Save Women’s Sport campaigners want trans policy scrapped in Australia

Biological males will continue to “unfairly” join women’s grassroots sport in NSW unless sports administrators rethink trans policies, say female-only sport campaigners.

More biological males will continue to “unfairly” join women’s grassroots sport in NSW unless administrators rethink a recent policy on transgender inclusion, say female-only sport campaigners.

While trans Olympian Laurel Hubbard may have crashed out of competing in the women’s weightlifting events this week, the hotly debated issue of biological male athletes playing in women’s sport is set to continue.

Save Women’s Sport Australasia co-founder Katherine Deves says she has been rung by local grassroots administrators and volunteers from soccer, rugby, cricket, basketball and roller derby, concerned about the implications of a national 2019 trans inclusion policy of Sports Australia.

Laurel Hubbard of New Zealand in the Weightlifting at the Tokyo Olympics. Picture: Getty Images

Numerous problems were now being raised as a result, she said. These include the safety of female athletes competing against men, in categories such as rugby, as well as the safeguarding of vulnerable young females like gymnasts on camps and in change rooms.

“With cricket, the only thing a biological male has to do to compete in the female category is to say he has a female gender identity and tick a box,” Ms Deves, a lawyer, said. “It’s as simple as saying he has female pronouns.

“We’ve got young women involved in coaching, contacting me in a lot of stress, saying they are concerned about their young charges.

“Another concern raised is that they are promoting the idea a person can use overnight accommodation, change rooms that align with gender identity and this does not have to be disclosed to parents.

“So a young daughter on a netball camp can be billeted with a 15-year-old male and that’s not being disclosed.”

Save Women’s Sport wants the guidelines, drafted with the help of the Australian Human Rights Commission, to be scrapped and a transparent policy debate conducted into fresh rules.

“It needs to be rethought, it’s unfair,” Ms Deves said.

“Women need and deserve their own sports category.”

She said the fastest woman runner on Earth could still be beaten by 15,000 men and boys in any given year.

“Women don’t have a chance if we make it an open category.”

Women’s Forum chief executive Rachael Wong said some people might believe there was no unfairness because New Zealand weightlifter Hubbard did not win in the end.

“But biological men competing in women’s sport is unfair in more ways than one,” she said. “Not only do trans athletes have a biological advantage within a competition like the Olympics, their inclusion means that women who would otherwise have a chance to compete miss out.”

Coalition for Biological Reality spokeswoman Stassja Free said the fact that Hubbard, 43, qualified for an event where the women competing were aged in their 20s “is proof of that unfair advantage”.

Sports Australia has been contacted for a response.