Aussie trans athlete Ricki Coughlan slams World Athletics for bowing to the ‘forces of hate’

Transgender athletes have condemned World Athletics’ exclusion of transgender women from top female competitions, while the decision was hailed by some sportswomen as a victory for fairness.

Athletics’ global governing body voted on Thursday to ban transgender women who have gone through male puberty from competing in women’s events, citing a “need to protect the female category.”

Ricki Coughlan, one of Australia’s first transgender athletes in professional running, said WA’s ruling would encourage “hate forces” against trans people.

“There’s no nice way to say this,” she told Reuters.

“The forces of hate out there that don’t want transgender people to exist in our society… will take this as a win and then say ‘okay, let’s move on to the next thing’.”

She believes World Athletics’ decision will empower people who “don’t want transgender people in our society.”

Coughlan made headlines in the early 1990s when she became one of the country’s first transgender women in Australian sport.

She made a transition in her early twenties and competed in 800 and 1500 meter races at the state level.

WA also tightened eligibility requirements for athletes with sexual development differences in women’s events, cutting the upper threshold of testosterone levels in half.

DSD athletes have male testicles but do not produce enough of the hormone dihydrotestosterone (DHT) necessary for the formation of male external genitalia.

“Women with intersex characteristics will continue to be subjected to horrific sex testing practices and medically unnecessary surgeries, gender-based violence and discrimination,” Hudson Taylor, founder and executive director of Athlete Ally, said in a statement.

World Athletics president Sebastian Coe (pictured) announced the ban on Thursday

Athlete Ally advocates for the inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people in sports.

Australia’s national athletics federation said it would abide by the WA decision but maintain its own guidelines for including transgender athletes in community-level sport.

The New Zealand Federation said the subject of transgender athletes is “a very sensitive subject” and it needs time to process and understand the new rules.

Canadian cyclist Kristen Worley, an athlete in transition who has legally challenged the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) gender policy, said the World Athletics’ (WA) decision was “disheartening and disappointing.”

“What is happening is that the most vulnerable are being excluded from sport more for political reasons and not based on science and research,” Worley said in an interview with Reuters.

Coughlan made a transition in her early twenties and competed in 800 and 1500 meter races at the state level, drawing national headlines in the early 1990s.

“This has implications not only on an international level, but consequently on communities around the world, including communities in the United States.”

The decision follows a similar move by World Aquatics, the global governing body for swimming, to exclude transgender athletes from women’s categories last year.

WA President Sebastian Coe said the decision was made after consultations with 40 member federations, coaches, athletes, transgender groups, experts from the United Nations and the IOC.

While some argue that going through male puberty provides physical benefits for transgender women, supporters of transgender participation in sports say there hasn’t been enough research on whether transgender women have any benefit.

Worley said the idea that transgender female athletes dominated women’s sports was nonsense.

“I look at all the newsgroups that post images on Twitter that don’t have images of transitioning athletes at the World Athletics elite level, because there aren’t any,” she said.

“So this is purely a political move by Seb Coe and World Athletics to address the right-wing issues, political leanings and clearly potential sponsors that fund World Athletics today.”