How Rugby league’s first transgender player survived a bounty and being bashed by teammates

Rugby league’s first transgender player has strong opinions about the prospect of a trans player joining the NRLW - and believes the game’s ‘female test’ simply doesn’t wash.

Caroline Layt is rugby league’s first transgender player. Picture: Tim Hunter.

Caroline Layt remembers when an elbow to her head was worth $25.

Knees to her back, same deal.

Or ribs.

Didn’t matter where exactly.

“But whoever injured me worst, yeah, they got the cash,” she recalls, explaining a bounty placed on her head throughout the 2006 Sydney women’s first grade rugby season.

Which still wasn’t as bad as a year earlier.

When six teammates bashed her for free.

“The first one, holding my arms,” Layt recounts like it were yesterday.

“While the rest, they took turns punching my head … bang … bang … bang”.

Did they know she was transgender?

“Oh, absolutely,” the now 56-year-old continues, sipping now from a large cappuccino at her favoured Windsor cafe.

“Because my coach had outed me only a few weeks earlier.

Caroline Layt, who was NSW Origin’s first transgender player in 2007. Picture: Tim Hunter.

“It was after he and I had been discussing my game at training. I remember he’d said I was only new to rugby, that I didn’t have any experience.

“So I replied — and I’ve always been a little outspoken — ‘well, actually, I played for Easts 20 years ago, against you …’.”

Which must have been some revelation, right?

“Went viral,” she laughs.

But as for Layt ever wishing she stayed silent?

Absolutely not.

“Because this isn’t a sad story,” she stresses, before going on to explain how both bounty and bashing involved the same group of players.

“Through sport, I’ve made some wonderful friends.

“Travelled the world, had incredible experiences.

“I’m proud of my life, what I’ve done … I feel it’s a life well lived.”

Which is also why she wants to speak right now.

With transgender athletes not only being used as campaigning tools by the likes of Liberal politician Katherine Deves — “and dangerously so,” Layt warns — but with ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys also contemplating modern sport’s most intriguing, if divisive, question: Where should transgender athletes be allowed compete?

Which, undoubtedly, would be an intriguing conundrum for rugby league, and the NRLW — had it not already happened.

NSW women’s side featuring Caroline Layt (top row far right). Picture: Tim Hunter.

A truth proved by the fact that, every year, and in complete anonymity, Layt attends the annual NSW Origin dinner among fellow retired Blues like Brad Fittler, Andrew Johns and Laurie Daley.

Exactly how many know her story?

The former outside back has no clue.

“But I’m always extremely grateful for the invitation,” she says. “Grateful the NSW Rugby League haven’t erased me.”

Officially, Layt played just one Origin match for the Blues, in 2007.

A figure that should have been higher, and would have been, were she not outed from the NSW women’s side just 24 hours before the 2008 series opener, and then for a large chunk of 2009, with a serious knee injury.

“But I want people to know a transgender woman has already played rugby league. And played Origin,” she says.

“It’s happened.

“I exist.

“And nobody was killed. Nobody was hurt.

“The year I played for NSW, Queensland beat us 38-16. And you can find the footage, I was just another player.”

Caroline Layt (right) and brother Todd playing as children.

Caroline Layt pictured at Richmond primary school age 11.

Born Kyle Layt in 1965, rugby league’s first openly transgender player took up the sport with Taren Point aged four, and alongside future Cronulla favourite Barry Russell.

“Played against Andrew Ettingshausen and Johnathan Docking in an U8 grand final too,” she laughs

“Got smashed 40-nil.

“I certainly wasn’t a superstar, but I was fairly quick.”

Fairly quick?

By Year 11 at St Josephs College, Layt was part of a 4x400m relay that didn’t simply beat all comers, but broke the GPS record.

Then at 23, and on the eve of getting married, Kyle was selected for a brief trial with South Sydney who, coached by George Piggins, also boasted the likes of Mario Fenech, Craig Coleman and Ian Roberts, who was still six years from becoming the code’s first openly gay star.

But Layt?

Despite being aged just four when, as she puts it now, “I knew”, and despite dressing in mum’s fashion boutique clothes from primary school, this popular Joeys product, and later buff gym instructor, would eventually wait until age 30 before embarking on a transition that, starting with hormones and anti-androgens would also eventually include Gender Reassignment Surgery.

A transition, too, where sport existed as therapy.

UTS Norths Athletes Janet Naylon, Marie Kay, Jackie Bezuidenhout and Caroline Layt before competing in the world masters indoor championships.

Returning to athletics four years after transitioning, at Sydney’s 2002 Gay Games, Layt would wait another two years before playing women’s rugby and embarking on a career that would not only include premierships, Origins and countless trips to the tryline, but bullying, sledging and that bounty on her head.

So as for why she persisted?

“What else is there on Saturdays?” Layt laughs.

No regrets then?

“It’s definitely taken time to find where I belong in this world,” continues the retired league who is now a journalist, blogger and “the baby” of her lawn bowls group.

“Growing up, I never wanted to be trans.

“And there’s been nothing easy about my journey.

“But I’m telling you my story — all of it — because I want people to see, yes, we’re complex. And we’re diverse.

“But we’re still just people.

“Not all trans athletes are 6’5’’ monsters.

“I’m 5’8’’.

“My father Keith was a jockey.

“Actually, I reckon that’s where my competitive instincts come from.

“Dad not only won the Australia Day handicap, (laughs) he made backpage headlines by threatening the legendary hoop George Moore.

“So like everyone, I have my own story.

“This isn’t a one size fits all conversation.”

Caroline Layt, pictured at the back, in headgear with finger raised, celebrates with the 2007 Sydney women's 1st XV ARU National champions.

Caroline Layt playing for the Forestville Ferrets Women’s Rugby League Team in 2010. Picture: Tim Hunter.

So as for transgender players and the NRLW?

“We should stop trying to make black and white decisions in a world of grey,” Layt continues.

“But as a minimum, I think trans athletes should have to wait at least two years after transitioning before they can play footy.

“And let’s discuss the science behind that.

“The testing.

“Let’s not just look at somebody and say ‘no, they don’t pass the female test to me’.

“It’s why I’d love to sit down with the NRL, with Andrew Abdo and Peter V’landys, to explain my story.

“How after transitioning my bench press dropped from 110kg to 70kg, and how that was nothing compared to my losses in endurance.

“It’s why most girls back then didn’t care about me.

“I was just another player who got roughed up, smashed, who once got rag dolled over a sideline like Gorden Tallis did to Brett Hodgson.”

Which is why Layt wants to keep talking.

“Because there are others out there,” she insists.

“I have a friend playing rugby right now who doesn’t want to come out yet.

“And I want to change that.

“I also want people to know I’m proud of what I’ve done.

“Who I am.

“What I achieved as a NSW Origin player.

“And I don’t ever want that erased.”

Originally published as How Rugby league’s first transgender player survived a bounty and being bashed by teammates