Sports like #WorldRugby blanket banning #transgender women on safety grounds place themselves on a slippery slope. Safety has no gender!

austlii.edu.au/au/journals/Ad…
A separate trans policy is not necessary to address physical safety risks in sports. It is the disparity in size/strength that is relevant, not the source of the disparity.
Assessing any group of athletes as a monolithic group especially amongst trans athletes is flawed. Trans is an umbrella term many different body stages of transition & body types. ImageImage
The sex, gender or chromosomal status of an athlete does not create any inherent danger or risk to safety. Rather, it is dis- parities in strength, speed & endurance and/or physique of each individual athlete that may, depending on the sport.
To the extent that larger & stronger athletes (trans, intersex or cis) may pose a H & S risk, it is best to address that risk by amending the rules of the sport to engineer out (or at least minimise) the risks at their source (to employ more mainstream WHS parlance).
WHS law presents sport governing bodies, clubs & athletes trans, cis & intersex with a valuable avenue to pivot the discussion away from the moralism of a debate grounded in competing rights to a focus on risks & solutions grounded in a debate about safety.
It is possible that a larger & stronger trans or intersex athlete could pose a safety risk to smaller cis athletes (and vice-versa), remembering the gender status or identity of an individual does not create any inherent danger or risk to safety.
Rather, disparities in strength, speed, endurance &/or physique may do so,depending on the sport.
A strength and/or physique disparity is likely to create or exacerbate safety risks in sports that involve physical contact between competitors.
In combat sports such as boxing, wrestling and karate – where the object is to physically suppress the opponent – the risks posed by strength and/or physique disparities arguably are more significant and may warrant some mitigation.
However, risks emanating from disparities in strength & physique also exist between cisgender athletes competing in these sports.
Combat sports mitigate these risks – not by excluding athletes of certain strengths and physiques – but through the creation of weight divisions that seek to match athletes based on size and strength.
Risks from disparities in strength and physique also arise in contact and collision sports such as Australian rules football and rugby where aggressive physical contact is permitted under the rules and occurs continuously throughout the game.
However, these sports like AFL and @WorldRugby attract persons of different strengths and physiques, and a team’s success often can depend upon a skilful blending of these differences. ImageImageImageImage
To exclude bigger and stronger transgender and intersex athletes from these sports on safety grounds would create a precedent that would argue for the exclusion of equally big and strong cisgender athletes remembering that, from a safety perspective, it is the disparity in size
and strength that is relevant, not the source of the disparity.
In these full contact sports such as the AFL the risks from disparity in strength and physique are mitigated and managed through the rules of the sport.
This was made clear in the AFL’s 2018 Policy which stated that the rules of the sport (including those dealing with rough conduct, unsafe play and other on-field disciplinary matters)
are designed to ensure the safety of all AFLW & AFL (men’s) players, including gender-diverse and cisgender players.
It is also clear in the 2020 AFL Policy that while a trans or non-binary person may be excluded on the basis that their participation poses an unacceptable safety risk,
Such an exclusion would only arise in ‘exceptional circumstances’ involving a significant disparity in physique that cannot be managed safely within the rules of the sport.

resources.afl.com.au/afl/document/2…
Importantly, the 2020 Policy states it ‘will not arise simply from the proposed participation of a gender diverse person’.
The AFL’s ‘exceptional circumstances’ approach stands in stark contrast to World Rugby’s blanket ban & the ten states in the Usa that have recently legislated blanket bans of trans athletes in school sports.
The AFL 2020 policy is also in stark contrast to the recent recommendation in the UK to ban trans athletes as a monolithic community. Importantly the AFL policy agrees with the IOC gender framework it is the disparity that is relevant, not the source of the disparity.
End
“IN FACT”

There is no clear biological list of features that allow us to even remotely cleanly separate men from women.

