The International Rugby League (IRL) announced that transgender women will not be permitted to play in women’s international rugby competitions, for now.
The IRL instituted the ban while the organization conducts research to implement a formal transgender inclusion policy.
“Until further research is completed to enable the IRL to implement a formal transgender inclusion policy, male-to-female (transwomen) players are unable to play in sanctioned women’s international rugby league matches,” the announcement noted.
“It is the IRL’s responsibility to balance the individual’s right to participate – a long-standing 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,” the statement added.
Cont. from the IRL statement:
The IRL will continue to work towards developing a set of criteria, based on best possible evidence, which fairly balance the individual’s right to play with the safety of all participants.
To help achieve this, the IRL will seek to work with the eight Women’s Rugby League World Cup 2021 finalists to obtain data to inform a future transwomen inclusion policy in 2023, which takes into consideration the unique characteristics of rugby league.
As The Blaze noted, global debate continues about allowing biological males, who identify as women, to compete in women’s sports.
FINA, an entity related to swimming and other water sports, has banned biological men from competing against women unless they meet certain criteria.
Male athletes who wish to compete against women must prove that “They have complete androgen insensitivity and therefore could not experience male puberty,” or that “They are androgen sensitive but had male puberty suppressed beginning at Tanner Stage 2 or before age 12, whichever is later, and they have since continuously maintained their testosterone levels in serum (or plasma) below 2.5 nmol/L,” according to the policy.
FINA’s policy will prohibit Penn transgender swimmer Lia Thomas from competing in international women’s competitions.
University of Pennsylvania Transgender Swimmer Lia Thomas Banned From Elite Competition
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