Trans inclusion in sport is destroying women's rights
Piers Morgan said:
“Suddenly everybody wanted to be on the transgender train, and then everything had to be changed, women's rights had to be destroyed, women's rights to fairness, equality, safety had to be completely ignored and eradicated at the altar of transgender activism.”
Framing trans inclusion as an attack on women's rights connects to a real and widely felt concern about fairness in sport, and the language of 'eradication' gives it urgency that resonates with audiences who follow the debate.
Fairness in sport is a real question, and it deserves careful, specific answers rather than an all-purpose story about destruction and eradication. The actual picture is that trans women competing at elite level are very few, governing bodies across most sports have introduced eligibility criteria including testosterone thresholds precisely because they are trying to hold inclusion and competitive fairness together, and there is no documented wave of trans women sweeping away cisgender women from podiums. What gets lost when the debate is pitched at this volume is that the people on the receiving end of this language are individuals, most of them nowhere near elite competition, who just want to take part. Treating every trans woman as a threat to every other woman does not protect women's sport; it drives trans people out of it entirely, and that is a cost that lands on real people every time the rhetoric is turned up.
What I said at the time:
“I don't understand why you have this that both of you have this huge thing where we have to not 1 single woman must be affected by these terrible trans people. What about inclusion?”
Trans women and girls who are characterised as a collective threat rather than individuals seeking to participate in sport, and who face increased hostility as a result.