The Women's Sports Union legal action - 9 sports including parkrun

[Helleofabore]

https://x.com/wsusportsunion/status/2047253410898968755?s=20

BREAKING: The Women’s Sports Union have formally warned 9 sporting bodies and parkrun that they are in breach of law by failing to protect women’s and girls’ sport from transgender ideology.

While many governing bodies changed their policies to protect women’s sport following the landmark ForWomenScot Supreme Court ruling last year, the sports bodies threatened with legal action today still allow males to compete in female categories.

Biological sex is the essential foundation for safeguarding women and girls and preserving fair competition. Any governing body that continues to permit biological males to compete in the female category contravenes the Equality Act 2010 as interpreted by the Supreme Court.

The ball is in their court. Sporting bodies can act now to comply with the law and protect women’s sport, or face legal action.
@FAWales
@IrishFA
@gbpowerfed
@Swim_England
@BritGymnastics
@RYA
@parkrun
@BritishBaseball
@bsuk
@RoundersEngland

Here is an article in the Telegraph

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/2026/04/23/sharron-davies-threatens-parkrun-with-legal-action-trans/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_tw_post_parkrun-with-legal-action-trans/

I will post an archive link when I can get access to archive.is.

Well done them, 100 x over.

It's true that the letters to the sports bodies are jointly from the Women's Sports Union AND ADF, here is the opening of the letter to Parkrun:

23 April 2026
Dear Ms Duggan,
Re: Parkrun's Legal Obligations to Protect Women and Girls in Sport
We are writing jointly on behalf of ADF International and the Women’s Sports Union (‘WSU’).
...............
Sports bodies threatened with legal action if they continue to allow men to compete in women’s sport - ADF International

It's a pity the WSU weren't able to go solo on this, they have all the facts and principle on their side, and two very familiar and widely admired big names, why did they need the ADF at all?

@MarieDeGournay It's a pity the WSU weren't able to go solo on this

What do you mean by this? Threaten legal action without a legal team?

I took a look at the ADF website: they campaign for a range of causes that I don’t support.

Explain to me in simple terms why it’s bad that they are helping the WSU though.

I think the level of reasoning is illustrated below.

I meant 'Why the ADF?', specifically.

That's the reasoning you tend to read on Reddit. People here are more thoughful and better informed. I'd like to hear people's own reasons for objecting to ADF being involved in this.

I think this is a large part of why.

Well we don't know. I'm not sure I've seen them explain anywhere why they chose them specifically. They are an avowedly Christian organisation, but then so was Jennifer Melle's Christian Concern. If Sharron et al think that they are the best fit for them, then I trust them.

If Sharron Davies was anti-abortion on religious grounds (I don't know if she is), does anyone feel that would their support for her position on women in sport?

Actual MNers, totally agree. Drive-by scolders from Bluesky and Reddit, not so much. Not sure which this particular poster is.

Am I missing something here? It says
“If your sport is listed as UNLAWFUL below,…”
but I can’t see any sports listed, just totals.

The 'below' bit means you have to scroll down to see the list of sports.

Well, that’s what I assumed but I can’t see any 🤷🏻‍♀️

parkrun is a global organisation though - they operate in places like Canada, Germany and Australia with liberal self-ID laws. It's not that simple. However, they could at least encourage people to sign up in the right sex category, as they obviously do for age.

Louise Small had been going round hoovering up ladies course records - (not specifically ones held by trans women - just generally). She's a fabulous athlete and someone should invite her to Aberystwyth. Sounds like she could take that one too.

Yes I saw that on a FB forum yesterday.

I suspect that if pushed, parkrun will simply remove public results altogether and people will just get their times sent to them. There have been mutterings about it happening "cos GDPR" (which for the avoidance of doubt is nonsense, as you agree to the set-up when you sign up and can sign up under an assumed name if you are eg worried about a stalker/violent ex) so they might just decide to kill two birds with one stone.

Well I can see a full alphabetical list.

Thank you. Good!

I can't see the list on Chrome on Android smartphone, unless I go to options and select "desktop site".
YMMV.

How excellent! At least something good has come out of this - pushing a woman to run even faster. I hope she leaves the chaps who’ve cheated on the women’s ticket in the dust

Ah, thank you, that’s very helpful! I can’t find that on my phone either but I can see the list on my laptop.
I’m interested as my brother has recently started his own coaching business in a sport and I asked him what he’d do, he was unsure but he said he’d follow the policy but when I looked, I couldn’t really find much.

Very glad to see the Welsh FA on this too. There are completely up to their necks there in ideological gobbledygook. English and Scottish FAs amended policies a year ago. The Welsh FA are stubbornly clinging on. They allow unrestricted mixing of teams at youth level and men to play in women’s teams if they reduce testosterone.

That this should still be happening in any contact sport in the UK now is disgraceful. Especially when more and more girls are playing football (and both rugby codes).

Thank you for all the information in this thread.
I can't see that pickleball is listed in WRN list of sporting policies.
It is here: https://www.pickleballengland.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/PbE-Transgender-policy-update-Sept-2024.pdf
Sadly two-tier - apparently at recreational level "results are not the priority" 🤨
I do wonder if there is a more recent version but if there is it hasn't made it onto the PB website.