NZ - TW in sports

[FizzyLemons]

The new NZ coalition government was supposed to be stopping funding to sports that allowed TW to compete as/against women. This badly written article states (I think) that they have decided to have another think about it.

This is particularly pertinent to me this week as my 17yo daughter plays high level netball for her school, in the top grade in our city, most other teams are adult. At their last game there was a player of questionable sex. I knew the Netball NZ rules are that men can play if they meet some criteria (I've just looked that up and it's unclear - in one place it says after surgery or with reduced testosterone, and next line says if they declare they are a woman). But this is the first time we've actually experienced it. Of course, we don't know for sure that this 6 foot 4, huge overweight person with broad shoulders and narrow hips and a manly face was a man. But it made for such an unfair game. One of our younger players got an 'accidental' fist to the face, and there were several incidents of players being knocked over. Netball is not a non-contact sport any more.

DD was very vocal to her team and coach after the game that it was a man, most other players didn't say anything. The coach said she thought it was probably a woman. I mentioned to a friend involved in netball who said she's pretty sure they 'used to be a man' (said with a shrug of the shoulders).

But what do you do?

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/new-zealand-government-revises-status-on-transgender-athletes-in-community-sport/OO3XC4OGCNF65AWGX2HNUYSARE/

I think you can approach this from two angles:

Safety of players and umpiring to the rules of the game:
I am not 100% familiar with netball rules but I am familiar with mixed age and mixed sex hockey and with football - so please excuse any assumptions I have made or mistakes regarding what kind of issues could be challenged.

A fist to the face, even if accidental, would and should be challenged in the course of a game. If it was not, can this be raised as a complaint after the game?

Protection of junior players, playing alongside adults. Where juniors and adults play together, there are additional safeguarding concerns, if you believe that the juniors are at increased risk of injury from adult players, this should be raised at team and club level and raised with the organisers of the league.

If several players were knocked over... this does put them at risk and deserves assessment. Risk assessment to players can come from many different aspects of the game, in hockey, for example, with the changes in technique, body strength, materials used in the sticks, there have been many rule changes over the years that are designed to protect players - if the introduction of male bodies to Netball, increases the risks to female bodies, perhaps the rules need to be revisited...

The second angle of investigation / discussion is to look at the 'fairness' angle and challenge the Netball organisation, globally, nationally and within your local club on the policy to allow males to play in the female game. Rather than having to structure the arguments yourself, you can refer to well worded and researched documents in other sports.

Copy and paste of other posts that I have written on the topic coming shortly...

n 2019 - the Court of Arbitration in Sport was very clear on sex segregated sports.

"The Panel accepts the IAAF’s submission that reference to a person’s legal sex alone may not always constitute a fair and effective means of making that determination. This is because the reason for the separation between male and female categories in competitive athletics is ultimately founded on biology rather than legal status.

The purpose of having separate categories is to protect a class of individuals who lack certain insuperable performance advantages from having to compete against individuals who possess those insuperable advantages.

In this regard, the fact that a person is recognised in law as a woman and identifies as a woman does not necessarily mean that they lack those insuperable performance advantages associated with certain biological traits that predominate in individuals who are generally (but not always) recognised in law as males and self-identify as males.

It is human biology, not legal status or gender identity, that ultimately determines which individuals possess the physical traits which give rise to that insuperable advantage and which do not.

Accordingly, the purpose of the male-female divide in competitive athletics is not to protect athletes with a female legal sex from having to compete against athletes with a male legal sex. Nor is it to protect athletes with a female gender identity from having to compete against athletes with a male gender identity.

Rather, it is to protect individuals whose bodies have developed in a certain way following puberty from having to compete against individuals who, by virtue of their bodies having developed in a different way following puberty, possess certain physical traits that create such a significant performance advantage that fair competition between the two groups is not possible.

In most cases, the former group comprises individuals with a female legal sex and a female gender identity, while the latter group comprises individuals with a male legal sex and male gender identity. However, this is not true of all cases. Natural human biology does not map perfectly onto legal status and gender identity. The imperfect alignment between nature, law and identity is what gives rise to the conundrum at the heart of this case. "

This relates to DSD's and in my opinion they did not follow this through to the correct conclusion - but the language here is very clear... I wish every journalist, politician, every policy writing member of sporting organisations world wide would read and absorb this.

Here if you want to read the Executive Summary.
<a class="break-all" href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=www.saflii.org/images/cassummary.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjvvOOUy9aGAxWhVKQEHVgDDqoQFnoECBYQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2Y-ZneWo7uLmuatCTxmtlp" rel="nofollow noindex" target="blank">EXECUTIVE SUMMARYSAFLIIwww.saflii.org › images › cassummary
and the full text..
^www.tas-cas.org/fileadmin/user_upload/CAS_Award^-redacted-_Semenya_ASA_IAAF.pdf

Worth reading -

I wish we could find a way to get these words out there and repeated every time this comes up ... "discrimination (on the basis of sex) is a necessary reasonable and proportionate means of achieving the aim of upholding the protected class of female athletes and the integrity of female athletics. "

I would also love to see the words of the World Anti Doping code which uses the words 'athletes fundamental right to fairness and equality" in competition..

