Yahoo Finance Angling bans transgender women from England Ladies team following protest
Transgender women will no longer be selected for the England Ladies’ angling team after three members quit the squad in protest earlier this year.
The Angling Trust, which is the governing body for recreational fishing, have been reviewing their policy since last year and have announced that anglers who have transitioned can no longer compete for England in the women’s category. They will be eligible for the open category in both domestic and international events.
Half of the England team stepped down from the England squad at the Home Nations shore fishing championship earlier this year after Becky Lee Birtwhistle Hodges, who was born male and had been competing in the women’s team since 2018, was again selected.
They cited concerns that Birtwhistle Hodges had an unfair strength advantage in an event that involves casting and dealing with strong winds and currents. It follows the international federation – the Confederation Internationale de la Peche Sportive – ruling in September that it was “absolutely discriminatory” to allow transgender women in the ladies’ category. Sports like rugby, athletics, swimming and cycling have also ruled over the past 18 months that transgender women cannot compete in the women’s category if they have gone through male puberty.
“This is an extremely emotive subject and one we have seen a number of other sport struggle with,” said Jamie Cook, the chief executive of the Angling Trust. “Angling has a strong heritage of open events and both our national and world championships are already universal (open) categories allowing the best anglers to compete regardless of gender.
“The evidence generated through our review process established that strength, stamina and physical attributes have the potential to offer competitors a significant advantage and, in doing so, impact fairness.
“Growing female participation is a core focus for the organisation and an area in which we have seen great success in recent years. Ensuring the integrity of the female category across all disciplines of angling will remove potential barriers and ensure clear pathways for participation growth to lead to domestic and international success.”
Dr Jane Hamlin, president emeritus of the Beaumont Society, a charity which supports trans people, had described “speculation about possible advantages that a trans woman might have” in fishing as not being evidence of unfairness.
The Government has been urging governing bodies to prioritise fairness above transgender inclusion and the new sports strategy asserts that “competitive fairness cannot be reconciled with self-identification into the female category in gender-affected sport”. It also says that there are retained advantages following puberty even with testosterone suppression.
The charity Women in Sport also made a significant intervention earlier this month when they said that all competitive sport, from grass roots and schools up to the elite, should have a universally protected category for natal girls or women.
“Girls and women enjoy fair competition just as much as boys and men do; and a level playing field is integral to this,” said the Women in Sport statement. “This is true whether that competition is at elite, professional level or grass roots, amateur level. A girl taking part in her team at a school’s tournament or a woman playing in a local amateur league is just as much a competitor as a professional athlete competing for her club or country. It is a myth that girls and women don’t like competition.”
There has been deep frustration at the progress of governing bodies since the UK’s Sports Councils issued new guidance more than two years ago which said that inclusion could not be balanced with safety and fairness.
