Sport
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Who can play women’s football in England?
Briefing for parliamentarians from Sex Matters, April 2024. Includes details of current FA and FIFA policies on the inclusion of trans-identifying males.
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Input to the report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls
For the UN General Assembly on violence against women and girls in sport. Sent with Fair Play For Women's report How 'inclusion' in sport is harming women and girls.
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The International Olympic Committee framework on fairness, inclusion and nondiscrimination on the basis of gender identity and sex variations does not protect fairness for female athletes
Tommy R. Lundberg, Ross Tucker, and Emma N. Hilton contributed equally to this study for the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports.
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How trans inclusion in sport is harming women and girls
The harms caused include unfair competition and demoralisation; losing out on records, rankings or on opportunities to participate; no consent or being coerced into a mixed-sex environment; a chilling climate of intimidation, fear and silencing; loss of privacy and dignity; and risks to women’s and girls’ physical safety
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SEEN in Sport
Network set up in April 2024 for all players, coaches, officials and parents who believe that women and girl’s sport should be for biological females only Female categories were instigated by governing bodies precisely because there is a biological difference between men and women, and fair play is only...
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Levelling the playing field – why women and girls matter in amateur sport
Why women and girls matter in amateur sport
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Performance of non-binary athletes in mass-participation running events
By John Armstrong, Alice Sullivan and George M Perry
BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine 2023 Volume 9, Issue 4 -
The trans colonisation of women’s sports
Fiona McAnena explains how an obsessive, decades-long campaign ushered in a whole new era of sporting sexism.
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Transgender competition in combat sports: Position statement of the Association of ringside physicians
Why the ARP does not support transgender athlete competition against cisgender athletes in combat sports – published in The Physician and Sportsmedicine, a peer-reviewed, sports-based medical journal for primary-care physicians.
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Football teams refuse to play after transgender player injures opponent
Oliver Brown for The Telegraph
Exclusive: Four sides in Sheffield women’s league boycotting games after transgender player accused of causing a season-ending injury -
Stonewall chair speaks (and then recants)
Iain Anderson, chair of trustees for Stonewall, has given an extended interview to Sky News’s Beth Rigby. It is well worth watching the whole thing. In the interview Anderson seemed to be trying to distance the organisation from the extreme position it has taken, saying that he recognises that...
22nd July 2023
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Reality vs. Trans Ideology | Helen Joyce & Peter Boghossian
Peter and Helen discuss the definition of sex, why trans men should be allowed in women’s spaces, the tragedy of the commons, fa’afafine, evolution, the “thought-terminating cliché,” the tribal fear of rejection, the cultivation of mental illness, why institutions are losing their North Stars, and much more.
1:10:31 on... -
Fairness in sports governance: a Sex Matters webinar
Our director of advocacy, Helen Joyce, talked to Olympian Sharron Davies and campaigner Fiona McAnena on 28th June 2023 about the work they and others have been doing to reverse unfair policies that allow male athletes into female sporting events on the basis of self-declared “gender identity”. This webinar...
21st June 2023
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Westminster Hall debate on our petition to make the Equality Act clear
Monday 12th June 2023 For the full official transcription of the debate, see Hansard. In the Chair, Judith Cummins began by reminding everyone that the petitions being debated indirectly related to two ongoing legal cases in the Scottish courts, but that reference to those would be allowed. Tonia Antoniazzi (Gower)...
13th June 2023
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‘Allowing trans athletes to compete as women is a throwback to the dark ages of misogyny’
Anonymous authors for The Telegraph
Three female sports competitors open up on how they really feel competing against trans women - and the fear of abuse that kept them quiet. -
Campaigners reveal in new poll majority of Britons want trans ban in female spaces
Sarah O’Grady, Social Affairs Editor for the Daily Express
Feature on Sex Matters’ poll results, released on 5th June 2023. -
Less than third of Britons want transwomen allowed in female-only spaces
James Beal, Social Affairs Editor for The Times
Feature on Sex Matters’ poll results, released on 5th June 2023. -
Fewer than a third of Brits think trans women should be allowed to use female changing rooms and three-quarters want them excluded from women’s sport
Ryan Hooper for the Daily Mail
Feature on Sex Matters’ poll results, released on 5th June 2023. -
Less than a third of Brits say transwomen should be allowed in female-only spaces and sports
Sex Matters has today released the findings from a representative national poll. It finds that less than one in three Britons believe that transwomen – men who identify as women – should be allowed in women’s sports, changing rooms and toilets, or to provide ‘female-only’ intimate care. The lack...
5th June 2023
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Sex Matters poll results as graphics (for printing)
A six-page graphical summary of the figures from our poll: a nationally representative sample of over-18s, polled online on 15th May 2023 by PeoplePolling. Optimised for printing.
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Sex Matters poll results as graphics (for screen)
A six-page graphical summary of the figures from our poll: a nationally representative sample of over-18s, polled online on 15th May 2023 by PeoplePolling.
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British Cycling excludes trans-identified males from competitive female cycling
In April 2022, British Cycling made global news when it revoked eligibility for Emily Bridges, a Welsh trans-identified male cyclist, who was poised to make his debut in the female category. This would have been in a major-track cycling event, against one of Britain’s most decorated cyclists, Dame Laura...
26th May 2023
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Parkrun ‘self-ID’ lets biological male runners ‘smash women’s records’, Olympian claims
Catherine Lough for The Telegraph
An article prompted by what Mara Yamauchi, a member of Sex Matters' advisory group, has written. -
Response to Victor Madrigal-Borloz’s report on the UK
The UN Independent Expert Victor Madrigal-Borloz has issued an extraordinary report at the end of his ten-day mission to the UK. The thrust of it is the familiar claim that speaking clearly about the material reality of the two sexes amounts to “hate”, alongside the equally familiar dismissal of...
12th May 2023
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Answers to questions on sex, gender, biology and identity
Sex Matters has written a set of frequently asked questions which seeks to provide answers in everyday language about the material reality of sex, and the idea of gender identity. The aim is to provide clear starting points for debate and discussion, for anyone trying to understand the competing...
28th April 2023
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London Marathon has tied itself in knots by trying to be ‘inclusive’ in trans row
Oliver Brown, Chief Sports Writer, for The Telegraph
Olympian Mara Yamauchi, a member of Sex Matters’ advisory group, is quoted and given credit for drawing attention to the unfairness of the Frank case. -
The non-binary category in marathons
Mara Yamauchi is the UK’s third-fastest female marathon runner ever and a two-time Olympian. She is a member of Sex Matters’ advisory group and has written this guest blog. Since 31st March, post-puberty males have been banned from the female category by World Athletics – in world rankings competitions...
26th April 2023
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Transgender athlete apologises for running London Marathon as female before transitioning
Oliver Brown, Chief Sports Writer, for The Telegraph
Frank’s apology comes in response to scathing comments from Mara Yamauchi, the third fastest British female marathon runner in history. -
Trans runner beat 14K women in London Marathon after running NYC as a man
Lee Brown for the New York Post
A two-time Olympian has ripped rules that allowed a transgender runner to beat nearly 14,000 women in the female category of the London Marathon.
The article quotes extensively from tweets made by Mara Yamauchi, a member of Sex Matters’ advisory group. -
Trans athlete running as a female in London Marathon labelled ‘wrong and unfair’
Oliver Brown, Chief Sports Writer, for The Telegraph
Olympian Mara Yamauchi, a member of Sex Matters’ advisory group, is quoted at length.