UK Athletics seeks trans athlete ban

UK Athletics said on Friday that it wants the British government to change the law to enable the agency to ban transgender athletes from competing in womens' events.

They are seeking a "sporting exemption" to a gender equity law that requires anyone listed as female on their identifying documents to be treated as a woman in all circumstances.

UKA chairman Ian Beattie said "it's fair to say that if we didn't get a legal change, it would be very difficult for us to go ahead with this policy."

The agency said it would favor an "open" category for its events that allow people of all genders to compete against each other.

UKA said that they were concerned by a lack of "scientifically robust, independent research showing that all male performance advantage is eliminated following testosterone suppression."

World Athletics currently allows trans women to compete in female categories, pending a vote of national federations in March.

Other sports, such as swimming, have banned trans women outright.

World Athletics preferred option is to administer testosterone tests, despite the warnings of doctors and scientists that some cisgender women may naturally have more testosterone than a cisgender man.

Report: Misogyny, not trans athletes, threatens womens' sports

In 2022, the Canadian Center for Ethics in Sport conducted a review of ten years of data and found that "the performance advantages from social factors, training and access to equipment are far greater than testosterone" levels in athletes.

The report also found no statistically significant advantage for trans women in terms of strength or muscle mass as opoposed to elite cisgender athletes.

"What threatens women’s elite sport, for cis and trans women, is not trans women, but is rather misogyny in the form of underfunding, non-parity in participation and leadership, inequitable sport space allocation/access, and a range of sporting opportunities not afforded to women (cis women and trans women) in equitable ways," the report concluded.

es/jcg (AFP, Reuters)