The latest Sports Council guidance has reached the obvious conclusion: that trans women playing women's sport isn't fair. But there's so much hand-wringing...
A wide-ranging review of transgender inclusion in non-elite sport in the UK has concluded the current policies are not fit for purpose and require a reset.
The Sports Councils Equality Group (SCEG) said "for many sports, the inclusion of transgender people, fairness and safety cannot co-exist in a single competitive model".
The guidance covers community sport up to national level - not international, professional or elite sport.
It says the governing bodies for each sport should work out their priorities, and choose whether they will focus on inclusion or "competitive fairness" - and safety if relevant - within the current format of their sport.
So for example, contact, collision and combat sports which choose to prioritise safety - or sports based on strength, stamina or physique which choose to prioritise "competitive fairness" - could create extra "universal admission" categories for transgender athletes.
The new guidance has been developed by Sport England, Sport Scotland, Sport Northern Ireland, Sport Wales and UK Sport after an 18-month consultation and review of the existing research.
It concludes "testosterone suppression is unlikely to guarantee fairness between transgender women and natal females in gender-affected sports" and there are "retained differences in strength, stamina and physique between the average woman compared with the average transgender woman or non-binary person registered male at birth".
"In order to survive and thrive in the future, sport must adapt to reflect modern society, and that often, it is too slow to do so," the guidance says.
It states that if sports choose to continue categorising participants within male and female, they are encouraged to consider creating additional versions of their sports, including "universal admission" or open categories.
Governing bodies are encouraged to "think in innovative and creative ways to ensure nobody is left out".
Why this obsession with inclusion, and making sure nobody's left out? What about trans men, for instance? There's no clamour from them to play in men's teams, for the obvious reason that they wouldn't do well and would likely be humiliated. So they're left out - and they grin and bear it somehow. All the noise comes from trans women, because they have a fine old time: winning trophies, breaking women's records (and heads), and marching to the tops of the podium at every opportunity. Can't we perhaps see that this isn't so much about fairness and inclusivity as about a small bunch of chancers who know when they're on to a good thing? Anybody can play sport - in their correct sex grouping. That's it. The world doesn't have to re-arrange itself for a tiny bunch of trans ideologues moaning about inclusivity for their own benefit - at the expense of women.
Comments