England Hockey has banned men who identify as women from playing in the women's category.
Field hockey's governing body appears to have devised a clever workaround by introducing a “women's” and an “open” category, but no category for men.
This would effectively force all biological males into the open division to ensure that women's sports are not affected.
“England Hockey recognizes that this is an evolving situation in both policy and research, and that public attitudes are constantly changing,” England Hockey said in a statement. press release.
“Based on currently available evidence and the fact that hockey requires physical abilities such as strength, endurance, speed and acceleration as important factors for success, hockey is considered to be a gender-sensitive sport.” The governing body acknowledged this. “Based on this evidence (as set out in the policy), we have determined that to ensure fair competition, the Transgender and Non-Binary Participation Policy should restrict transgender participation. .”
This policy will go into effect on September 1st, the start date of the 2025/2026 field hockey season, and all previous guidance will continue to apply until then.
The sporting body said it began the review in July 2023 and was guided by the Sport Council Equality Group, a group of UK sporting representatives who provide insight into policies of this type.
“Discussing a young person's transgender status with their parents is a breach of confidentiality.”
At the same time, England Hockey provided a plethora of resources that aligned with transgender ideology and served as paragraph after paragraph of apology.
This group included the following pages clauseprovided colloquial definitions for transgender-related words.
“Gender identity” is described as “a person's sense of self as a man, woman, nonbinary person, or other sense of gender.”
It added: “A person's gender may match or differ from the sex recorded at birth.”
“Transphobia” is described as “deliberate behavior aimed at belittling the identity of transgender people or expressing irrational fear of transgender people.”
England Hockey's page titled 'How to support transgender and non-binary participants' inform Athletic directors say their children's gender identities should not be shared with parents.
“Discussing a young person’s transgender status with a parent or carer without their prior consent constitutes a breach of confidentiality.”
England Hockey's move follows the decision in December by the Lawn Tennis Association, the governing body for tennis, to ban transgender women from competing in top women's tournaments.
The Women's Professional Golf Association announced a similar policy a week earlier, allowing only players “assigned female at birth” to compete in tournaments, including the LPGA Tour, Epson Tour, Ladies European Tour, and all other “elite LPGA tournaments.” announced that they were eligible to participate. ”
While the movement to protect women's sports is moving rapidly, governing bodies appear to be apologetically protective at the same time.
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