Sport NZ falls like SO hard
In which I translate Sport NZ's "Guidelines for the inclusion of transgender people in community sport" into Plain Language.
Women’s sports. It’s time?
When I go to visit the Ihi Aotearoa | Sport NZ homepage one of the scrolling hero images is of two New Zealand women rugby players on the field, one carrying a rugby ball. The byline in the text overlay reads “Women’s Sport. It’s Time.”
In light of the government agency’s just released Guidelines for inclusion of transgender people in community sports I find this ominous. If used, these guidelines, will effectively mark the end of women-only sport in Aotearoa. It is 25 pages of mostly disdainful and snobbish talk coming from an elite that has fallen victim to a weird gender doctrine.
The gender doctrine
This doctrine—a sort of spiritual faith—includes a set of beliefs that most common-sense people and every decent scientist knows are wrong: (a) that we all have an inner gender identity that is more important than our actual biological sex; (b) that people can be born in the wrong body; and (c) that people can literally change sex (not just emulate the other sex with clothes, surgery and hormones—this is a belief that they can literally change sex). All of these beliefs are untrue and have absolutely no scientific basis. They’re also a bit contradictory.
This gender faith has got an awful lot of traction among bureaucrats and policy makers because it was ushered in as part of the fight for the human rights of transgender people—in itself a worthwhile thing. Of course trans-identified people and others who believe in the gender faith should have their human rights protected. Anarchists, astrologists, Christians, dog-owners, far right wingers, health workers, nudists, people who believe the moon landings are fake, politicians and organic vegetable growers also should have their human rights protected. Everyone should regardless of how horrifying or loveable we find their preoccupation, predilections and beliefs. But recognising universal human rights does not require us to lose our fucking minds. It’s deeply disturbing that decision-makers have decided that the human rights of trans people (which rights don’t they have exactly?) require the rejection of science, the abandonment of common sense, the complete re-organisation of our entire society to cater for a tiny minority, a whole new language, and getting rid of sex-based groups, organisations and facilities—like women’s sport.1 Sounds a bit like a fundamentalist takeover of our country doesn’t it?
The guts of the guidelines
First, these guidelines are not really about including transgender people in sports at all. Transgender people are already welcome in sports clubs and teams across the country. The guts of the guidelines are that trans people should be able to play in whichever single-sex team they currently identify with. Not inclusion, which they already have, but inclusion in the team they choose.
It’s also worth being aware that we are not just talking about transgender people who have undertaken surgery or taken hormones to mimic the appearance of another sex, but anyone who merely identifies as another sex . This is, by the way, the essence of the NZ law around self-identification. Under this law a man may legally transform into a woman just by declaring that he feels like a woman2.
The biggest impact of the guidelines would mean biological males are allowed on female teams. Males are built differently to females: they have different physiques and are, on average, significantly heavier, stronger and faster than females. This is why single-sex teams and competitions exist. They make things fairer, allow women the chance to compete against their own kind, are safer and help avoid injury. In most situations almost all of us are happy to go along with people identifying outside of their sex, but there are a few situations and scenarios where biology is really important. Sport is one of them. These guidelines make single-sex teams mixed-sex.
The guidelines are long-winded, mystifying, complex and slithery. They are drenched in sentences that mean the exact opposite of what they say. They start with a lengthy indoctrination glossary that includes words that don’t actually appear in the document. All good ideologies have a whole swathe of new words and new definitions for old words to ensure people don’t think in the old ways. This is a handy guide to what genderists want you to think.
When I read the document I realised it falls foul of NZ’s newly passed Plain Language Act 2022 which requires crown agents to produce documents that are (a) appropriate to the intended audience; and (b) clear, concise, and well organised. In the spirit of the Act I have helpfully decided to give Sport NZ a hand. l have translated key parts of the Guidelines into exactly the kind of Plain Language the Act stipulates. Ahem.
Guiding principles for the inclusion of transgender people: highlights
An Official Garwhoungle Plain Language Translation
December 2022
Sport NZ: Every New Zealander has the right to participate in Sport and to be treated with respect, empathy and positive regard.
Plain Language: You have a right to play sport in any team you feel like if you are a bloke. You deserve respect, empathy and positive regard if you agree with our whacky ideas3.
Sport NZ: Transgender people can take part in sports in the gender they identify with.
Plain Language: If you’re a boy or man you can play in women’s sports if you are feeling all girly right now.
Sport NZ: The health, wellbeing and safety of participants4 must be supported..
Plain Language. We know this is unfair to women and girls, will result in more injuries and breaches safeguards but we don’t give a shit.
Sport NZ: Changing rooms and bathroom facilities need to ensure privacy so that all people can use them safely and comfortably.
Plain Language: If you identify as a transwoman or are felling a bit girly you can go into women and girls loos, showers, and changing rooms. Or feel free to go in if you’re just a creepy man because it will be normal now and no one will dare complain.
