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?

On the aforementioned site of cute flightless birdies from the antipodes, most think the operation was done and botched, I'm of the personal opinion it probably wasn't ever done. No reason for my theory to be any more believable. Just gut instinct.

And VI is a very very angry person, so the near down under homestead of lil birds theory is the botched thing made VI angry, I'm more of the still got testosterone sloshing around angry.

May never know the truth.

Yes! Thank goodness for each and every one of of them speaking up for all women & girls 👏💛

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/in-praise-of-sharron-davies/

Looks like Swim England have release their transgender policy.

According to Emma Hilton this is good for elite swimmers as the categories will be separated into female and open categories. However in "non-competitive" swimming eligibility for entry into the female category will be by self-ID and "no questioning of athlete inclusion will be tolerated"

https://www.swimming.org/swimengland/swim-england-transgender-non-binary-competition-policy/

What counts as non competitive swimming?

And what does that mean for the female changing rooms?

So female sex only in the women’s events at all licensed indoor swimming meets in England. I think that is likely to mean most competitive events. I’m more familiar with Scottish licensing which requires a licence for meets against other clubs or a meet for your own club only but run so that times can be eligible for rankings.

For masters - female sex only in the women’s for any competition where times are eligible for rankings. For other competitions, self ID allowed but they cannot hold women’s records as times are not eligible for rankings.

For open water - female sex only in women’s events in regional and national competitions.

From the FAQs it seems to be applicable to all ages, expect water polo where under 16s can self ID.

Changing room policy will be down to individual facilities.

For overnight stays, the FAQs recommend room sharing is by birth sex only.

It also appears that complaints about someone entering the wrong category will be dealt with after the event, hence the not approaching individual athletes policy.

Not approaching individuals seems fair enough, the orgs that make the rules should be the ones who deal with the complaints when the rules aren’t fair.

I don’t know if I’m just not paying enough attention to fully understand but this seems like a bewilderingly complicated mishmash of policy - hope it makes sense to those tasked with implementing it!

For overnight stays, the FAQs recommend room sharing is by birth sex only.

At least this bit is clear (although only a recommendation, not a rule?)

Why the carve out for Water Polo?

(soz for the questions, I’m being lazy, no excuse for not looking for the answers myself)

Changing room policy will be down to individual facilities.

For overnight stays, the FAQs recommend room sharing is by birth sex only.

This is a weird contradiction isn't it? Women should not be forced to share sleeping accommodation with men who say they're women but the same logic is not applied to changing rooms.

Mixed sex water polo is common for under 16s due to low participation rates, so it’s a hang over from that. I would have thought a slightly earlier age would have been better as it’s a contact sport and males may (will?) be going through puberty before 16. I’d hope that the policy would be reviewed if participation rates increase.

As for the overnight stays issue, the new policy is for competition only and accommodation is really a club team manager issue - although I think it would be hard to argue a case for going against Swim England’s recommendation.

I also think that Swim England can exert a certain amount of control over affiliated clubs (on the accommodation issue) that it can’t over facility providers.

I suppose a lot of pools no longer have separate changing rules, just mixed sex ‘changing villages’, so one rule can’t work for all locations?

Would be nice if they could at least state that where separate facilities do exist they are separated on the basis of bodily sex not gender identity.

Thanks for info re: water polo - if that’s how things have to be to enable women and girls to participate at all (I’m assuming they are the minority of participants at present?) then I suppose it’s unavoidable.
Does make me worry re safety but at least official mixed-sex stuff will have appropriate risk assessments which isn’t always the case when an activity is ostensibly single-sex but with opposite sex trans people included (eg Scouts policy is safer for girls than Guides policy).

Male puberty is really variable and some 16 year old boys are already fecking huge (mine was 6ft by the age of 15 and able to give me a piggy back) perhaps the boys who are already adult sized before 16 can be transferred to young adult teams?

When I was a kid I played on my primary school’s football team. It was a small, rural school (two year groups to each classroom) and they couldn’t have fielded an all boys team even if every boy in the eligible age group had wanted a spot.
Back then the FA rules were so strict re: no mixed sex teams from age 11 that I had to quit playing on the team in the Autumn term of my last year (November birthday).
By Easter, enough girls had turned 11 that the school could no longer play in age 9-11 competitions.

Seems absolutely bonkers that fully-grown males could be playing on women’s teams in the next World Cup.

C’mon FIFA! Save Our Women’s Sports.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11934931/Women-swimmers-no-longer-face-trans-competitors-new-rules-Swim-England.html

Thanks, @Signalbox
I wish news outlets would get their headlines right, though. "Women swimmers no longer have to race against male trans athletes..." is what it should say.

There's a Woman in Australia, who has complained about a man playing in the women's AFL. She's been reported for hate speech, by the bloke involved.

I keep having to remind myself that this is all real and not a nightmare.

Brave woman (especially in light of what we know know about how Australia treats women with the wrong opinions). I might be wrong but I think this might be in relation to a Riley Dennis (Trans Activist YouTuber who moved to Australia a few years ago. The mail has blurred RD's face but Reduxx have reported the full detail.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-11931443/Upset-parents-offered-training-LGBTIQ-backlash-trans-players-female-soccer-comps.html

https://mobile.twitter.com/ReduxxMag/status/1642176858505592833

That that particular footballer is a former YouTuber best known for popularising the ‘Your genital preference is transphobic’ rhetoric aimed at female homosexuals (aka ‘the cotton ceiling’) is bitter icing on top of a rotting cake.

The disregard demonstrated towards women in both scenarios would be shocking if we didn’t witness it all around us.

God, they're just horrid, horrid, horrid, aren't they? Nasty, gaslighting bullies.

Swimmer Riley Gaines attacked by anti-women activists at San Francisco State University. These people are looking more like the Red Guard every day. Fucking lost their minds.

https://twitter.com/davidllamas_/status/1644188996887777280

I hope employers put AI to good use and use it to identify future job candidates who have been members of baying mobs.

Once the tide has turned those nasty bullies will have their faces out there in perpetuity.

I see that the US Supreme Court has overturned a ban on boys competing as girls, in West Virginia.

Sorry, I have trouble linking via my phone.

It looks like it's just in relation to one student whilst the lawsuit is in progress.

"The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed a 12-year-old transgender girl in West Virginia to continue competing on her middle school’s girls sports teams while a lawsuit over a state ban continues"

https://nypost.com/2023/04/06/transgender-girl-can-run-girls-track-in-west-virginia-supreme-court-rules/

Thank you for clarifying.