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.

Well, people have eyes, ears and brains with which to process the data collected by them...

Flipping this on its head, if there is an increase in GRC applications and subsequent changes to birth certificates, that will offer lots of sunlight on the ridiculousness of the GRA. Fairness and safety in sport is a great lens through which to show how wrong it is to force society to accept a belief in gendered souls over the reality of biological sex. Once the sports case is clear to see, the rest logically follows along.

Good, good, good. One more sport sees sense. Football is looking increasingly lunatic isolated.

Yeah, men have quite a low participation rate in hockey but the upper body element to it makes fair inter-sex competition impossible, even very mediocre men can hit the ball stupidly hard.

This is really not that important to the conversation ... but there are only slightly more female players than male - as of 2022 - 51% of hockey players were female.

https://www.englandhockey.co.uk/media/news/international-women-s-day-2022.

Definition of sex: A biological or legal category where people are recorded as being either male or female, typically based on biological or physiological attributes.

The use of 'Legal Category' could cause issues.... let's hope not...

And cricket, at grassroots level

I think that some of the sports that left grassroots open to males in female categories will need to go further in the future. I cannot see that there will be any evidence in the future that will support this and will show the finer points of harm of this ‘inclusion’!

London Royals, England's only LGBT hockey club isn't very happy about the new policy. There statement is quite...something.

It contains this corker "The negative impact this policy will have on the mental health of trans and non-binary hockey players far outweighs any perceived competitive advantage England Hockey believes trans women have in the sport".

https://londonroyals.co.uk/london-royals-hockey-clubs-response-to-england-hockeys-trans-and-non-binary-participation-policy/

‘Many trans people prefer to refrain from using
communal sports facilities during this time, particularly facilities where privacy is likely
to be an issue.’

really? I find this hard to believe. They won’t let lesbians meet up in a pub without them and there’s men in their 50s posting videos of themselves in female bathrooms all over social media so trans people refraining from anything they wanna do is
not something I’m familiar with.

That statement is an an absolute corker, I particularly enjoyed this bit:

By splitting the sport into a Female category (only for people assigned female at birth, who are not taking, or have ever taken, testosterone) and an Open category, England Hockey are sending the strong message that trans women are not women, and they do not belong in the sport. The reality is that the Open team will almost entirely be made up of men, and therefore any trans woman wishing to play hockey would need to out herself in order to play.

Snort. Such a tragedy expecting men to play in the sports category set up for men, my heart truly bleeds. Reality is so tough.

I would encourage anyone who thinks this policy is a good move... to email [email protected] and share your opinion.

HarpyOfACertainAge

"The negative impact this policy will have on the mental health of trans and non-binary hockey players far outweighs any perceived competitive advantage England Hockey believes trans women have in the sport".

I'd like to see the evidence supporting that claim.

Ah yes. Because nobody at all knew before.

At last!

I had a thread last year when I was raging about playing against a 6ft man on another team. We have small 16 year olds in our team and he could really of hurt someone.

At least when you play mixed you know what you're up against. I haven't seen them this season as I would have refused to play this time.

England Hockey are sending the strong message that trans women are not women, and they do not belong in the sport. The reality is that the Open team will almost entirely be made up of men, and therefore any trans woman wishing to play hockey would need to out herself in order to play.
The policy and the proposed implementation is abhorrent, illogical and promotes a culture of policing who is and isn’t a woman, exacerbating an already toxic environment for trans people to simply exist in. The negative impact this policy will have on the mental health of trans and non-binary hockey players far outweighs any perceived competitive advantage England Hockey believes trans women have in the sport.

• Strong message that trans women are not women

Well yes, they're not, as the author of that clearly know

• reality is that the Open team will almost entirely be made up of men

Well yes, because the other team is exclusively for women

• any trans woman wishing to play hockey would need to out herself in order to play

Well it's not like you the author and us the rest of us don't know they are woman, and since when did we have such women play in men's sports, they don't, because women can't compete against men, nice try at pretending this is actually about trans men (women) since we know this is all about the trans women (men).

• a culture of policing who is and isn’t a woman

Pleeese. You the author and us the readers, we know exactly what is or isn't a woman. It's a biological fact.

• any perceived competitive advantage England Hockey believes trans women have in the sport

So finally we get to it, it's about the men, it's always about the men. Woman don't actually matter. I wonder what woke 'person' put that crap statement together. And the constant lies that the men won't be able to play sports, yes they will, as men.

It always has been about ensuring that a sub-group of male people get special privileges and can play sport at the expense of female people. Always about the men.

The article’s grievances are all focused on centring that sub-group’s philosophical belief. None of it is based in sports science. It is only based on some edge theories of sociology that some people believe are progressive.

One concern I would have is about not challenging the admission of a trans identifying male turning up to play in a woman’s game. That person could do an awful lot of damage to women during the game and yet the new policy says they must not be challenged or removed from the game but a report must be made later. Later could be too late. Some female player may already have had her jaw smashed in tackle, or a leg broken. Should that happen, I would hope the female player sue the legs off both the trans-identifying male player and England Rugby.

Well said. It's an indication of how powerful this movement is that a group of sports people can share such a tone deaf, misogynistic position paper and consider themselves to be on the right side of history and facts 😂.
It's always breathtaking to see the pomposity with which this group demand the end of women's sport for their own narcissistic ends. And a revelation about the sheer number of useful idiots who enable them.

Apparently some male players who identify as female are trying to take some kind of legal action against England Hockey because of this policy. It's not entirely clear what. I'll spare you the PN link but the key quote is

Saunders believes the legal complaint could become a “landmark case” for the future of sporting governing bodies’ trans-inclusive policies.

Matt Champ, a senior associate at law firm Colman Coyle, from whom the trio have taken legal advice, told PinkNews that he was convinced the justification for the ban was “lacking, to say the least”.
He went on to say: “England Hockey have seemingly got caught up on whether or not there is a physical advantage enjoyed by trans women, and, because in their view there is, the proposed ban would be permissible.
“Even if there was an advantage that made hockey ‘gender-affected’, an organisation has to then show that whatever they proposed to do in relation to a transgender person’s participation in the sporting event would be ‘necessary to secure fair competition’.
“If they cannot show that, their actions will be unlawful discrimination.”

[Don't you think males having a physical advantage, which is obvious, in itself means that excluding them is necessary to secure fair competition?]

They have a fundraiser which has so far raised £3,360 in a bit over 2 weeks. That's not going to buy much legal time...Here's hoping it will go nowhere.

I believe the player behind this is Rachel Saunders. Photo posted without comment

I preferred her in The Addams Family, tbh.

If it goes ahead, I hope they'll employ the same splendid legal team as the current pool case. Their choice of experts has been keeping me in fits of giggles all day.

Theeyeballsinthesky · Today 19:38

I believe the player behind this is Rachel Saunders. Photo posted without comment

Is it the big baldie bawbag at the front, who's escaped from The Hills Have Eyes?

Also, does "lawyer" Matt Chump know about the EA and the Single Sex Exemption clause? Hi words tend to indicate otherwise.