Binary Australia: UK Sports put on notice regarding trans inclusion
Michael Barnett OAM
UK Sports put on notice regarding trans inclusion
Former Olympic swimming champion Sharron Davies along with Tracey Edwards MBE, a British sailor, are taking legal action against 10 major sporting organisations in the UK.
The sporting bodies have failed to safeguard women, denying them fair and safe play, by allowing males to participate in the female divisions.
They say that sporting bodies must comply with the Equality Act 2010 to protect the female category. Self-identification by males into women’s sport flouts the law.
The legal letters have been sent to Park Run, FA Wales, The Irish Football Association, British Powerlifting, Swim England, British Gymnastics, Royal Yachting Association, British Baseball Federation, BaseballSoftball UK, and Rounders England.
The organisations have been warned to change their policies to exclude males from women’s divisions or face legal action.
Australian Sports organisations have continued with their harmful policies that allow males to participate in women’s sport. They have not recalibrated after the International Olympic Committee announced that only female-born athletes can participate in women’s categories.
Australian law is murky and so far has proven to protect and promote males who wish they were women in sport, at the expense of female participants. At grass roots levels and semi-professional levels, males are participating and winning awards meant for females.
Instead of safeguarding women, Australian sporting organisations gaslight and threaten females with legal action if they publicly object to males in their sports and changerooms. As a result women must self-exclude or remain silent in the face of these threats.
The tide has certainly turned around the world but Australian sporting codes have been very slow to respond. It is only a matter of time until female athletes here take similar legal action.