Thread by @fairplaywomen

Thread: The ideological debate over whether ‘transwomen are women’ is never a useful starting point for policy makers when it comes to deciding what to do about their female-only spaces and services. /1

fairplayforwomen.com/twaw/

Society’s growing awareness and tolerance of an individuals right to self-express their own gender identity is welcome, but it cannot simply be extrapolated into all policy areas. /2

Not when the reason for a women-only policy is *because* of differences between the male and female sex. This is particularly true in sports policy making. /3

Fortunately, policy makers do not need to decide if they believe “transwomen are women” or not. /4

It’s perfectly possible to respect a trans persons gender identity AND to accept that transwoman were born male and that their body will have benefited from male puberty. /5

Agreeing that a person born male can self-identify as a woman does not mean you must also agree that this person should also have access to female-only spaces. /5

Unfortunately, discussions relating to women and the transgender community are so often framed by the simplistic mantra ‘transwomen are women’ delaying the final policy decision. /6

Conflating and muddling up the two very different concepts of gender identity and sex is common place. Swiftly followed by accusations of transphobia if anyone acknowledges the difference. /7

This is a dead-end that policy makers would do best to steer clear of. Despite World Rugby’s valiant efforts to uphold evidence-based policy making for transgender eligibility in the female game it has predictably hit the inevitable ‘transwomen are women’ obstacle. /8

The same obstacle that tripped up policy makers before them on women’s prison policy, women’s rape centres, women’s only changing rooms and more. /9

Rigorous and high quality scientific and legal discussions about player welfare, competitive fairness and participation levels seemingly undermined with the gotcha that ‘transwomen are women!’ /10

But the reality is different. Having a policy on transgender eligibility in female sporting competition passes no judgement on the validity or lived experience of a transgender person’s gender identity. /11

Agreeing to exclude transwomen from women’s Rugby for reasons of fairness and safety doesn’t mean you think their gender identity isn’t important. /12

It simply acknowledges something we all know. Sex matters too.

Sometimes we have no choice but to prioritise it if we want a policy to deliver on its purpose.

No more so than in female sport.

/END

fairplayforwomen.com/twaw/