Trans women ‘should be banned from female sports’

TRANSGENDER athletes should be banned from competing against women, the British culture secretary told UK sporting chiefs yesterday.

Lucy Frazer said officials had a duty to give female athletes a ‘sporting chance’ because male-born rivals have an ‘indisputable edge’.

She summoned representatives of sports in Britain, including cricket and soccer, to a meeting yesterday to urge them to stop transgender athletes competing against women at the elite level.

Her intervention follows a landmark review of NHS gender identity services for children and young people that raised major concerns about the UK’s approach to transgender issues.

Ms Frazer says sports governing bodies in the UK need to set out an ‘unambiguous position’ on the subject. She insists that despite British government guidance urging them to consider fairness and safety, some authorities are ‘not going far or fast enough’.

‘In competitive sport, biology matters. And where male strength, size and body shape gives athletes an indisputable edge, this should not be ignored,’ she stated. ‘By protecting the female category, they can keep women’s competitive sport safe and fair.’ Ms Frazer urged the England and Wales Cricket Board and the Football Association to ban trans athletes from competing against women at the elite level.

It comes after Sport Ireland published new guidance last month on the participation of trans and binary athletes, saying it is an area that is ‘constantly evolving’ and that its ambition is to make sport ‘as inclusive as possible’.