Calls for transgender women to be banned from playing football on women-only teams

Angry parents fed up with a transgender woman’s domination of a women’s soccer league are campaigning for competition to ban trans women from participating in women’s soccer teams.

The trans woman, who Daily Mail Australia has chosen to remain anonymous, leads the NSW Women’s First Division Football League top scorer table, with seven goals.

But allegations that trans athletes injured a female competitor at a game last weekend have angered some fed up parents and players.

Daily Mail Australia has been told Football New South Wales, which governs the sport, is refusing 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.

It is understood that at least five transgender women are actively involved in the league across New South Wales.

Ms Smith claimed on Friday that her supporters had sent 12,000 emails to Football NSW, and “no one has received any reasonable response despite all the emails and warnings of injuries and how unfair it 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.”

A Facebook page dedicated to discussing the struggling league exploded on the issue this week and has since received more than 260 comments.

Most of them target New South Wales football directly.

Someone posted pictures of the American trans woman on the field next to a much younger competition.

“Totally unfair to all females in the competition,” the woman wrote.

“Many players have been seriously injured by this absurd situation.”

A man who claimed to have coached the men’s and boys’ soccer teams for 20 years said the league needed to “take a hard look at itself”.

“After what happened over the course of a two-game weekend, family and friends are looking to get their kids off their teams,” he wrote.

“This needs to be addressed by the authorities in place before anyone else gets hurt, players refuse to enter the field, or players leave the game.”

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Football Australia and Football New South Wales for comment.

The two clubs involved in the controversial match last weekend have also been contacted as has the passing player at the center of the controversy. None of them were willing to comment on the issue.

“Football NSW is responsible for their respective leagues and competitions and you will need to contact them,” a spokeswoman for Football Australia said.

Ms Smith claimed that images of trans women had recently been removed from official websites promoting the competition.

“Why? Why are the feelings of transgender players protected while females and their parents who raise their concerns are ignored? She said.

Ms Smith said women and girls deserved to be single-sex divisions based on the gender they were born into, adding: ‘Transgender players don’t need to be excluded.

She noted that ‘males retain an unfair, and sometimes unsafe, advantage due to the physical advantages of developing males including bone density and structure, heart and lung capacity, blood volume, fast-twitch muscle fibers, length, reach, strength, speed and endurance. “.

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 basically seems to be 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 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 Daily Mail Australia’s inquiry.