‘The AFL treated me like sh*t’: Hannah Mouncey withdraws from AFLW draft
Image: Hannah Mouncey. Image: Dean Arcuri.
Trans football player Hannah Mouncey has announced that she won’t nominate for the upcoming AFLW draft, citing poor treatment by the AFL as the reason behind her decision.
Over several posts on Twitter last night—which included personal medical tests and data she had provided to the AFL—Mouncey said despite meeting all necessary requirements to play, the AFL had “treated [her] like shit” and she would not nominate for the 2018 draft.
“I have uploaded all the blood tests I have dating back to the end of 2015 until last month, as well as the data I provided the AFL,” she wrote.
“The reason is to show the reality of where I sit, to show that this is not because I don’t meet their requirements.
“The testosterone data shows how far below requirements I am. To do otherwise, I would have risked constant speculation about that, and possibly being labelled a cheat for being above, which is not something I can live with.
“Essentially the toll of doing this on my own has been far too great. The AFL has treated me like shit, with every effort made to wear me down to a point where I couldn’t continue.”
Last year, Mouncey was blocked from the AFL women’s draft, after looking set to become its first trans player.
She had since been cleared to play at the state level and was playing for the Darebin Falcons in the VFLW this year.
Greens Senator Janet Rice said the AFL isn’t walking the walk when it comes to LGBTI inclusion.
“The AFL is happy to talk the talk when it comes to LGBTI inclusion, but Hannah’s experience shows that when push comes to shove, they’re not prepared to walk the walk,” she said.
“The discrimination Hannah has faced through this whole ordeal is indicative of an organisation struggling with fear and ignorance.
“The AFL must apologise to Hannah and commit to doing better so that trans and gender diverse people feel welcome and are able to participate in the sport.”
The AFL released its gender diversity policy last month, which stated that trans women would need “maintenance of testosterone at or below 5 nmol/L for at least two years”, “to ensure that the competitive advantage of higher levels of testosterone have dissipated to an acceptable degree”.
It also stated that if the threshold was met, trans women seeking to nominate for the AFLW draft “must produce information including data regarding their heigh, weight, bench press, 20 metre sprint, vertical jump, and two kilometre run”, and that periodic testing would be ongoing to ensure maintenance of the low testosterone levels.
Please follow the next few posts, I won’t be commenting further on it at this stage pic.twitter.com/rUY2iSeC8k
— Hannah Mouncey 🤾♀️ (@HannahMouncey) September 9, 2018
Further reading: Hannah Mouncey could take AFL to Human Rights Commission
Sadly I think that many sporting organisations are happy to ‘support’ their gay fans and even pose on the cover of gay magazines (you know who I mean) but when it actually comes to real inclusion, it’s the same old same old. I know of so many gay people that are not interested in sports any longer because of homophobic abuse they suffered in their youth in sporting teams.
We just need to join gay sporting teams, like Sydney stingers (Waterpolo) bent sticks (hockey) and so many others and whip the hetro teams at their own game!!!