Angry parents who are sick of the transgender women’s dominance of a soccer league will be given a training to help them better understand trans issues.
Soccer Australia has announced a ‘high performance inclusion policy’ after Daily Mail Australia revealed parents were campaigning for the New South Wales competition to ban transgender women from women’s soccer teams.
A passing woman, who Daily Mail Australia chooses to remain anonymous, leads the scorer’s table in the English Premier League NSW Women’s Football League, with seven goals.
But allegations that transgender athletes injured a female opponent in a match two weeks ago have angered some parents and fed up players.
Angry parents fed up with the women’s soccer league being dominated by a transgender woman are campaigning for the competition to ban transgender women from women’s soccer teams
The transgender woman is an active member of her community and came to Australia from the United States
On Friday, Football Australia issued a media release announcing its plans to make football “the most multicultural, diverse and inclusive sport in Australia”.
The policy will see Football Australia provide LGBTQI+ training and support resources to the football community through its partnership with Pride in Sport.
“The aim of this training is to provide the Australian soccer community with a greater understanding of the LGBTQI+ communities’ lived experience and their involvement in the sport,” the statement read.
Football Australia has set up a Football Working Group responsible for drafting policy and making recommendations for approval of Australian Football ahead of the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
The working group will include representatives from “Australian football, professional footballers in Australia, Australian professional leagues and state member associations”.
The group will work with the Australian Sport Commission and various medical professionals and experts to ensure that the policy is “based on objective and relevant information, data and standards”.
“The current status of Australian Football, pending development of the FWG policy and review of Football Australia, still allows all players to participate in the competition that best represents their gender identity,” the statement stated.
It is understood that at least five transgender women are actively involved in the league across New South Wales.
The trans woman is the top scorer in the competition
A Facebook page devoted to discussing the issue exploded last week and continues to be bombarded with posts critical of the league’s decision.
One person posted a link to the Australian Football League policy announcement “an absolute joke”.
It goes like this: If you support men playing women’s sports – you don’t respect the sanctity of women’s sports. You also have a superficial understanding of women, and a complete lack of respect for her efforts to be there,” read another.
Daily Mail Australia has been told Football New South Wales, which governs the sport, has refused to address concerns about the inclusion of trans women in women’s sides.
Kiraly Smith, a spokeswoman for Binary Australia, said she has spent months trying to talk with officials at the sports body about its policy on the subject.
Ms Smith claimed on Friday that her supporters had sent thousands of emails to Football NSW, and “no one has received any reasonable response despite all the emails and injury warnings and how unfair this is”.
Football in New South Wales fails to answer the simple questions, ‘What is a woman? and “Why is there a women’s division if men can play in it?”.
“They fail to ensure justice and safety for girls and women.”
Parents and gamers worry that trans women have a greater advantage
Last year, FIFA and World Athletics said they were reviewing their transgender eligibility policies after swimming passed new rules restricting transgender participation in women’s events.
But reports from earlier this year indicated that transgender footballers would compete in the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in July and August.
Sarai Barman, director of the FIFA Women’s Programme, told The Australian in January that she had been approached by three transgender players about the review process and that she believed there were others.
I think it’s very sensitive, and we have to be very careful about how we deal with it. This is something we take very seriously.
“We certainly don’t want to rush into a decision on the new rules, given the impact it will have for many generations to come,” she said.
Ms Barman said FIFA had consulted with various groups including human rights groups, NGOs, athletes and other sports as well as the International Olympic Committee.
We have to be very careful as you know, we have 211 member associations and what we’re doing seems to be a blueprint for those member associations, and that’s why the consultation process is so extensive and we’re going to take our time to ensure that we have it,” she said.
The Australian Human Rights Commission shared guidelines on the inclusion of transgender people in sport in 2019, noting that ‘transgender and gender diverse people are sometimes excluded from sport, or may experience discrimination and sexual harassment when they participate.
While some reported positive experiences of inclusion, others described how they were excluded from the sports they loved because of their gender or gender identity.
“Some have talked about withdrawing from the sport during their transitional journey because they were worried about how their teammates would treat them.”
The Australian Professional Association for Trans Health did not respond to the Daily Mail Australia’s inquiry.
