Second-rate male athletes are “self-identifying their way onto women’s podiums” and ruining grassroots sport, former Olympian Sharron Davies MBE has said.
In her foreward to a report by Policy Exchange on the toll trans ideology is taking on women’s sport, Davies urged policymakers in the UK to bar biological males from female amateur competitions.
Lottie Moore’s report, Levelling the Playing Field: Why Women and Girls Matter in Amateur Sport, details how gender self-ID policies are undermining “the integrity of women’s sport”, especially at grassroots level.
Pretence
Davies said: “There is a sense within sports policy that while we should protect the female category within elite sports, women and girls participating and competing at amateur levels should budge over.
For too long, those responsible for setting policy within sports have prioritised transgender inclusion over the rights of female athletes.
“They must ‘be kind’ and ‘inclusive’ while having to pretend that it is not grossly unfair, demotivating and possibly unsafe to accommodate biological males within their races, teams and sports days.”
She argued: “For too long, those responsible for setting policy within sports have prioritised transgender inclusion over the rights of female athletes.”
The Olympic medallist warned that “we risk alienating a generation of future female athletes if we pretend that biology does not matter within sport”.
‘Funding withdrawn’
Through her investigation and subsequent analysis, Moore challenges the notion that “protecting the female category only matters within elite or professional sport”.
According to Moore, the problem of biological males competing against women is “rife” within the amateur sector, and policymakers have “failed to recognise the impact this is having on women and girls in sport”.
Among her recommendations, she calls for the creation of “a protected single-sex category restricted to biological females” within every “sex-affected sport” and at every level.
National Governing Bodies that fail to comply with the requirement within twelve months should, she suggests, have “taxpayers’ funding withdrawn”.
“Due to parkrun’s gender self-ID policy, there have been at least three verified instances of transgender women (biological males) competing in the female category and setting new women’s records and distorting female rankings.” Lottie Moore
“Sport England must inform parkrun that it is to collect participant data based on biological sex, not gender identity. Parkrun must update all relevant course records to reflect this. If this does not happen within 12 months, taxpayers’ funding should be withdrawn.” Lottie Moore
Fairness, participation and safety
Endorsing the report, tennis great Martina Navratilova said women’s sport must be protected, “otherwise we risk not only alienating a generation of women, but also taking away dreams and possibilities of fairness and winning for girls and women”.
And world champion decathlete Daley Thompson CBE said its findings make clear that, to encourage women and girls to participate in sport, “males should never be in the female category – at any level”.
In December, more than 70 parliamentarians – including former Football Association chairman Lord Triesman – called on the FA to introduce a “single-sex policy at all levels of the game” to protect female players from injury.
However, World Athletics’ President Lord Coe recently claimed that the “transgender issue” was only a matter for elite sport and that men should be allowed to ‘benefit’ from competing against women at the “local level”.
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