IT’S A SHAM!
Former Olympic star Whittle lashes out as Holyrood snubs Davies and Yamauchi over gender bill hearing
AHOLYROOD committee has been branded a ‘sham’ after an offer by two Olympic athletes to testify on the impact of gender reform on women’s sport was rejected.
The Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill aims to make it quicker and easier for individuals to change sex with no need for medical reports or evidence.
And last month, Holyrood’s human rights and civil justice committee heard from two senior male officials of sports organisations funded or part-funded by the Scottish Government that the bill would have no significant impact on women’s sport.
Rejecting those claims, two-time Olympic marathon runner Mara Yamauchi wrote to the committee offering to testify that the bill would make women’s sport unfair, unsafe and unattractive to competitors. Moscow silver medallist Sharron Davies also offered to give evidence.
Before speaking at a press conference organised by For Women Scotland in Edinburgh, however, the committee turned down their offer. And that drew scathing criticism from Holyrood MSP and former Olympic runner Brian Whittle.
‘You have a parliamentarian who understands sport better than any another parliamentarian in there and has been involved in sport for over four decades, working with male and female athletes for all that time,’ said Whittle.
‘Then you have Sharron Davies, one of the most celebrated Olympians and spokespeople on women’s rights in sport who I put forward to the committee as a potential witness and you don’t ask them?
‘Why would you not do that? I’ve said before quite frankly that the convener and deputy convener of that committee are so pro this bill that they do not want to ask anybody on to that committee who could possibly give an alternative opinion or a degree of knowledge. It’s quite frankly an absolutely sham and it’s time they were called out.’
Yamauchi told Sportsmail last month that gender recognition reform could have a ‘devastating’ impact on women’s sport in Scotland and prompt female competitors to quit ‘in their droves’.
Accusing the committee of ‘bias’ and ‘rubber-stamping’ by declining to hear from female witnesses or women’s groups concerned about the impact on fairness and safety, her offer to testify was rebuffed in an email yesterday morning.
‘I wrote to the committee after the sport evidence session offering to give evidence and I’ve just received a reply saying they are not going to be holding any further sessions,’ she confirmed. ‘They need to listen to female athletes and they need to listen to people who care about women’s sport.’
The issue of transgender athletes crossed to the mainstream when trans swimmer Lia Thomas broke numerous records in the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s championships in Atlanta.
Claiming she has spoken to Scottish swimmers afraid to speak out on the issue of biological males competing in the women’s category for fear of being cancelled, Davies was also willing to speak to the committee on their behalf.
‘I was asked a month ago, “Would you?” and I said, “Absolutely I would do it” because I have so many people that do speak to me and I feel like a bit of conduit at the moment because there are people who are frightened to speak out for themselves. So I feel like I’m speaking for a lot of people and have spoken to a lot of Scottish swimmers, as you can imagine. They are very successful swimmers and they will not speak out, because they are scared.
‘This has never, never been about excluding trans people, it is about promoting fair sport and I speak to many Scottish athletes, many retired swimmers every single week. I get a lot of coaches in tears because don’t know what the hell to do or how to deal with this.’
Calling on politicians to grab the bull by the horns and offer guidance to sporting bodies torn by the choice between fairness or inclusivity, Davies added: ‘I went into Westminster about a month ago and had a chat with quite a few different people.
‘When you talk to people they are all: “Yes we understand and something should be done”.
‘But no one is doing anything. Everyone is sitting on their hands. We just need some politicians to be brave and take some action. Fifty one per cent of this country is female and we deserve to be looked after the same as those who are male in sport.
‘It has a knock-on effect in everything, so yes please, politicians, do something. Give the guidance.’
They do not want to ask anyone on to that committee who could give an alternative opinion