Stonewall now actively campaigning for policies which will kill and cripple women
Stonewall now actively campaigning for policies which will kill and cripple women
JL, a passionate rugby fan, explains how Stonewall have placed ideology over women's safety
Rugby can be a dangerous sport.
In August 2018 a French player, Louis Fajfrowski, a forward for Stade Aurillacois, died as a result of a heavy tackle during a game. An investigation ruled that he died from a lethal fibrillation; the blow to the chest he received during the tackle had disrupted the rhythm of his heartbeat. He was twenty-one years old.
He was one of four young French rugby players to die in the space of just eight months. In an article about the deaths, a neurosurgeon said of men’s rugby “the injuries we see today are more like road traffic accidents. The man who plays rugby today is heavier and runs faster. The shocks are stronger. It is a very big inflated engine on a chassis that was not designed to support it. These muscular players have the same bones, joints, tendons, internal organs, rib cage, brain and heart. It’s a public health problem.”
I have been a passionate rugby fan for decades, a staunch supporter of my local team and a regular at international games. But in the aftermath of tragedies such as these, I am forced to question my love for a game in which strong young men can actually lose their lives on the pitch. No sport is worth that, and it’s why we ask governing bodies to take every possible element into account when addressing safety.
To that end, in February, rugby union’s governing body, World Rugby, held a landmark transgender workshop. Leading independent experts from the areas of performance, science, medicine, risk, law and socio-ethics presented the latest research and studies surrounding the inclusion of transwomen in the female game.
A 38-page draft document produced by this working group recommends that current guidelines, which allow trans-identified males to play on women’s teams, are not fit for purpose. World Rugby has announced that it is reviewing its transgender policy.
"The latest peer-reviewed research confirms that a reduction of testosterone does not lead to a proportionate reduction in mass, muscle mass, strength or power. These important determinants of injury risk and performance remain significantly elevated after testosterone suppression… This presents a clear safety risk when transgender women play women's contact rugby”.
Of course, this announcement has sent the trans lobby into a tailspin. Ignoring the women whose opportunities are being stolen and whose safety is being jeopardised, trans groups and their enablers are wringing their hands over the potential exclusion of males from women’s rugby.
Unsurprisingly, Stonewall is leading the charge, proving beyond doubt that their trans agenda is more important than women’s lives. They claim that the trans-identified males currently playing on women’s teams are “the most vulnerable people in the community”.
Last year BBC Sport Wales reported on transwoman, Kelly Morgan, who plays rugby for the Porth Harlequin Ladies team.
Morgan is 34 years old, is six feet tall and works as a lorry driver. In the article, the team captain describes how Morgan "folded a girl like a deckchair" during a match. The team’s founder, Brian Minty, told the BBC that Kelly is going to be a good player for several years, “as long as we can stop her injuring players in training”.
Stonewall have turned off the comments on the above tweet, perhaps to avoid those pointing out that there is a 20%-30% greater risk of injury to a female player when she is tackled by a male. Stonewall have access to the same information that we have, yet they ignore it, tacitly admitting that their vision of ‘civil rights’ is impossible without the cost of dead or disabled women.
And why? If World Rugby do go ahead with the ban, transwomen will not be excluded from playing. They will still be at perfect liberty to play on sex-appropriate teams with other males. Or they could form their own teams, as women had to.
Women’s rugby is still in its infancy. The first official Women’s Rugby World Cup was held only 22 years ago. Funding is precarious and opportunities to play professionally are rare. But still, Stonewall and the Munchausen Mums of Mermaids are advocating that women give up their places and opportunities to males.
Sure enough, Stonewall’s tweet is being mercilessly slapped around on Twitter at the moment.
What kind of a civil rights organisation thinks women’s sports, achievements and safety are acceptable prices to pay for something that isn’t even fair or reasonable to ask for in the first place?
We hope that World Rugby stays strong and refuses to bow to pressure from these lobby groups. They will probably find they have more support than they realise. As one Twitter user put it: “The proposal to let transwomen play in women’s rugby hovers somewhere near evil.”
No males or TW in women's sports. Stonewall has no interest in women's rights, only men's.
I am sometimes led to think that this is just an argument about theory among a load of people in London (like me) but then I see things like this.
My London 'friends' who are big on the 'trans women are women' thing seem to see sportswomen (their careers and their lives) as collateral damage; I find it staggering. What will it take for them to take it seriously?!
I was chatting to an old friend in my (obscure northern industrial) hometown, though (we never talk about stuff like this) and she said she'd recently given up roller derby as trans women got on the team and were kicking the shit out of them. It's already affecting so many people we don't even hear about.