Elite sports people speaking up!

[Signalbox]

There seems to be an increasing number of sports people speaking up about the problem of males completing in women's sports which is positive. Thought it might be useful to have a thread of those who are risking sticking their heads above the parapet. Obviously the likes of Sharon Davies, Mara Yamauchi and Martina Navratilova have been bravely doing this for sometime but now we appear to have a few current athletes as well who are prepared to risk the mob to ensure women have fair competition. Is it too much to hope for that there will be a snowball effect?

I suppose the other thing is that over the last decade trampling over women’s rights and opportunities simply by declaring a female gender identity has been normalised. You probably had to be a complete narcissist to enter a woman’s competition 10 years ago but now you are just at the back of a very long line of averagely entitled and opportunistic men who know from experience that women are too shit scared of the backlash to say anything.

I am assuming this could be career ending for Lynne. Will she be permitted to enter competitions after this?

I guess it’s the same in every sport though. There will be plenty of keen male pool players who are of an equal standard to the elite women players but they would be ranked 200+ in the men’s competition. HH is presumably one of those fairly good male players.

So this Haynes bloke doesn't want to play against other blokes because he wouldn't win anything.

Same old,same old shit.

I am assuming this could be career ending for Lynne. Will she be permitted to enter competitions after this?

From what I can tell (which isn’t much, some of the rules and rankings are unfathomable to my tiny mind!) Lynne is scheduled to be competing in Blackpool this weekend, so presumably we won’t have to wait long for an answer?

I did vaguely notice someone in the FB comments asking if Lynne would face sanctions but no one really knew anything because it’s not happened before and Ultimate Pool are a fairly new org (companies house says 2020).

MailOnline:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-12747377/amp/Female-pool-player-refuses-play-womens-tournament-final-opponent-trans-walks-away-table-huge-applause-Wales-despite-forfeiting.html

Fox: https://www.foxnews.com/sports/female-pool-player-forfeits-final-facing-trans-woman-opponent.amp

And a second critic posted: 'The top women get nowhere near the top men, whether its because of hand-eye (co-ordination) or whatever, I don’t know.
'What I do know is that Harriet Haynes was a bang average county ‘b’ player before transition.'

I would imagine wing span and hand strength probably play a role too.
Possibly stability due to hip and shoulder differences (and foot size).

A man and a woman of the same height will have very different arm lengths (ask any butch woman who has tried to buy an off the peg suit from the men’s department!)

That comment is hilariously brutal.

Really the Ultimate Pool set-up was designed to make a push for pool as a major TV sport. So they recruited most of the top players, and play with a 'more attacking' rule-set which 'makes for better TV'. They've also looked to interest some of the top snooker pros (who are of course much more household names) like Mark Selby and Tom Ford.They see themselves as a set-up on the up, so negative publicity would not be a good thing. Lynne has put it all out there now, I guess it's crucial how the other women react.

Even hand size would be an advantage and height?

Definitely.

Thank you Lynne, if you're reading this. I know from personal experience how hard it can be to speak out, how devastating the consequence can be, but how important it is that woman and men do so.

A female boxer withdrew from a provincial championship in Quebec after learning that her opponent was biologically male, leading to him winning the competition by default. Dr. Katia Bissonnette of Saguenay says she was matched against transgender fighter Mya Walmsley with no notice.

The Quebec Boxing Federation was reportedly aware of Walmsley’s biological sex, but justified the fight by stating they had chosen an appropriate referee for the match. Ultimately, Bissonnette says her decision to withdraw came down to safety…

https://reduxx.info/canada-female-boxer-withdraws-from-competition-after-being-matched-against-male-fighter/

Time for the return of that "Oh Canada" meme from a few years back? They really do seem to be worst: boxing, power-lifting...

'An appropriate referee'?????

That's alright then.

"she learned Walmsley was male one hour before she was set to step in the ring."

This is abuse. It is an utter travesty.

Ansleigh Wilk interview…

https://www.skynews.com.au/opinion/rita-panahi/mma-fighter-wasnt-informed-she-was-fighting-trans-athlete/video/3b83c3e7ba2a9fd6f0ecf83a77b1d63e

Please let this be true...

https://twitter.com/KivoLee/status/1726293780293390343

Well done to those women for protesting. Hopefully they're not being bullied too much.
Sadly (much as I hate it) it's going to have to be brave sportswomen refusing to play against cheating men. There's a massive amount of support for stopping this with all the evidence showing the unfairness. Short term loss for women for long term gains it seems.

'Team in question not budging and want to defeat discrimination'.

Silly fuckers.

The Mail have picked this up. Apparently a woman's knee was broken.
It's a thorough article with a coach pointing out the dangers to women from this player who towers over all the women on their team. Fair Play for Women pointing out that this is not a trans issue but an issue of men playing in women's sport.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12771191/Transgender-woman-footballer-left-opponents-terrified-broke-knee-player-blocking-shot-quits-team-threatens-sue-discrimination-rivals-refused-compete-against-her.html

I do like the training photo and the team photo showing that "she" is a whopping great lump of a bloke.

”Transgender woman footballer Francesca Needham, whose physical power on the pitch left opponents 'terrified', is considering taking legal action for discrimination after opposing teams refused to play against her”

Bring it on!

Having said that, I can’t imagine that the law could compel players to compete against their will. What they are effectively doing is going on strike.

I like the way the DM helpfully points out which player is the TW. Because they always pass.

The FA rules are not great - clubs can be fined for supporters making what are perceived to be transphobic comments (e.g. pointing out someone is male) so I wouldn't be surprised if the clubs could face some serious sanctions for refusing to field a team.
But this is very encouraging - it is extremely difficult to get football teams to stand against this misogyny as you need to all be in it together and the fear of being perceived as transphobic usually trumps any sense of self-preservation. I hope they stay strong in the face of the oncoming shit storm.