Parents voice concerns about adult males in 14+ female ice hockey

[NitroNine]

This Telegraph article discusses parental concerns about adult males playing ice hockey against girls age 14+; & a speech made by Lord Wrottesley in December about safeguarding.

In case of paywall, break glass here.

Played hockey.

Someone is going to get severely injured or killed. There’s a reason in ice hock why we never scrimmaged against the boys.

This is appalling.

Ice or field hockey are two sports which to me were no brainers to have immediately followed World Rugby. It is remarkable .

I read this yesterday and was horrified. How people can't see safety is important (even if they don't care about women having their own sports), I don't know. It's unfathomable.

All the governing bodies are running scared of Stonewall and this powerful group of men determined to appropriate women's sport for themselves. Constant wibbling about inclusion and being kind rather than science, fairness and the right of women to our hard fought for sports.

It's enraging.

Parents need to take control and withdraw their girls until the officials come to their senses. Who in their right mind would think it acceptable to put 14 year old girls up against a fully developed biological male in contact sport? Enough of this crap.

Agreed. Players and their parents need to go on strike. This goes for the men too. It's a good way for males to show support.

It would take absolutely nothing for ice hockey (or any other sport that has not yet seen sense) to call an online meeting next week and make an immediate decision to make things safe in competition, training, and privacy for their female participants. It's not rocket science. They don't need to wait for elections or discussions in parliament. UK governing bodies just need to get their acts together. And while they are at it, they should timetable in regular reviews, and tighten up their whistleblowing procedures, so that the situation is not allowed to slide and nobody is penalised for reporting problems.

MN has developed a fantastically irritating habit of removing one of the hyperlinks from a multi-link post between my checking & posting.

In this case, it was the one to the text of the December speech by Lord Wrottesley (Hansard).

In September 2021 the Sports Councils of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland issue guidance to all sporting organisations including 10 principles - of which the following are of particular relevance:

1. Categorisation within the sex binary is and remains the most useful and functional division relative to sporting performance.
2. Competitive fairness cannot be reconciled with self-identification into the female category in gender- affected sport.
3. Based upon current evidence, testosterone suppression is unlikely to guarantee fairness between transgender women and natal females in gender-affected sports:
4. ‘Case-by-case’ assessment is unlikely to be practical nor verifiable for entry into gender-affected sports.
5. Categorisation by sex is lawful, and hence the requirement to request information relating to birth sex is appropriate.

(sorry - the principle numbers have gone astray)

The March 2023 statement from World Athletics (not the same sport - I know) is also very clear:

'In regard to transgender athletes, the Council has agreed to exclude male-to-female transgender athletes who have been through male puberty from female World Rankings competition from 31 March 2023.

In these circumstances, the Council decided to prioritise fairness and the integrity of the female competition before inclusion.

World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said: “Decisions are always difficult when they involve conflicting needs and rights between different groups, but we continue to take the view that we must maintain fairness for female athletes above all other considerations. ... we believe the integrity of the female category in athletics is paramount."

https://movingtoinclusion.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Guidance-For-Transgender-Inclusion-In-Domestic-Sport-2021.pdf
https://worldathletics.org/news/press-releases/council-meeting-march-2023-russia-belarus-female-eligibility

Despite searching on their website and finding several references to it, I was unable to find the EIH’s Transgender Inclusion Policy, however the Changing Room Policy makes it clear that self identification is prioritised. https://englandicehockey.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/EIHChanging_Room_Policy-1.pdf

Parents and girls should not have to self exclude from sport in order to compel organisations to comply with clearly issued guidelines. When inclusion is prioritised over fairness, dissenting voices on the topic of fairness are not heard. If the girls leave, they will not be seen.

You would think Ice Hockey would be turning themselves inside out regarding safety after this horrific incident:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-68901589

Do they want another horror like this? A female dead or crippled for life?

It is clear that Sports overall are deeply, unrelentingly misogynistic and are delighted to be able to piss all over women under the cover of inclusivity, they have always had the right to segregate sport strictly on the basis of sex.

I was going to note that as well- tragically, ice hockey has recently demonstrated what a dangerous sport it can be.

I am actually shocked that the governing bodies would allow male v female competition at all

Thank you for this. The fact that ice hockey and so many other sports are incapable of adhering to these basic principles shows how powerful certain individuals are in each sport. Stonewall appointed representatives busy removing women's sport in their own interests.

Time for it to stop.

I suspect it's the bystander effect. It's so obviously, monumentally wrong that they kept thinking someone else will see the problem and step in to stop it, saving them from having to do the hard thing and say no. So they just keep on playing along as it gets worse and worse...