The Sydney seat of Warringah has two female candidates who an observer might expect to have strong opinions about the integrity of female sport. One is Katherine Deves of @SWS_australasia, the other is Zali Steggall, our first female medalist in the Winter Olympics. #AusPol
In 2019, with an orchestrated show of unity, a transgender inclusion guideline was issued by two Australian govt agencies, Sport Australia & the human rights commission, along with a peak sporting body. This document enjoyed uncritical media promotion.
humanrights.gov.au/our-work/lgbti/publications/guidelines-inclusion-transgender-and-gender-diverse-people-sport-2019
But this was a big shift, pushing sports to reorganise according to someone's inner feeling of "gender identity", not the fact of biological sex -- and with the implied threat of fines for discrimination if sports didn't play ball, not too mention denunciation as "transphobic".
Trans players with female bodies in male sports? Not fair or safe for trans players. Trans players with male bodies -- built up by testosterone during puberty -- in female sports? Surely not fair or safe for women & girls in most sport.
In theory, sports might try to stay female-only by using an exemption in discrimination law where sex differences in "strength, stamina and physique" tilt the playing field. But the government guideline makes this look highly uncertain & warns sports to get legal advice.
Given the official line implying little or no conflict between "trans inclusion" & female sport, what are the sports where male biological advantage is not a big deal? Sport Australia's short list included darts.
In mid-2020 Senator Claire Chandler started asking questions. Which lobbies were invited to shape these guidelines? The human rights commission would not tell, intoning that consultations were "confidential, targeted & respectful". That looks like code for activist capture.
In June 2020, Sport Australia's acting CEO Robert Dalton told a parliamentary hearing he âdidnât have an opinionâ when asked if allowing biological males in female sport would put off young girls, who already have a higher drop-out rate in sport as they grow up.
Asked if Sport Australia agreed that womenâs sport was intended for biological females, Dalton said: âIâm not specifically aware of what our policy is on thatâ. The agency said later that it did not define the term "woman". They could've asked the Australian Academy of Science.
Senator Chandler wrote to Sport Australia, saying the trans issue had âmajor implications for women & girls & their engagement in sportâ & that the agencyâs stone-walling of her questions in the Senate was âevasive, dismissive and insultingâ.
youtu.be/nMs7ko2YICM
Back in parliament, Australia's Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins said that âhistoricallyâ sport had been based on a male-female âbinaryâ but now there was âa new conversationâ about âinclusionâ. If "gender identity" trumps biological sex, is Jenkins' title redundant?
In July 2020, World Rugby urged a ban on male-bodied trans players in the female game, citing unfairness & injury risk. Research suggested a 20-30% higher risk of injury for women tackled by biological males who identify as female.
theguardian.com/sport/2020/oct/09/world-rugby-bans-trans-women-from-elite-womens-game-due-to-injury-risks
Research also concluded that trans players who go through male puberty lose little of their physical advantage after 12 months on drugs to lower their testosterone in line with 2015 International Olympic Committee rules (which seemed plucked from the air).
In 2021, the UK sports councils warned tha trans women retain advantages of physique, stamina & strength in female sport. This meant sports could "no longer fudge the complex & nuanced issue of balancing trans participation with fairness", said The Guardian's Sean Ingle.
Our human rights commission has admitted it did not carry out a risk assessment on how its trans inclusion guideline might affect women and girls. This emerged following questions put by the group Fair Go for Queensland Women.
Female biomechanics lead to a higher risk of injury to the anterior cruciate ligament, something I was alerted to by "Lia", a 15-year-old state-level soccer player. (Pseudonym because anyone speaking out risks ugly harassment & threats.)
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4805849/
"Everything is pretty equal up until puberty, thatâs when guys shoot up, grow taller, stronger faster â theyâre outrunning us, outdoing us physically, bigger lungs, hearts, muscles,â Lia told me. Has this biological reality gone missing in our politics & sports administration?
Swedish sport scientist Tommy Lundberg, one of the experts involved in World Rugby's more rigorous policy-making, looked at Australia's guideline & said it was misleading in playing down the importance of testosterone in sporting performance.
âThey donât really speak much about testosterone or biological differences in the document at all, which is interesting in itself," Lundberg said. "They make it appear as if testosterone is not that important because (they say) âmany factors affect performanceâ."
"About 10,000 men ran the 100m faster than the fastest woman last year. The only thing (those men) have in common is that they have all experienced the benefits of male puberty and high testosterone levels ...
"So testosterone explains most of the male/female average performance differences.â Dr Lundberg is from Swedenâs top medical research university the Karolinska Institute.
So you'll see why this week I was surprised to see a sport journalist say that Australia's trans inclusion guideline "has been widely recognised as a solid basis for clubs and bodies to use when formulating policies of their own".
smh.com.au/sport/nuance-is-the-first-casualty-in-the-complex-debate-over-trans-athletes-20220413-p5ad97.html
Don't expect candour from peak sporting bodies & individual codes which have already signed up to trans inclusion policies promoted with threats of financial penalties & poorly evidenced claims about trans mental health.
As for today's promising female athletes, they know that if they speak up about their concerns, they risk being dog-piled on social media as a "transphobe" -- and that's not something sports administrators or commercial sponsors want to be associated with.
In Australia, two retired athletes Tamsyn Manou & Jane Flemming have gone public in defence of the long-standing female category of sport & they no doubt speak for many younger women & girls in sport who feel they must remain silent.
In the furore over US trans swimmer Lia Thomas, who went from a mid-500s ranking in the male pool to a top-ranking in the women's pool, female swimmers were told any protest could harm careers. Mothers & retired athletes are organising on their behalf.
nypost.com/2022/04/02/moms-fight-for-female-athletes-amid-lia-thomas-controversy/
In the UK, Olympian Sharron Davies has been a leading defender of female sport. She swam against East German girls given testosterone & was cheated of a gold medal at the Moscow Olympics.
Back in Sydney, two years ago, Katherine Deves, a mum of three sporty girls, felt she had to make a stand on the integrity of the female sport category & so she was involved in the 2020 launch of Save Women's Sport Australasia & became its spokeswoman.
As for Zali Steggall, she was asked this week by The Daily Telegraph if she would have been happy to compete against a male-bodied trans woman back in her Winter Olympics days. She reportedly refused to be drawn on her own experience in sport.
Steggall was quoted as saying that current law & rules enjoy support from sporting bodies "as providing the right flexibility & framework to respond sensitively & carefully, prioritising the wellbeing of all involved & fairness for all athletes". So, no need for policy review.
âWe are talking of an incredibly small number of [trans] athletes,â Steggall said. How would trans activists respond if told their concerns involve an incredibly small number of people? Is it a small concern each time a girl or a woman is unfairly beaten, injured or demoralised?
You can read the unrolled version of this thread here: typefully.com/Bernard_Lane/Clq8Cmi