The Good News Supplement - Monday 11th November - Sunday 17th November

A handful of the good news stories from the gender beat this week. Enjoy!

Good Lords

The FA’s decision to censure a teenage girl for questioning a trans-identified male player on a women’s football team has been blasted in the House of Lords.

A couple of weeks ago we reported on a 17-year-old girl, currently on the assessment pathway for autism, who plays for a local women’s football team. During a pre-season friendly against another team, concerned for her own safety, the girl questioned the presence of a bearded trans-identified male opposition player.

The girl’s comments were reported to the FA via sports watchdog, Kick It Out, and she was subjected to a traumatic investigation process culminating in a six-game ban.

This week, Lord Triesman, life peer and former chairman of the Football Association, condemned the FA’s decision. Speaking in the House of Lords, he questioned the policy which allows trans-identified males to play women’s football. He then commented, “I say with regret this afternoon, shame on the Lancashire County Football Association, backed up by the FA itself, because an autistic 17-year-old girl has been banned for 12 [sic] matches for asking about whether a large, and really quite aggressive bearded trans woman, was authorised to play in the competition in which she was playing… I must say, that she seems to me to have been treated in a shabby way, and I don’t intend to let it rest.”

Lord Triesman has written to Debbie Hewitt, FA chair, and Mark Bullingham, FA chief executive, to address this issue.

Baroness Fox also spoke in the House of Lords about this case. She pointed out that the young girl in question was ‘put in the dock’ by the FA at the same time as the organisation introduced Football Without Limits, its new disability policy. “No limits unless you’re a young autistic woman who offends gender ideology, it seems”.

Underneath the Arches

And while we’re on the subject of the FA, there was an amazing protest at Wembley Stadium this weekend.

Ahead of the England v Ireland match, a huge group of women and our male allies - an estimated 200 people - gathered outside Wembley Stadium to raise our voices against the egregious FA policy which erases safety and fairness in the women’s game.

There was a great atmosphere, plenty of positivity, and many attending the game stopped to chat. Overwhelmingly, they were on our side.

Those not able to attend in person showed their support on social media.

Despite the absence of any drag queens, the story even made it to the BBC!

To lend your voice to growing chorus against the FA’s misogynistic policy, please sign this petition.

A Room of One’s Own

Ohio has just passed a bill protecting female-only bathrooms and changing rooms in the state’s educational establishments.

Senate Bill 104 passed by 24 votes to seven. It requires public K-12 schools and higher education institutions to provide separate bathrooms, locker rooms and overnight accommodations based on a student’s biological sex, not ‘gender identity’, and it prohibits the construction of any ‘gender neutral’ - ie mixed sex - facilities on campus.

See You in Court

Imane Khelif, the boxer who stole a women’s gold medal at the Paris Olympics, is facing legal action which may result in his true sex being proved in a court of law.

A few weeks ago, Algerian-French journalist, Djaffer Aït Aoudia, wrote about a leaked 2023 medical report which proves unequivocally that boxer, Imane Khelif, is male. The report was produced by endocrinologists, Soumaya Fedala and Jacques Young, and reveals that Khelif is affected by 5-alpha reductase deficiency, a disorder of sexual development that is only found in males.

According to Aoudia’s article, this clinical report involved an MRI which showed that far from having any female reproductive organs, Khelif has internal testicles. A hormone test discovered that he has a testosterone level usual in males and a chromosomal test confirmed that he has an XY karyotype.

Khelif’s lawyer accused Aoudia’s article of being ‘fake news’. So Aoudia is taking legal action. If Khelif really isn’t a man, they can prove it in court.

Volleyballs to Men in Women’s Sport

A group of sportswomen are taking legal action against the Mountain West Conference and officials at San Jose State University over the presence of a trans-identified male player in the women’s game.

The San José State University women’s volleyball team has been much in the news recently over its inclusion of 6ft 1in tall trans-identified male player, Blaire Fleming. A number of women’s college teams have forfeited games rather than compete against a squad with a male player, Fleming has been accused of conspiring to injure his own team captain and the team’s assistant coach has been suspended for expressing her concerns about his inclusion.

This week twelve women have filed a federal law suit against the Mountain West Conference and its commissioner, Gloria Nevarez, San Jose State University, its head volleyball coach, Todd Kress, and two school administrators, and the trustees board for the California State University system.

The plaintiffs include the San José State assistant coach (who is currently suspended), Melissa Batie-Smoose, the co-captain, Brooke Slusser, two of the team’s former players, and athletes from four other Mountain West schools. They allege that the school and the conference violated the US Constitution and Title IX by allowing a trans-identified male to play for a women’s sports team and by suppressing the right to freedom of speech of those who protested his presence. They are seeking emergency injunctive relief that would declare Fleming ineligible for the upcoming conference tournament in Las Vegas 27th - 30th November.

We wish these brave women the very best of luck.

Coe Get 'Em

Sebastian Coe has made clear that female sports will be protected should he succeed in his bid to become President of the IOC.

Lord Coe is in the running to succeed as President of the International Olympic Committee in March. Often vocal in his defence of women’s sports, he has made clear that, should he be appointed to the IOC role, he will ringfence women’s sports to ensure they are strictly female-only. “It’s a very clear proposition to me – if you do not protect the female category, or if you are in any way ambivalent about it for whatever reason, then it will not end well for women’s sport.”

And Finally…