England hockey - open & female categories

[Helleofabore]

At long last England hockey has released its guidance to create an open category and a female category.

Only ‘female at birth’ people in female category unless they have started testosterone.

Article starts

“In July 2023, we announced that England Hockey is reviewing the transgender policy for participation in the sport and today we are launching the new policy and guidance that will come into effect from 1 September 2025.”-

”England Hockey has had a trans participation policy in place since 2012, which was then reviewed in 2017. The Sports Councils’ Equality Group (SCEG) Guidance was launched in 2021 and since then we’ve taken the time to review our policy taking this guidance into consideration. England Hockey recognises that this is an evolving landscape of both policy and research, and that societal attitudes are ever-changing.”

https://www.englandhockey.co.uk/media/news/update-on-trans-and-non-binary-participation-policy#:~:text=The%20new%20Trans%20and%20Non,category%20and%20an%20Open%20category.

Here are the policy pages

https://www.englandhockey.co.uk/governance/equality-diversity-inclusion/trans-and-non-binary-participation-guidance

Here are parts from the previous policy

www.englandhockey.co.uk/governance/equality-diversity-inclusion/trans-and-non-binary-participation-guidance/current-transgender-policy-applicable-until-31-august-2025

Any trans person (male or female) is permitted to participate fully, i.e. train, play in
informal matches or play in hockey competitions, in their affirmed gender. Verification
of their sex should be no more than is expected of any other player.

The only restriction is that for player in the performance pathway seeking to train and
challenge for a position in a national squad should meet the criteria set out by the
FIH. This applies from under 16 National Age Group Squads (NAGS) as this is the
point from which FIH sanctions international competition.

The use of changing and toilet facilities prior, to and during gender reassignment
where the individual may present an ambiguous appearance and may be highly self-
conscious represents a difficult issue. Many trans people prefer to refrain from using
communal sports facilities during this time, particularly facilities where privacy is likely
to be an issue. In addition, there may be trans people who do not undergo sex
reassignment surgery and will continue to present with secondary sex characteristics
in their former gender. In line with good safeguarding practice it is recommended that
adults (unless they are the parents) do not use the same changing facilities as
children under the age of 18 unless there are separate cubicles. If this cannot be
avoided due to the nature of the facility it is recommended that all adults come ready
changed for their hockey activity.

It was bonkers that Hockey took so long considering it the potential for harm.

Another sport doing the right thing. I wonder when Football will finish their review?

Great news! Another sport sees sense.

woohoo!! DH is very involved in hockey & came in to tell me the good news 😁😁

no more “women’s” sides especially from universities featuring men!

Can you ask your DH what would be left in appendix B in terms of female hockey that transwomen can play in? The list in appendix A seemed pretty far reaching.

I’ll ask :)

thank you. I was wondering too.

@Theeyeballsinthesky thanks. Hopefully just social play available to them.

His initial reaction is that it would only include mixed hockey but he’s going to chat with a few ppl to check it out

Really good news and clear policy.

There is one omission, which is very common, de-transitioners. For example FtM who take hormones play in the open category. If they cease taking hormones how long before they are eligible to play in the female category, if ever, as I think they may permanently retain an advantage?

I think that would be covered by the "commenced or undergone transgender hormone therapy" part. They would have to play in the other category.

Great news.
England Hockey took their time but came to the right decision.

Changing rooms still problematic though🙄

What about changing facilities for transgender members?
We recognise that changing room facilities vary from club to club. Different trans people are likely to have different opinions and preferences about what would make them feel most comfortable, included and safe at your club. It is good practice to ask a trans person what would work best for them, not everyone feels comfortable in open changing room spaces. In line with existing good safeguarding practice, where it is important to consider privacy for all members of the team, it is recommended that adults (unless they are the parents) do not change at the same time in the same changing facilities as children under the age of 18 unless there are separate cubicles. If this cannot be avoided due to the nature of the facility it is recommended that all adults come ready changed for their hockey activity.

https://www.englandhockey.co.uk/faqs/equality-diversity-and-inclusion/current-transgender-policy-in-place-until-31-august-2025/what-about-changing-facilities-for-transgender-members

That's from the current policy, which is being replaced by the new one.

I couldn't see an updated version of where people should change, but perhaps I missed it.

Well presumably there won't be any transwomen to be in the changing rooms during women's matches.
It'll be interesting to see how 'open' categories are organised though.

I found it on a link from the new policy. New policy guidance (p 16) also says:

The next step is to ask if there is anything they might need to make them feel comfortable and included in the club..... which toilets and facilities they'd like to use (a consideration for both home and away matches).

