Dutch darts player Noa-Lynn van Leuven was on the receiving end of harassment at her latest match (Saturday 27th July), as transphobic protestors waved a banner and wore t-shirts with slogans designed to cause distress, and threw items at the stage, possibly in an attempt to harm or physically prevent van Leuven from being able to compete.
The match was part of the Betfred Women's World Matchplay, which took place in Blackpool, saw van Leuven competing against Lorraine Winstanley. During the match three women in the audience began to cause a disturbance. One wore a t-shirt saying 'Save Women's Sports', whilst another tried to unfurl a banner, and a third filmed.
Security quickly intervened, and tried to remove the women from the event due to their disruption; however, the three protestors can be seen on video refusing to leave, struggling against the security guards and screaming 'He's a man', as they're made to leave.
One of the transphobic protestors, a woman named Jean Hatchet, claims that her fighting against the security left her with 'bruises and scratches', and she accuses the security personnel of being 'very violent' towards her despite the video clearly showing that she was pushing back against them and refusing to leave peacefully.
Hatchet, a writer who has supported other transphobes on social media, including racist Sandie Peggie, complained that she 'didn't even get a chance to say 'he's a man' before being dragged out', as if she has some kind of right to verbally assault members of a minority group that she hates. Following the event Hatchet has continued to insult, denigrate, and villainise van Leuven on social media, misgendering her, and calling for her to be thrown out of the sport. A quick scroll through her social media shows that this kind of dehumanising rhetoric is acceptable to her, as she has multiple posts from herself and shared from other accounts that try to equate the queer community with paedophiles and violent offenders.
Despite the disruption to her match, van Leuven went on to win her first round against Winstanley, before losing in the second round against Fallon Sherrock; another example of how the transphobic claim that trans women are 'dominating' women's sports are clearly not based in reality.
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