Politicians are failing women and girls who just want to play sport

It doesn’t matter who wins or loses to the Flying Bats, the important thing is women and girls are kept safe, says Save Womens’ Sport advocate and broadcaster Lucy Zelic.

In 1992, relationship counsellor John Gray released a book entitled Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.

The playful metaphor was designed to illustrate the psychological differences between the two sexes and went on to become a best-seller.

Thirty-plus years on, and the landscape of biological reality has morphed into something more suited to the pages of an Orwell novel now that the ‘gender is a social construct’ crew have hijacked the narrative.

The worst part is, everyone is terrified of falling foul with the activists.

Top health bureaucrats in Australia can’t provide a simple definition of what a woman is, Federal Court judges are ruling that “sex is changeable” and little girls displaying tomboy traits being referred to clinicians and placed on puberty blockers.

The Flying Bats Football Club form a guard of honour during the A-League Women round 19 match. Picture: Jason McCawley/Getty Images

And they call this a culture war? Please.

So how did we get here?

The extension of unlimited grace shown to ideological extremists allowed for the infiltration of various institutions, which infected mostly the left side of government, modern medicine, academia, and the media.

Transgender athletes have been the subject of controversy around the world, including transgender swimmer Lia Thomas. Picture: Joseph Prezioso / AFP

Over a decade ago, the average person couldn’t give a damn if a man decided to identify as woman.

It wasn’t until political leaders made legislative moves to ensure that this man’s way of life, and the gross perversion of the truth, was enshrined in law.

You can thank pseudo-feminist Julia Gillard for rubber-stamping the inclusion of ‘gender identity’ in the Sex Discrimination Act in 2013.

The fallout from it?

You must see this man as a woman.

You must ignore your basic instincts when you see a six foot, two inches tall male follow your 10 year-old daughter into the public restroom.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s changed the Sex Discimination Act in 2013.

You must tolerate losing your place in a women’s local football team to men.

Case in point: the NSW football team the Flying Bats, who have historically fielded at least five trans-identified males in their women’s division side.

Last weekend, the Flying Bats competed in the Beryl Ackroyd Cup final and lost to the West Pennant Hills Cherrybrook Lions 4-2 despite their sweeping success last year.

The activists were quick to try and leverage their loss and argue that males competing in a women’s competition should be allowed because “they don’t always win!”

Throughout my advocacy of the Save Women’s Sports movement, I have always maintained that the results are immaterial because they ignore the prevailing point: this category was created for women, who by virtue of their birthright, are entitled to compete fairly and safely in sport from the elite, right down to the community level.

The scoreboard also fails to mention how many women were potentially hurt and that the integrity of the competition is completely compromised by the inclusion of males.

One’s assumed identity does not erase their biology.

There has also been a great investment in trying to downplay the problem from transgender activists like Warringah MP Zali Stegall, who said that anyone who opposed trans-identified males competing in women’s sports is ‘transphobic’ and that there is ‘no issue’ in women’s sport.

‘They have policies to ensure inclusive opportunity in sport when it comes to a community level, and fair participation in sport when it comes to an elite level’, the former Olympian said.

Whether you’re the next Jessica Fox, or just a girl who likes to get together with her friends for a kick around on the weekend - all women and girls are worthy of protection, not just the ones who could go on to represent our country.

US President Donald Trump holds up the No Men in Women's Sports Executive Order. Picture: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP

As for this being ‘no issue’, try telling that to the parents, players, coaches, referees and administrators I am in constant dialogue with from a variety of codes including basketball, hockey, football and netball.

It doesn’t matter if there is one trans-identified male competing in an entire women’s league, my message is clear: there should be none.

However, for those of you hoping for a replica of President Donald J. Trump’s declaration that the “war on women’s sports is over” here in Australia, I wouldn’t hold your breath.

While Peter Dutton was billed as the most likely political leader to come out strongly on this issue ahead of the federal election, he has shown immense weakness and only conceded to broadcaster Peta Credlin that no, it wasn’t controversial for women and girls to be protected in sport, after weeks of poking and prodding him for a comment.

This watered-down version of the Coalition is clearly symptomatic of their underlying fears that in order to be elected, they must broker deals with the devils in Teal.

So much for progress ahead of politics.

While cost of living, energy, housing and other issues will be front and centre at the polls this year, I can’t help but wonder if our political leaders are prepared to dismiss biological reality - what else are they prepared to lie about?

As if they haven’t already done enough of that.