Sport NZ: Shared accommodation can raise significant privacy and safety concerns for transgender people. Where teams have shared accommodation, transgender people should be given the option of proposing who they would be comfortable sharing a room with and/or whether they require a separate room.
Plain Language: If you identify as a transwoman or just have some girly feelings right now you can sleep in a room with whoever you like. We don’t give a shit about the privacy and safety of women and girls.
Sport NZ: The privacy and dignity of all participants5 must be respected.
Plain Language: You must respect the privacy, dignity, girly feelings and reckons of males.
Sport NZ: There is zero-tolerance for discrimination, bullying and harassment.6
Plain Language: If you say that you don’t like any of this we will call you a bully and a transphobe.
Sport NZ: Transgender people face many forms of subtle and overt discrimination, bullying, harassment and exclusion. Examples include: being told, or asked if, they are in the wrong bathroom and being asked to leave
Plain Language: If you are a woman or girl and a male is in your space and you are feeling uncomfortable we don’t give a shit. You will be too scared to report any male behaving inappropriately in a female shower, toilet, changing room or bunkroom because they might identify as transgender and you will be called a bully and a transphobe.
Sport NZ: All participants must be listened to and provided with appropriate channels and mechanisms to raise any concerns.
Plain Language: You should report anyone in your club or team for saying or thinking anything that goes against this policy or uses words in the wrong way. This way we can call them a bully and a transphobe and stop them pointing out the bleeding obvious.
Sport NZ: Education of ourselves and our communities is key.
Plain Language: We know you know this is absolutely bonkers so we must quickly re-programme you to think and talk like us. You in turn must re-programme others.
You’re welcome Sport NZ.
UPDATES:
11 September 2024
A group of New Zealand Olympians and prominent sportspeople have written an open letter to Sports NZ telling them to better protect women’s sports. Covered in NZ Herald here: Open letter from Olympians demands review of Government’s transgender guidelines for sports
9 October 2024
Chris Bishop, the NZ Minister of Sport and Recreation asks Sport NZ to update the Guidelines.
Some useful links
Save Women’s Sports Australasia — Australia and NZ organisation lobbying to keep sport fair for women and girls.
Fair play for women | Sports — Sports section of a UK charity that aims to support policy makers to protect women and girls
Women’s Sports Policy Working Group — A US group that works both to affirm women and girls’ sports and to include transgender athletes in sports.
Transgender Women in the Female Category of Sport: Perspectives on Testosterone Suppression and Performance Advantage. Hilton, E.N., Lundberg, T.R. Sports Med 51, 199–214 (2021). — Academic article which conclude that males that have been through puberty retain physical advantage even after taking hormones.
How does hormone transition in transgender women change body composition, muscle strength and haemoglobin? Systematic review with a focus on the implications for sport participation. Harper J, O'Donnell E, Sorouri Khorashad B, et al. British Journal of Sports Medicine 2021;55:865-872.
World Rugby 2020 Transgender Conference presentations — Includes data that led to World Rugby’s decision to keep elite women’s rugby single sex in order to protect biological women. In relation to community sport Ross Tucker’s video notes that scrum force is 40% higher in male scrums than female scrumns (the difference is twice as high at the elite level).
The tragedy is that this extremism, where we are not just asked to be kind, but that we must sign up unquestioningly to someone else’s faith or belief system, will make people really angry. Where we could have had genuine expansion of tolerance and respect for all people, I’m worried there will be a backlash against all sorts of tolerances. A backlash against tolerance for those who identify as trans or non-binary, against those who dress differently, against those who are distressed by their bodies, against those perfectly comfortable in their sex and skin but who present outside of the norms, against gays, lesbians and bisexuals who are (sometimes reluctantly) associated with over-the-top trans ideology. This extremism hurts everyone.
What feeling like a woman involves is never declared or when it is declared it’s entirely based around stereotypes and feminine presentation, nothing to do with actually being a female. For those interested Section 24 of the Births, Deaths and Relationships Registration Act 2021 enabled people to get a new birth certificate with a new sex by simply saying they identify as the new sex.
For example Minister of Sport, Grant Robertson, has just called people who have a problem with the guidelines “petty and small-minded”. Not really showing “respect, empathy or positive regard” there Grant.
Participants, in this instance, means participants that are not women or girls.
All participants, in this instance, means all participants except those that are women or girls.
There is zero-tolerance for discrimination, bullying and harassment.…against transgender people.
Brilliant take-down of Sport NZ's recent guidelines for pandering to feelings of blokes, rather than the biology of women. Of course, the word 'guidelines' is a joke, because we know that clubs who don't gospel-ise them will be punished in covert ways.
Yup, you got it. In plain language this says, "situation normal; men's wee feelings and egos must be protected at all costs, even at the expense of women's physical safety". It should have been subtitled: "How mediocre men can cheat their way to victory".