NI Minister: ‘Women’s sport is for women’

Men should not be participating in the Province’s female sporting competitions, Northern Ireland’s Minister of Communities has said.

His comments follow the recent UK Supreme Court ruling that the terms ‘woman’, ‘man’ and ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010 refer to biological sex.

Responding to questions on the implications of the judgment, Gordon Lyons MLA said it was important for sport in Northern Ireland to act in accordance with the judgment.

Clarification

The Minister told MLAs: “My Department is analysing the Supreme Court judgment and considering the potential implications of the ruling on policy responsibilities that rest with the Department.”

However, he continued: “It is my view – and therefore the view of the Department – that only biological women should be participating in women’s sports.” The Minister explained: “We have had a clarification in law, not that one was needed, however we do now have that. And I think it’s important that we abide by that ruling”.

He told the Assembly that he would be writing to all sporting bodies in receipt of funding from the Department to ensure that they were aware of the judgment. Non-compliance, he warned, may have financial implications.

A recent LucidTalk poll for Sunday Life found that 72 per cent of those polled in Northern Ireland supported the Supreme Court ruling on gender, while 20 per cent disagreed, and 8 per cent were unsure.

‘Incoherent’

In April, the UK’s highest court unanimously ruled in favour of For Women Scotland’s appeal against Scottish Government guidance that allows men who identify as female to take women-only positions on company boards.

Lord Hodge, Lady Rose and Lady Simler – supported by Lord Reed and Lord Lloyd-Jones – explained that “interpreting ‘sex’ as certificated sex”, rather than biological sex, would “cut across the definitions of ‘man’ and ‘woman’ and thus the protected characteristic of sex in an incoherent way.”

They continued: “Similar confusion and impracticability arise in the operation of provisions relating to single sex characteristic associations and charities, women’s fair participation in sport, the operation of the public sector equality duty, and the armed forces.”