Chromosomes? NOPE

Testosterone? NOPE

Height? NOPE

Vo2 Max? NOPE

Haemoglobin? NOPE

Weight? NOPE

Bone Density? NOPE

medium.com/@kirstiphillip…
Research finds trans women that undergo HRT their hemoglobin levels reduce to the normal F range within just 3–4 months & their Vo2 Max in 4-6 months & their muscle reduces mass 9.4 % in just the first 12ms of T deprivation.

sportsintegrityinitiative.com/imagining-fair…

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More from @KirstiMiller30

Jan 28
@BritishCycling trying to reach out to you to talk about you recycling failed policy. Your new trans guidelines is a breach of human rights and harms the health of affected women. Image
In 2017, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario recognised that policies originating from the IOC had infringed the human rights of cyclist Kristen Worley.
@ukantidoping
sportsintegrityinitiative.com/worleys-case-o…
Due to IOC policies regarding gender, the international cycling union (UCI) denied her the testosterone her physiology needed in order to maintain normal health, causing her medical and psychological harm. Image
Read 68 tweets
Jan 27
It has been argued by the likes of Tucker & Hilton et al without evidence that cisgender women athletes could be at greater risk of physical harm and injury if they compete in sports with larger and stronger transgender and intersex athletes.
This is the basis of World Rugby’s ban on trans women. According to the report prepared for World Rugby, trans women who transition after male puberty retain ‘significant’ physical advantages over cisgender women — even after they take steps to lower their testosterone levels.
The report claims advantages include being 30–40% stronger and more powerful and 10–15% faster.101 Importantly, the report concludes these advantages create at least a 20–30% greater risk of injury for cisgender female rugby players competing against transgender female players.
Read 17 tweets
Jan 26
All these clowns that have said Laurel Hubbard at 10nmol/L competed in Tokyo, with up to 10 times the amount of T than an XX women don't have a clue. Laurels T levels have been under .04nmol/L since 2012 impossible for her to have any higher. She met the rules of the 2003 policy.
At 3minutes 20 Laurel confirmed in 2017 that she competes under the rules of the 2003 IOC policy meaning she was more than two years post operative when she first competed in the women's category. Her injury in 2018 was a direct result of CAD.

I spoke about the serious consequences to health Laurel was forced to compete with in this interview. My prediction cane true Laurel competed with a massive disadvantage.

Read 5 tweets
Jan 25
Believing and perpetuating myths and misconceptions about trans athletes is harmful. Denying trans people the right to participate is discrimination and it doesn’t just hurt trans people, it hurts all of us. ImageImageImageImage
There is a long legacy of sex discrimination in sport. Myths, such as the idea that physical exertion would harm women’s reproductive systems or that women were inherently inferior athletes, were historically used to “protect” women out of participation. Image
The marginalization of trans trans & intersex athletes is rooted in the same harmful history of gender discrimination and stereotyping that has impeded the achievement of gender equality in sports as a whole. ImageImageImageImage
Read 28 tweets
Jan 19
Pride Games is not just about celebrating Pride out on the sporting field!
Way before celebration of Pride there is an urgent need for all sports to develop programs & solutions to these problems to improve youth mental health, boost physical activity rates, & mitigate the negative influences of traditional gender norms.
Although there has been more progress on the issue of homophobia in sport, there was a LOT more work to be done on issues affecting trans people. Trans athletes in sport are being attacked by the likes of Trump even our PM @ScottMorrisonMP called us heavy handed in cricket.
Read 32 tweets
Jan 18
Academics and leading scholars in the fields of Kinesiology, Law and Policy, and Gender Studies agree that trans women DO NOT have an inherent advantage are not a threat to women's sports. ⁦@FallonFox⁩ ⁦@AlanaFeral
@DrRyanStorr
athleteally.org/future-womens-…
This document
athleteally.org/wp-content/upl…

utilizes a close reading of peer-reviewed, credible sources to better understand trans athletes, to dispel misinformation about trans athletes that has spread in recent media and political debates,
to outline critical legal and policy discussions about trans athletes, and to highlight why access to sport matters for everyone.
Read 6 tweets

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