American team for the 2012 Olympic Games. Manuel began hormone treatment in 2014 before undergoing gender reassignment surgery the following year, and made his professional debut as a male boxer in 2018, defeating Hugo Aguilar on points in Indio, California. The 37-year-old has not boxed since then.
Britain's first transgender boxer, Danny Baker, from Enfield, London, was born female but transitioned in his 20s, and has fought in semi-professional events since then. The Boxing Board of Control confirmed to Telegraph Sport that Baker is not licensed to box. The 34-year-old, a support worker, advocates for trans people in sports."

Then the article says:

"But insistent of the "at birth” policy, Sulaiman outlined: "That is absolutely correct, we will not allow - ever - a transgender born a man to fight a woman, who was born a woman. But we are creating a set of rules and structures so that transgender boxing can take place, as they fully deserve to if they want to box."

Smith said that "at the moment this is hypothetical but we can see it coming and we are looking at our transgender policy. It is what you are born as, as rugby union does. When it does [happen] we intend to be fully prepared. Medical and, perhaps more importantly, legal considerations will have to be taken into account.”"

'we will not allow - ever - a transgender born a man to fight a woman, who was born a woman'

'In boxing, a man fighting a woman must never be accepted regardless of gender change. There should be no grey area around this, and we want to go into it with transparency and the correct decisions.

'Woman to man or man to woman transgender change will never be allowed to fight a different gender by birth.''

Pretty unequivocal.

So 2 male leagues
1 female league
And some pissed off transmen

Everyone is happy apart from oh yeah the female transmen. I wonder if then they'll realise that no you can't be a man and no we are not all equal in strength to males and that for them at least they are going to have to make a choice sport or manhood because those women will never be able to have both unless we have two transgender catorgories.

Making it two males leagues one of men and one of women
And two female leagues one of women and one of men.

God, you know for a non binary philosophy its very binary.

Oh ignore me i missed the fact they are still going to have tho split the trans leagues

Still the binary comment stands

That's what they're suggesting...

Kellie Maloney was just on Times Radio talking about this. Although he was very clearly in the TWAW camp, he supported this proposal as a way of allowing trans people to box.

It was heartening that, as someone who has spent his life working in boxing, the idea of trans women boxing bio women was clearly out of the question for him.

I was pleased to read the clear language.

Boxing cannot mess about - people get hurt.

This does seem like the safest, best way forward.

I hope it’s seen as a win win situation, but who knows?

I've always thought this would be the way forward in sport, and that sport would then lead the way out of the rest of the mess.

Great..well given that the only trans boxers I know of are trans men who box with other men and they will clearly ban trans women who don't go thru male puberty, that rule certainly sounds like it was based on bigotry and not science.

The trans moral panic continues..

And if it's not they had better be made to explain properly and not just using feely words, why the hell not.

Good. Glad to see this in a sport where its pretty obvious why sex categories are needed. The beginning of the end.

Brilliant idea

I suspect that being offered the chance to compete in the “male women’s category” instead of the “female women’s category” might not be sufficiently affirmative for some people.

But hey - wait and see I guess.

Brilliant! The tide has truly turned. It will be fascinating to see how many tw boxers want to box against other men.

Fantastic news. Trans sports people can compete in their own categories.
I see this week’s persistent scolder has arrived on the thread.
No males should compete in female sports. Especially so in contact sports such as boxing.

This is great news. Everyone can see that this is absolutely fair. Hopefully this will lead the way for other sports.

Eh?

Sex at birth category is male/female category so it's ridiculous that sports bodies are going to these lengths to be "inclusive" and appease trans identifying people. Or as others have rightly pointed out, trying to appease trans identifying people because chances are they won't be happy with it.