Women’s professional football - what’s your experience as a fan post SC ruling?

[SarkyMummy]

I follow a WSL team and came a way from a match yesterday with pretty mixed feelings. A great result for my team, but I found myself really discouraged by some of the protest signs other fans had brought in response the Supreme Court ruling which appeared to be in support of trans women being able to play (and a good smattering of non specific ‘trans rights banners’). I found myself musing why you would choose to support the women’s game - which I would assume would at least be in part in enjoying women’s excellence and athletic ability - but still have this view.

And then the penny sort of dropped. My club has been very vocal on LGBTI + inclusion and I wonder if for some fans they are there because it’s a safe environment (great) but also because they assume it’s a ‘be kind’ environment, with being kind the priority (you know, not a level playing field).

And if I’m honest it put me off because I felt at total odds with that and felt it showed a lack of support to players who had probably grafted against great odds to get to where they are.

I’m interested in whether I’m alone in this and how other women’s footie fans feel about how these issues play out in the stands?

Also if, by some extraordinary chance the loud gobshite who has been seated behind me all season and who referred to one of the opposing players as a dirty b*tch yesterday is reading this, could you maybe bugger off back to the men’s game?

Can't speak as a football fan but what we're seeing with all the young fans mindlessly chanting for men to take over women's sport is the result of years of gaslighting, grooming, bullying and threats towards children / young people in schools, universities and on social media.
What young woman fan is going to risk being targeted by the bullies and creeps in the Football Association when they see the extreme punishment that this young woman got from them for asking a large bearded man playing against her in a women's match whether he was a man?

www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5331967-im-the-girl-banned-for-asking-a-transgender-opponent-are-you-a-man?page=1

OP, your best bet is to tell the team that you will no longer support them because they don't support women - I mean real women.

Then just don't follow them any more - no more attending matches or buying merch or bigging them up on social media.

And try to find a women's team that does support actual women.

Havent seen anything yet, OP(not been at a game since as been working) but seen negative TWAW shite before in the past from student types as the team in based near a uni. The team I support ( South Coast ) tends to have a very positive lesbian(real kind)/ family friendly following and they seem a popular and cheap day out for folk to take their kids.

I should say "cheapish" . It's not cheap but compared to some.

I don’t follow football much these days but a friend of mine posted a clip from the big kick energy podcast yesterday about the FA banning men from women’s sport (obviously didn’t use the word men). I was really disappointed in the female presenters (and that my friend is not a TERF! I thought she would be)

Yes - similar at my club. A lot of gay women and families, so clearly feels like a safe space for both (brilliant) and a positive place for women. But I’m worried that’s at risk.

My club is all about the genderwoo but I didn't see any demos or signs. I am dreading them signing a male player in the transfer window - they tried to once before but he couldn't get a visa. Hopefully they can't now because of the FA's new policy.
So I know exactly how you feel!

Saw this message on 'the Chaff Project' on the FB group for Women's March UK. It's about wearing trans badges etc. as allies. I was also listening to Stephen Nolan interview on FA changes. Tamsin from Mermaids wanted to counter his reasonable questions about safety and fairness with 'look how many people protest in support of us'. Maybe expect to see more visibility in support. It's some sort of great weapon in the pro-trans PR battle. It's based on deceit - not that surprising.

"The Chaff Project
I saw something on Bluesky yesterday that I think is worth sharing, especially for those cis folks here who are wondering how best they can support trans women. There are a lot of us in this group so if we all got on this initiative, it could make a real difference. This idea is simple: buy a badge with the trans flag on it, and wear it day to day.

Why: "chaff" is a method by which a military aircraft will attempt to evade a missile by producing an overwhelming amount of false positives so that when a missile gets close to the plane, it hits the chaff and not the plane.

In practice: the goal is to make it difficult to identify trans people to target with bathroom bans, and to create many false positives for businesses.
Let's play out a possible scenario:
Basically, you might get accused of being trans and kicked out, because of the badge. You would say, in this situation: I wear the badge because trans rights matter.

You follow up with a letter to the business saying you're furious because some nosy parker just tried to play genital police with you in the loos. You know lots of trans people (don't name any, if you do) and you wear the pin in support and you're disgusted at the business for allowing this. Blame the business for allowing the behaviour.

Businesses see that their cis customers are getting bothered over a badge and may clarify trans-inclusive policies, so they can kick out the bathroom botherers instead of nice cis allies.

You only need to buy and wear the badge, and you are protecting trans people. You could be genuinely heroic. Even one cis person doing this helps, and everyone you get to join in helps even more. "

You want to wear a badge that tells everyone you are a fantasist and a misogynist? Well, you do you as they say. It's not a neutral act though.

This is copied from The Women's March UK. Which is not a group which is SC decision supportive. I was trying to make the point that some people are really pushing making pro-trans support visible and perhaps we should expect this in football games and elsewhere for a while.

I agree with you it's not neutral. In fact it's intimidation.

Regarding toilet use and single sex spaces generally, I don't see how the chaff project would work. I feel quite sure I could distinguish a woman wearing a badge from...a man.

Yeah, sorry, I didn't mean you, I meant the person who drafted this "suggestion".

I am working my way through https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/the-real-science-of-sport-podcast-professor-LEoVjhuwC7-/?srsltid=AfmBOoqt33Sd3wHWYU1Gu-ldO0FXKoGOoM8rLCVDGjsyDlHbtlugUGiO, which is always useful to guide thinking as it’s so full of expert knowledge. Anyway, FA UK is raised as a discussion point, should you be interested.

I guess the writer of that idea doesn't know what chaff actually is and has not heard the phrase 'separate the wheat from the chaff.'