‘Safety and fairness’ concern in trans issue

AuthorMichael Nielson
Published date11 June 2021
Date11 June 2021
Publication titleNew Zealand Herald, The (Auckland, New Zealand)
The petition from Save Women’s Sports Australasia calls for more consultation on draft principles produced by Sport New Zealand, which they claim raise “safety and fairness” issues and has the backing of dozens of elite athletes.

But Sports Minister Grant Robertson says the petition appears to have “conflated” two discussions: The guidelines focused on grassroots sports and the principle of increasing participation — not elite-level sports, rules for which were largely determined by international bodies.

The guidelines focus on community sport and the principle of inclusion. They cite evidence around the barriers New Zealand’s roughly 50,000 trans and non-binary people face in playing sport and the associated mental health effects.

But this has irked some of New Zealand’s most successful sportspeople, 56 of whom backed the petition and penned an open letter to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Robertson citing concerns around “fairness and safety in all sport” and arguing the guidelines ignored the rights of female athletes.

Among them were former Olympians Barbara Kendall, Lorraine Moller and Dean Kent, former Olympic chef de mission and Emeritus Professor David Gerrard, New York marathon winner Alison Roe and former All Black Jeff Wilson.

Spokeswoman Ro Edge said more than 5300 Kiwis had signed the petition in less than two weeks. She said excluding transwomen from competing in any women’s sports was not their end goal.

“They should be able to compete in sport — how that looks and how we make that work is what we need to discuss.”

National’s sports and recreation spokesman, Mark Mitchell, said he was proud to accept the petition.

It had “nothing to do with anti-trans”, the MP said. “It is about finding a pathway to include everybody in sport. ”

The draft report cites research from the University of Waikato, which found 61 per cent of transgender participants were worried about how they would be treated in competitive sport.

About 50 per cent of the group avoid...

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