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Allyship and Pride in Sports

This year’s pride comes during a period of increased limitations on trans participation in sports. As a bi, non-binary rugby player, this feels extremely relevant and important to speak on. This blog will look at how we can all be better allies to trans people at a time when active allyship could have a material impact on trans people's quality of life.

  

I have played women’s rugby for almost 20 years and have played across the country, starting in Brighton RFC, spending my last season at Sheffield RFC and this latest season at Shelford RFC (near Cambridge). I have been a part of county and regional teams at various points, especially earlier in my career when there was less competition. At this point in my life, I am happy trundling around the pitch, taking advantage of my natural assets (a low centre of gravity) and trying to compensate for my natural weaknesses (‘it’s like watching someone run slow-mo through a bog’) and as a result as, one recent spectator remarked, ‘spending most of my time getting up off the ground’.  

  

Expression of gender and sexual orientation

My sports team has always been a place where different expressions of gender and sexual orientations have been prominent and life-changing. In my local under-18 team, back in 2010, there were a number of trans and LGB players, and it was a revelation – suddenly, it was accepted to be different, almost not worth speaking of, whereas at home and school, I faced walls in every direction. Every subsequent team has continued to provide a different view of what gender means and affirm support for someone who has never fit comfortably into ideas of femininity. I will be forever grateful for the safe space and role modelling my teams provided me. This is not to say that sports are a perfect bubble, free from inequalities; I’ve faced biphobia in a few rugby teams, I’m well aware of the racism being documented in rugby and, as with most women’s sports, have been fighting for resources and equal respect for the past 20 years. Equally, however, without the friends I have made and the examples of living authentically, there is no way I would feel as comfortable to be who I am as I am today. All this is to share the impact of inclusive sports and how it can be a safe space specifically for trans people to explore understandings of their own gender in an environment where gender stereotypes are challenged.  

Trans discrimination in the UK

 I am very conscious as I continue turning up to training each week that for my trans sisters, this affirming, safe space has been ripped away from them and that sporting bodies across the sector are contemplating whether to allow trans women to play. From the time I was playing at under 18s in 2012, to completing my last season at Sheffield in 2022, reported trans hate crimes have risen by nearly 1300%. In Jan 2023, the Daily Mail alone published 115 articles on trans people and of these, 100 (87%) could reasonably be categorised as negative.

The fact that a trans woman was granted asylum in New Zealand on the basis of discrimination experienced in the UK should be a sign that there is a severe problem. Yet, I continue to hear arguments that presume policies start from a place free from bias.

At this point, with an average of 154 articles on trans people published per month for the last seven years up to 2022, it would be almost impossible not to be subliminally influenced or have a disproportionate understanding of how many trans people are participating in sport.

According to the 2021 census, within England and Wales, trans people make up 0.5% of the population and trans women 0.1%. Before starting conversations around trans inclusion policies, those involved must understand the broader context we are operating in the UK. The unceasing media coverage that presents trans people, and specifically trans women, as a threat to cis women has created a toxic discourse and an overshadowing of some major threats to women’s sport (lack of investment, sexism, sexual harassment, uneven experiences of injuries, discrimination etc.). If the aim in creating these policies is to start from a position of neutrality, without acknowledging biases that have formed due to the media representation of trans people, you will have failed before you have begun. 

 Trans inclusion and allyship

An act of allyship for this pride is to think critically about the media coverage of trans people. Do you think the coverage is proportionate? Out of the news sources you read or listen to, how many positive stories about trans people do you come across? How many negative? Which voices are loudest? How do you feel in response to these articles? Research shows trans women of colour experience disproportionate rates of fatal violence – is this being acknowledged or covered in the media you see?

If we dig deeper into the Daily Mail statistics, it suggests that on average there were three negative articles published about trans people a day. Can you imagine the impact this has on your trans colleagues, friends and families?  Trans people are in more need of allyship than ever.

Recognising distortion in the picture presented by the media and how it impacts the people around you is one crucial step you can take to restore balance to this destructive narrative. 

Supporting trans inclusion in sport

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