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Gymnastics Australia has released new guidelines permitting athletes to select the uniforms, events and change rooms that align with their “gender identity”.

This comes after other major sporting bodies have decided on more conservative policies to safeguard sportswomen. In June, FINA or World Aquatics, the global governing body for swimming, voted to bar transgender women (natal males) from elite women’s competitions if they had undergone any phase of male puberty beyond Tanner Stage 2, or transitioned after age 11. Instead, it may create an “open” category for them to take part in.

The ABC stated:

The policy allegedly cost the organisation $US1 million ($1.45 million) to research and was reportedly designed to withstand any legal or human rights challenge.

The International Rugby League has also banned “male-to-female (transwomen)” players from international matches while developing its “inclusion policy”. The IRL explained:

“It is the IRL’s responsibility to balance the individual’s right to participate — a longstanding principle of rugby league and at its heart from the day it was established — against perceived risk to other participants, and to ensure all are given a fair hearing.”

British Cycling also banned transwomen from competing, and the world governing body for cycling, Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), has banned athletes who underwent gender transition after male puberty from entering female events.

Against the Tide

The ABC observed a few months ago:

Australian sports organisations, such as Swimming Australia, would be unable to bring in a blanket ban such as FINA’s, because of anti-discrimination laws. In relation to sport, discrimination on the basis of strength, stamina and physique is possible but advantage cannot be assumed, it needs to be proven.

Sky News reported on Gymnastics Australia’s decision:

Where new facilities are built or undergoing upgrades, clubs will be asked to create more options for changing rooms to accommodate gender diverse individuals.

People will also be able to choose which existing changing and bathroom facilities they would like to use, reflective of their gender identity.

Gymnastics Australia chief executive Alexandra Ash said the guidelines renewed the body’s commitment to ensure the sport was “a safe and inclusive environment for everyone”.

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The major policy changes come after Gymnastics Australia joined the Commonwealth National Redress Scheme as a participating Institution last week.

The organisation said it has also further invested in processes and systems to ensure child safeguarding in the future.

Backlash

Oli London, a British internet personality who was known for identifying as transracial and a transwoman before his conversion to Catholicism and renunciation of his trans identity, pointed out the glaring danger in Gymnastics Australia’s move:

Tennis star Martina Navratilova likewise criticised the policy:

The Australian added that “in community gymnastics competitions – which is where most schoolchildren compete – individuals would be allowed to participate in the competition they believed best reflected their gender identity.”

The Human Rights Commission released a report in its Independent Review of Gymnastics in Australia 2021, with five key findings:

1. Current coaching practices create a risk of abuse and harm to athletes;
2. There is insufficient focus on understanding and preventing the full range of behaviours that can constitute child abuse and neglect in gymnastics;
3. A focus on ‘winning-at-all-costs’ and an acceptance of negative and abusive coaching behaviours has resulted in the silencing of the athlete voice and an increased risk of abuse and harm with significant short and long-term impacts to gymnasts;
4. There is an ongoing focus in gymnastics on the ‘ideal body’, especially for young female athletes. This, in addition to inappropriate and harmful weight management and body shaming practices, can result in the development of eating disorders and disordered eating which continue long after the athlete has left the sport; and
5. Gymnastics at all levels has not appropriately and adequately addressed complaints of abuse and harm and are not effectively safeguarding children and young people.

The ABC reported on this:

The Human Rights Commission’s review found those risk factors included the power imbalance between coaches and athletes and an insufficient understanding from the sport itself of what constitutes child abuse, resulting in the silencing of athlete voices and an increased risk of harm.

With such grave concerns already an issue in the sport, why is Gymnastics Australia risking further potential abuses with its all-inclusive policy? Either way, lawsuits may ensue.

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Photo by Andrea Piacquadiao.