Amateurs ‘quitting sport’ after facing male-bodied opponents
WOMEN and girls across Britain are dropping out of recreational sport because they are being pressured to compete against transgender women who are biologically male, according to a leading campaign group for female sports.
There is already controversy over ‘trans’ sportswomen competing in elite female competitions.
But Fair Play For Women has established that it is also affecting grassroots and amateur sport, with many participants feeling pressured to remain silent.
Last night Fiona McAnena, director of sport campaigns at FPFW, which has lobbied to keep women’s sports singlesex, warned: ‘If you think this is a very small problem, think again.
‘This issue is hitting women’s sport right across the UK, and sadly it is pushing some women to completely drop out.
‘Especially for teenage girls, just knowing that there is a trans woman at their club can be enough to put them off going for fear of an embarrassing encounter in the changing room or toilet.’
A dossier compiled by FPFW includes testimony from a female hockey player in an amateur London league who walked off the pitch when given the task of marking a transgender opponent. ‘The person was 6ft 4in and had an Adam’s apple,’ she said. ‘Every time I was going for the ball, the transgender woman was far faster and after a few minutes I just took myself off.
‘I was in tears. I came to play against a female opposition and there was a male on the pitch. I just felt the sense of fairness was not there.’ She felt unable to complain in case she was branded a ‘transphobe’.
A parent and cricket coach from the South of England told FPFW he was concerned about the safety of girls, one as young as 12, asked to play against a team containing a trans woman. ‘As father to these girls (aged 14 and 16) I find that unacceptable, uncomfortable and dangerous, both morally and physically,’ he wrote.
Cyclist Bo Novak, said she has stopped attending women-only road-cycling sessions when a trans woman led the group she joined in South West England.
‘It was advertised as leisure rides for women in small groups led by a woman,’ said Ms Novak, 55. ‘But a male-bodied person was leading the group, not just taking part. He was much stronger than the rest of us and went too fast.’
Her complaints were ignored, she says, so she dropped out.
Members of a women’s ‘walking football’ club for older and less mobile players, in which no running is allowed, also revealed their dismay when a trans woman joined.
A whistleblower at the Lancashire club said: ‘The person was a 60-year-old with a male body, but they had French plaits, dangly earrings and long fingernails. Some of us were in shock but felt we were not allowed to say anything.’
The charity running the club later told the group that they had to accept the transgender player or leave.