The Lawn Tennis Association, Britain's governing body for tennis, has banned transgender women from competing in top women's tournaments.
The new policy continues to allow men who identify as women to compete against women at the local level in tournaments for “fun” or “social” purposes.
The LTA's new policy describes tennis as a “gender-influenced” sport and acknowledges that the “average man” has an advantage when playing against the “average woman”.
This includes “long lever(a term referring to the shoulders and arms) and “increased cardiovascular capacity.”
association I wrote“The current broad consensus, including the conclusions of a review carried out by the Sporting Council’s Equality Group, is that this advantage for trans women is likely to hold to a significant extent, making competition potentially unfair. There is a possibility that it will happen.”
The tennis association also decided to allow men to play against women in some competitions, essentially on a recreational level. Therefore, a category called “specific and non-specific” was created.
Designation refers to competitions between different clubs or counties and includes national championships across county and district leagues.
Non-designation includes competition within a single venue with the primary purpose of “providing fun and sociable competition so that people feel part of the local tennis community” .
“These will range from weekend social tournaments to club championships and will be fully inclusive, with the selection being made by local venues,” LTA added.
The de facto ban would restrict “transgender women and non-binary individuals assigned male at birth” from playing in top-level competitive women's tournaments.
On the same day as the policy announcement, LTA Posted photo Words from Emma Raducanu, one of Britain's top-ranked female tennis players.
Raducanu is ranked 57th in the world, ahead of British player Sonay Kartal, who is ranked 85th, and behind Katie Boulter, Britain's top-ranked female tennis player and world No. 24.
Katie Boulter, British top-ranked female tennis playerPhoto by Angel Martinez/Getty Images for ITF
“This is a good start and we hope USTA and other companies will follow suit.”
At the end of the press release, the British tennis body encouraged local venues to be “as inclusive as possible for transgender and non-binary people” and ensure they have the opportunity to compete. Probably for women.
Martina Navratilova, tennis legend and liberal celebrity blessed the organizationHe said he hopes the United States Tennis Association will adopt the same rule soon.
“congratulations [LTA]this is a good start and we hope the USTA and other countries will follow suit. ”
The LTA is the second major women's sporting body to introduce new rules in recent days. Last week, the Women's Professional Golf Association changed its gender eligibility rules in a similar way.
The LPGA also cautions that only players “assigned female at birth” are eligible to participate in women's events, including the LPGA Tour, Epson Tour, Ladies European Tour, and all other “elite LPGA events.” used words.
More specifically, the LPGA said that players who were “assigned male at birth and have undergone male puberty” are not eligible to compete in women's competition.
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