The @AFL recently released a new gender policy for transgender athletes - and it clearly discriminates against transgender women. 1/
The AFL policy requires trans women be within a certain hormone range, which has become standard practice for adult/elite competition. That's not the problem (although on the whole it can be considered problematic - but it's in line with other policy). 2/
The AFL policy requires transathletes to submit data pertaining to certain physical statistics & tests to determine if a trans woman is eligible to play. This includes height, weight, bench press 1RM, squat 1RM, 20m sprint time, vertical jump, and a 2 kilometre run time. 3/
The policy is screening trans women to determine if they can be discriminated against based on their bodies - if you're too big, you can't play. 4/
This reinforces a dangerous stereotype about trans women and size. It does not take into consideration fat, muscle, or body composition in other ways. It is far from scientific. It's just plain discriminatory. 5/
According to the policy, the AFL sub-committee may refuse an Application only if there is a relevant, and significant, disparity in the Applicant’s strength, stamina or physique when compared to data procured from cis-gender AFLW players in the
preceding two AFLW seasons... 6/
preceding two AFLW seasons... 6/
"...(Comparison Data) which may reasonably be regarded to give rise to an unreasonable competitive advantage to the Applicant having regard to mean, median & range of the Comparison Data pertaining to height, weight, 20m sprint, vertical jump, 2km run, squat and bench press" 7/
The AFL needs a policy, but the policy should not discriminate based on height or weight. Height and weight are not the sole factors for performance, even in this sport. If this is the case, there must be height and weight limits on cisgender competitors as well. 8/
You can read the full AFL policy on transathlete.com. 9/9