I want to see someone ask if this 'fundamental right' to fairness in competition extend to women. and in the words of the Sporting Councils of England, Wales and Scotland, 'categorisation within the sex binary is and remains the most useful and functional division relative to sporting performance and that competitive fairness cannot be reconciled with self-identification into the female category.'

These are all expert opinions based on careful deliberation, review of evidence and are entirely unequivocal...

https://bmjopensem.bmj.com/content/8/1/e001273.
https://resources.fina.org/fina/document/2023/03/27/dbc3381c-91e9-4ea4-a743-84c8b06debef/Policy-on-Eligibility-for-the-Men-s-and-Women-s-Competiition-Categrories-Version-on-2023.03.24.pdf.
https://movingtoinclusion.co.uk/our-joint-work/transgender-inclusion-in-sport-guidance/

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.

The World Anti Doping Association code refers to : 'Athletes’ fundamental right to participate in doping-free sport and thus promoting fairness and equality for Athletes worldwide.

Does the 'fundamental right to participate in a fair competition not extend to women and girls at all levels in sport?

And then look back a few years ago, when 'people' were looking at how to encourage girls and women to join in sporting activities and not to drop out, there was research about the benefits of sport for women and girls, research into the obstacles to participation, the reasons why females stopped and the strategies to encourage increased participation.. women and girls said - more female only spaces, equality of access to facilities, female role models, female coaches, kit and resources designed for women's bodies, sports facilities that meet our needs including that of privacy..

and then came the fear of being called out for assuming that women meant female... being challenged for not being inclusive, for being regressive, transphobic... so as soon as anyone said the word women / girl - there was a challenge as to whether this was inclusive .. so people backed away from all of the wonderful work that was being done to increase the participation of women in sport. If women questioned something, they were / are accused of being transphobic, they are told they cannot believe the evidence of their eyes, that they are denying trans rights, that men are women, that they are wrong.... and if they are uncomfortable, then they can find somewhere else to change or come to training / games already changed or that they can be offered inclusivity training and that transphobia will not be tolerated in our sport - these words are written into policy after policy around the globe... copy paste..

Women and girls then slink away, unable to speak up for themselves, feeling like they are the ones who are wrong, that they don't belong, that it is not fun to play sport and get hurt, that they are wrong to feel uncomfortable changing in front of male bodies, they feel shame, they feel like they are failures and they have no one to talk to and no where to explore these feelings..

To use the words of Cathy Devine when she commented on X about the IOC Reporting Guidelines about the gender of Olympic Athletes.. : The document uses the work done to ensure equal recognition representation & inclusion of female & male athletes at the pinnacle of elite sport to undermine all this important work & coerce female athletes to include male athletes in female sport.

I see the work done to encourage women into sport, being weaponised against women, undermining all of the good work that was done to put women's sport on an equal footing with men's sport and to coerce females to accept males into the female category.

Someone replied: I want to scream until the windows break. - I say, do it - break all of the windows!!

There is no sport without fairness.. we have to look no further than the world records to see the difference in sporting performance between men and women. We need to look back and think about why we have a female category - it is not because of female sensitivities - it is because of biological differences.

Other people have said it much better than I have - look at the decisions of the international Athletics, Swimming, Rugby, Rowing organisations and refer to them rather than relying on your own words - there are plenty of people to quote.

Encourage other people to also lobby the Local, National and International organisations for fairness... it is a fundamental right after all!!

Refer to the words used in regards to doping:
https://netball.sport/game/anti-doping-guidelines/?cn-reloaded=1#:~:text=World%20Netball%20is%20unequivocally%20opposed,athletes%20participating%20in%20such%20competition.
"This position is motivated by a desire for fair and equal competition and by concern for the health of athletes participating in such competition."

Apologies for spamming your thread - but I hope at least some of my ranting is helpful.

Thank you for all that info - I shall have a good read of it today.

The umpiring unfortunately was quite weak for this level of netball. Qualified but just not tough on game management. The fist to the face was when this player was catching the ball, he got the ball and no penalty was called. The knocking over of players was during the usual style of play, when yes, one or other of the players would have been called for contact but for our player it was like bumping/being bumped by a wall. With players of usual size, there's a wobble and no one falls over. This person did not appear to be a dirty player, but an uncoordinated player (accidental, who knows?). This season there are new rules to clean up the game, with more players being sent off for repeated infringements or dangerous play. Nothing of this kind was called during the game.

Ironically DD's team has played in a mixed competition last year, and never experienced this level of 'oops you fell down'. I think the men in that competition kept their distance better. I personally wasn't keen on the girls playing in that comp as they were children coming into close contact with adult men, it wasn't great and I'm glad they aren't doing it any longer. And yes there is a risk with putting school teams against adult women but that is quite common here. At smaller centres, they play against adult teams from age 13 if the team is good enough.

PMK for interesting sport related info thanks @ChateauMargaux

tbh at this stage i think someone needs to play them at their own game. Set up a team and actively recruit the biggest units of TW you can find. Then get them in a league...