Angry parents fed up with a trans woman dominating a women’s soccer league will be offered training to help them better understand trans issues.
Football Australia announced its ‘High Performance Inclusion Policy’ after Daily Mail Australia revealed that parents were campaigning for the New South Wales competition to ban transgender women from women’s football teams.
A trans woman, whom Daily Mail Australia has chosen not to identify, has topped the Football NSW League One women’s first grade kickers table, with seven goals.
But it’s the allegations that trans athletes injured women from the opposite side in a game two weekends ago that have drawn the ire of some fed-up parents and players.
Angry parents, fed up with the dominance of a trans woman in a women’s soccer league, are campaigning for the competition to ban transgender women from women’s soccer teams.
The trans woman is an active member of her community and came to Australia from the United States
On Friday, Football Australia issued a press release announcing its plans to make football “Australia’s most multicultural, diverse and inclusive sport.”
The policy will see Football Australia provide LGBTQI+ training and support resources to the football community through its partnership with Pride in Sport.
“The aim of this training will be to give the Australian rules football community a greater understanding of the lived experience of LGBTQI+ communities and their involvement in the sport,” the statement read.
Football Australia has established a Football Task Force responsible for developing policy and making recommendations for Football Australia’s approval ahead of the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
The working group will include representatives from ‘Australian Football, Australian Professional Footballers, Australian Professional Leagues and State Member Associations’.
The group will work with the Australian Sports Commission and various medical specialists and experts to ensure that the policy “is based on objective and relevant information, data and criteria.”
“Football Australia’s current position pending the development of FWG policy and Football Australia’s review, remains to allow all players to participate in the competition that best represents their gender identity,” he said.
At least five trans women are understood to be active in the league in New South Wales.
The trans woman is the top scorer in the competition
A Facebook page dedicated to discussing the NPL league blew up on the issue last week and continues to be bombarded with posts criticizing the league’s decision.
“Absolutely fucking joke,” one person posted in a link to Football Australia’s policy announcement.
‘It goes like this: if you support men playing women’s sports, you disrespect the sanctity of women’s sports. You also have a superficial understanding of women and a complete lack of respect for their effort to be there,” read another.
Daily Mail Australia has been told that Football NSW, which governs the sport, has refused to address concerns surrounding the inclusion of trans women in the women’s sides.
Kirralie Smith, a spokeswoman for Binary Australia, said she had spent months trying to speak to officials from the sports body about its policy on the matter.
Ms Smith claimed on Friday that her supporters have sent Football NSW thousands of emails and that “no one has had a reasonable response despite all the emails, injury warnings and how unfair it is.”
‘Football NSW has been unable to answer the simple questions: ‘What is a woman?’ and ‘Why have a women’s division if men can play in it?’
‘They have failed to safeguard justice and the safety of girls and women.’
Parents and gamers worry that trans women have a greater advantage
Last year, world soccer’s governing body FIFA and World Athletics said they were reviewing their transgender eligibility policies after swimming passed new rules restricting transgender people from participating in women’s events.
However, reports earlier this year suggested that transgender footballers would compete in the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in July and August.
FIFA’s women’s program director, Sarai Bareman, told The Australian in January that three transgender players had contacted her about the review process and that she believed there were others.
“I think he is very sensitive and we have to be very careful how we treat him. That’s something we’re taking very, very seriously.
“And we certainly don’t want to rush (the decision on the new rules), given the impact it will have for many generations to come,” he said.
Ms Bareman said FIFA has been consulting various groups, including human rights groups, non-governmental organisations, athletes and other sports, as well as the International Olympic Committee.
“We have to be very careful, as you know, we have 211 member associations and essentially what we do seems to be a model for those member associations, so the consultation process is very extensive and we will take our time to make sure that we let’s get”. true,” he said.
The Australian Human Rights Commission shared guidelines on the inclusion of transgender people in sport in 2019, noting that “transgender and gender diverse people are sometimes excluded from sport or may experience discrimination and sexual harassment when participating.”
“While some reported positive experiences of inclusion, others described how they had been excluded from the sports they loved because of their sex or gender identity.
“Some talked about withdrawing from the sport during their transition journey out of concern about how their teammates would treat them.”
The Australian Professional Association for Trans Health did not respond to Daily Mail Australia’s inquiry.