The woke Australia Football League has ruled that a towering male athlete who claims to be “transgender” can play in a women’s competition in Adelaide.
Freya Golding, who plays for Westminster Old Scholars in the Adelaide Footy League after previously competing in the senior men’s competition, was the subject of formal complaints from three other clubs after an off-ball hit earlier this year.
Adelaide Footy League’s chief executive John Kernahan said last month that submissions had been made to a special AFL committee about player safety, citing concerns about “physical risk and duty of care”.
Members of the three clubs said they felt let down by the AFL making self-identification sufficient to play in community leagues, while AFLW players who claim to be “transgender” are required to show low testosterone levels to be eligible.
But the AFL’s Gender Diversity Policy Committee said in its verdict that Golding should be allowed to continue to play on the women’s team, 9News reported.
“The committee determined that it was not satisfied that the player’s participation in the competition gives rise to unacceptable safety risks,” the Committee said in an email.
“Accordingly, the player is permitted to continue to participate in the competition.”
The AFL said a new risk assessment could be undertaken if new information comes to light.
Golding addressed the issue in a video where he claimed to be a “transgender woman” and said “I’m not the biggest and tallest player going around, and by no means am I a dominant player”.
“I just want to play the sport that I love with a great group of people, and I’ve been so lucky to do that this year,” he said.
But Mr Kernahan said Golding was “six foot two or three, 92kg”.
“I appreciate the notion that there may be naturally born women that are six foot three and 92 kilos, but they are few and far between,” he said.
The inclusion of transgender players in female competitions stems in part from former Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s 2013 amendments to Australia’s Sex Discrimination Act, which extended protections to include “gender identity”.
The Australian Sports Commission’s National Guidelines for the Inclusion of Transgender and Gender Diverse People in Sport were developed to align with that amended legislation, although the federal Sex Discrimination Act contains an exemption for sport where strength, stamina or physique is relevant.
The amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act were also recently referenced in the Tickle vs Giggle Federal Court case, where female-only app Giggle was found to have discriminated against a man called “Roxanne” Tickle by banning him for not being a woman.
Header image: Left, Freya Golding in her video. Right, Golding on the field (9News).