I do agree that overall new policy is a huge improvement for the sport (the only sport I was any good at in school😁). Plus, as @kiterunning says, women's matches won't have a changing room problem.

Ah, OK. Good spot.

It's worded in an interesting way. Asking them which they'd like to use is not the same thing as letting them decide, it's a consultation to gather views.

In the meantime, hopefully the Supreme Court ruling will clarify the meaning of sex in the EA as it is currently written. Also, they will hopefully gather views from everyone else on whether they want changing facilities to be mixed sex or not. Given the latest survey from Sex Matters/YouGov (see this thread https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womensrights/5247162-results-of-yougov-survey-dec-24-for-sex-matters ), I should imagine the majority would want single sex changing facilities. Perhaps if the demand is high enough, and clubs have enough money and space, third spaces will be created.

That could be an interesting "battleground" given the variety of motivations for wanting access to opposite-sex changing facilities. "But we just want to get changed with all you ladies in an open space where we can see each other" is a much tougher sell to the public than "but we just want to pee [in a private cubicle]". Also surely the real point is that they "just want to play sport"... it's going to be quite illuminating if TRAs decide that changing rooms are the hill to die on, especially if the majority of women feel uncomfortable with the idea of changing alongside men who identify as women.

Grassroots and social players also deserve fairness and safety.

I look forward to reading this in detail - I am very very relieved that this has been issued.

no - football.... it's a shame, because those that have been contacting the various sporting organisations and pointing out their obligations under the Sept 2021 guidance, have not been very successful in reaching anyone in football.. if anyone has details of the emails of those who should be making these changes to policies - please share them.

"There are competitions that are not directly governed by England Hockey. These would be required to make a separate decision on whether to align with this policy. In particular British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) and Independent School / Selective State School competitions."

BUCS do not fall under these rules - so 35 year old male bodied goal keepers in the BUCS team, could still happen (that was football - not hockey - I don't know of any male bodied players in the hockey teams.... )

The new policy doc has a list of references. Seems to include many of the big names from the world of sports research eg Lundberg. However, coming in last at number 20 is:

20. Strength, power and aerobic capacity of transgender athletes: a cross-sectional study. Hamilton,
B et al. Br J Sports Med 2024;0:1–12

Some of you will remember the author, Blair Hamilton - transwoman and short-lived goalie for Sutton United Women's football team. Blair's research was roundly debunked at the time and also had to have a page of corrections applied to data. I wonder if it is included as a sop to the TRAs🤔

Well, hopefully English Hockey read that study sought further expert opinion and included it in the list because they considered it, reviewed it and then decided it was not useful. In other words, hopefully they have included it in the list to show that they indeed read widely to make their decision.

This is a good article from the BBC explaining the changes:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/hockey/articles/c4glgry5l55o

Dan Roan was one of the sensible journalists during the Olympics nonsense regarding the boxers. From what I remember back then, he still tends to use preferred pronouns (although no pronouns in this article about hockey) but he's doing a good job of pulling out the objective facts. From the comments on X, he's getting a fair bit of pushback for saying "TW" instead of "men" for the hockey article. Personally, I find it well written and clear. Perhaps it could have explained that TW are "biological males who identify as women" though - these were the words that Tim Davie said he would have accepted from Justin Webb when describing TW. That said, the use of "female and open" for the category names makes it pretty self explanatory that TW are not female.

https://x.com/danroan/status/1877071359882510585?t=n-BWAz_LEffrOp6aX6tvPw&s=19

Having played in a lower league against a team with and opponent who was clearly a male in a womens team, this needs sorting.

EH permits U16 players in our league - from a safety point of view, young girls playing against adult males in competitive hockey is just plain stupid.

This seems to be sorted under the new policy:

The Trans and Non-Binary Participation Policy only applies to participants aged 12 or over. Trans participants aged 11 or under can compete in the gender they identify with. Once a trans girl becomes 12, she will be unable to compete in the Female category. To be eligible, a trans girl must be 10 or under on 31st August preceding the season of participation.
To be eligible for the 2025/26 season, you have to be born ON OR AFTER 1 September 2015.

Obviously there are strength and speed differences between boys and girls at primary school age (otherwise primary schools wouldn't separate sports day events by sex, for example) but the main safety and fairness impact is from puberty onwards, so this cut-off seems reasonable.

I'm a bit concerned how 'female at birth' could be monitored when men can have their birth certificates changed to say 'female'.