On the 1st June the Football Association (FA) announced that it would be banning trans women from playing football across England, following the Supreme Court ruling on the definition of sex in the Equality Act. This decision will affect players on teams down to the grass roots level, and will include children's games.
The announcement from the FA said 'This is a complex subject, and our position has always been that if there was a material change in law, science, or the operation of the policy in grassroots football then we would review it and change it if necessary.' It is worth noting that the Supreme Court ruling was not, in fact, a change to the law that requires the exclusion of trans people, but simply allows for organisations to be able to segregate them if they wish to.
'The Supreme Court’s ruling on the 16 April means that we will be changing our policy. Transgender women will no longer be able to play in women’s football in England, and this policy will be implemented from 1 June 2025.' They continued. 'We understand that this will be difficult for people who simply want to play the game they love in the gender by which they identify, and we are contacting the registered transgender women currently playing to explain the changes and how they can continue to stay involved in the game.'
This decision was met with loud applause from transphobes, idiots, and bigots, but has received harsh condemnation from the majority of people, including huge swathes of female football players, who have been open and welcoming to trans players on their teams. My own sister plays on a team that has happily played against multiple trans women, and has indicated shock and anger at this decision.
Goal Diggers FC, a non-profit football club open to all players, including trans and non-binary people, established in 2015 has created an open letter to the FA demanding that this unfair and unreasonable ban be reversed. The letter compares the ban on trans players to the 1921 ban on women playing football, and has described the Supreme Court ruling as a 'stain on this country's reputation'.
The letter is open to anyone involved in football to sign, and I urge anyone who is able to add their voice to this letter to help try to raise awareness, and attempt to force the FA to see reason and decency.
The FA are only one sports body to use the Supreme Courts unscientific decision as an excuse to ban trans people from their games. England Netball has banned trans players from single sex categories and forced them to play in mixed games only, the England and Wales Cricket Board has banned trans women even down to the recreational level, and the Scottish Football Association has banned trans women from playing. These new bans follow on from a number of sporting and recreational bodies that banned trans players before the Supreme Court ruling.
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