Controversy surrounds trans player in NSW state women’s football league

An elite womens’ football competition in NSW is being scrutinised over a trans player dominating the competition and reportedly injuring female players.

Football NSW’s League One Womens competition (the second tier of women’s football in the state) is understood to have a number of transgender female players in its teams. However, one player in particular is gaining attention, as joint top scorer in the League with seven goals in four games, including one game where she netted five goals.

The name of the 30 year old First Grade player, whom Australasian Leisure Management has chosen not to identify, appears to have been largely removed from the Football NSW website, being named on team sheets as ‘Inter Player'.

Nonetheless, screenshots of the USA-born player’s name have been displayed on social media platforms - a number of which include considerable criticism of the player being allowed to take to the field in a womens’ competition.

The player, a trans activist who identifies as a ‘transgender lesbian’, has a YouTube channel with 113,000 subscribers and has previously been active on Twitter and Instagram.

With reports suggesting a grassroots campaign to ban transgender women from female football teams in NSW, at the end of March, Football Australia announced the commencement of a process to develop an inclusion policy for transgender and gender-diverse athletes, advising that it plans to make football “the most multicultural, diverse, and inclusive sport in Australia.”

The policy will see Football Australia deliver LGBTQI+ training and support resources to the football community through its partnership with Pride in Sport.

In a statement introducing the policy development, Football Australia emphasised that “the aim of this training will be to provide the Australian football community with a greater understanding of the lived experience of LGBTQI+ communities and their participation in sport.”

While Football Australia emphasises education as well as its adoption of the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Guidelines for the inclusion of transgender and gender-diverse people in sport, Football NSW has not made any statement surrounding the inclusion of trans women on female sides.

The Commission’s shared guidelines about the inclusion of transgender people in sport in 2019, noted that “transgender and gender diverse people are sometimes excluded from sport, or may experience discrimination and sexual harassment when they do participate.

“While some reported positive experiences of inclusion, others described how they had been excluded from the sports they loved because of their sex or gender identity.

“Some spoke of disengaging from sport during their transition journey because of their concern about how their team mates would treat them.”

Lobby group Save Women’s Sport Australasia has extrapolated the matter to link it with the upcoming FIFA Women’s World Cup, releasing an open letter to FIFA and the event organisers.

The letter asks if, during the tournament, “female players (will) have a safe, fair, and level playing field when they take the pitch in July, given FIFA still allow trans identifying male players to compete in the gender they identify with, on a case-by-case basis. It is disappointing that no clear policy is yet in place despite their review being underway since June last year, and other sports such as World Athletics and World Aquatics having already made the move to protect the female category.

“In Australia males are already being granted entry to play in the women’s football competition ‘as women’ merely by a self-declared ‘gender identity’ due to Football Australia’s flawed inclusion policies. This has resulted in injuries for female players that we are aware of in the Football NSW fixture alone, due to the obvious male performance advantage and accompanying injury risk.

“Save Women’s Sports Australasia, along with our supporters across the globe, are calling on FIFA Women’s World Cup organisers to provide an assurance that males will not be permitted to play “as women” in the upcoming competition. This is to ensure fairness for our female athletes and to safeguard them from a heightened risk of injury. Female football players also deserve access to female-only changing facilities for their privacy and dignity.”

Last year, FIFA announced that it was reviewing its transgender eligibility policies.

Basketball Australia has today announced that an expert panel that it convened has determined transgender that player Lexi Rodgers is ineligible to play elite level basketball in Victoria's NBL1 South competition this season.

Images: The trans player, whom Australasian Leisure Management has chosen not to identify, competing during a Football NSW’s League One Womens match (top and below, credit: supplied) and the player's, name obscured, scoring statistics for the season (middle).