Parents Criticise School After Trans Student Breaks Sports Records
Image: Cameron Allpress/Flickr
Parents at a South Australian Catholic school have criticised the administration for allowing a 13 year old trans student to compete with the girls at a recent sports day.
The student broke a number of records, causing discussion among the parents on the day.
“We were at the sports day, there was just a lot of chat about a boy (who) transitioned into a girl, (they) were breaking all the girls’ records,” one parent told news.com.au.
“All the parents were talking about it, even the primary school parents.
“It became quite noticeable. A lot of mums and dads, it became quite apparent a lot of (their) daughters were losing. It was anger — I mean, for (that child) to be competing with girls in a Catholic school of all places.”
While the school was not named, the story detailed identifying features of the student, and made multiple references to the school’s social media activity.
A number of parents have allegedly emailed the school about the issue, with one parent misgendering the student and claiming she was “a male student pretending to be a girl”.
“Numerous concerns come to mind, child safety, equality and morality being the main ones,” he wrote. “Watching this (child) compete against girls and winning at the sports day was very concerning.
“Physically boys will be able to outcompete girls, hence the need for male and female sports. Also taking from some poor girl an opportunity to further herself in her athletics.”
“We send our children to this school for Catholic structure, rules that are set for all to adhere to and a safer environment than a public school.”
Trans women in sports continue to be a political football
The news.com article was also discussed on Sunday night on SkyNews, with host Danica De Giorgio suggesting that the Liberals’ refusal to align themselves with transphobic policies contributed to their loss at the Federal election last week.
“In the end, weak men want to compete against women, and they put on the skirt and say, ‘I’m a woman now and I want to compete against you'”, said Sky News commentator Gary Hardgrave.
“But even weaker men support those people in that decision.”
Former Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said earlier in the year that allowing trans women to compete as women was “not in the spirit of sport“.
“It’s one of those debates that we have to be honest in, and it’s not about discriminating against anyone including young girls,” Dutton said.
“Young girls want to be able to compete on a fair basis and I think that is a perfectly reasonable position to hold.”
There is currently no federal legislation guaranteeing or denying trans people the right to compete in sports as their gender in Australia.
The South Australian Education Department states that all children and young people should be supported to take part in events that align with their gender identity.
“This includes all sport run by schools including inter-school competitions and School Sport SA … Compliance with law overrides any complaint the school might receive about including a gender diverse child or young person in any competitive sport.”
Although research has shown that trans women do not have a significant advantage over cis female athletes, the rights of transgender people to compete in categories that align with their gender identity has repeatedly come under attack.
Only last week, Britain’s Football Association announced that trans women were no longer allowed to compete in women’s football as a result of the Supreme Court’s ruling earlier in April that trans women are not legally women.
Here is something that people need to remember. When I was in Year Six, we went on a school camp, and the boys had to go for a run and the girls had to do some exercises. Some of us, who were assigned male, this included me, couldn’t keep up with the others, so a teacher told us to join the girls for exercises. Which we did. Fair enough. If there had been male and female football teams at the school, the teacher might have said, “Okay, sorry, you’re not good enough to make the team,” but the teacher would NOT have said, “Oh, okay, you’re not good enough to play on the boys’ side, so go and join the girls instead.” There will always be someone who has an advantage when it comes to height or foot size or whatever. I mean, does anyone remember much negativity about how Ian Thorpe had a stronger finish against Grant Hackett? I don’t.
Every time I see an article like this it’s on the remotest fringe of sporting, like when I was a kid participating in swimming, there was never a record discussed it was only about participating and doing your best. The outrage is super easy to stir up among those who hate trans people, and it’s the wedge issue with only one conclusion: the beginning of the end of trans inclusion in society. Just look at US and UK. We can tell people that trans women don’t have an advantage til we’re blue in the face, but with the variability of human capabilities in every category no-one can guarantee a trans woman will *never* score in the top 3 at all levels and all ages.
Trans people will never be safe in our society, and I can’t help think participating in women’s sports is tempting fate.
Absolute fantastic that the concerned parents brought it up,and while they’re busy typing away and emailing the School,why not disclose how many kids are from parents in De Facto Relationships and heaven forbid,the kids artificially conceived via IVF,it is a Catholic School of all places,as stated,they best start naming,maybe the School would oust those kids.
Remember what the 2nd Testament says about De Facto Relationships and remember what the Bishop of Rome said about IVF,un-natural his words were.