World Netball banned transgender players from women's competition

World Netball banned transgender players from competing in International women’s competitions to ensure safety and fairness. The global netball governing body stated, they held a lengthy consultation and developed a new participation and inclusion policy.

They concluded that sports are gender-affected. Hence, it requires a policy that provides fairness and safety availability to female athletes. This means that players who are female at birth irrespective of gender identity or transgender athletes will only be players to play women’s netball internationally.

🔴 World Netball bans transgender players from women’s internationals to ‘ensure fairness and safety’ https://t.co/B7gtfp1m0n
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) April 9, 2024

Those players have to prove to World Netball’s satisfaction that they have not experienced the biological effects of testosterone at any time.

Apart from World Netball, World Swimming banned transgender players in June 2022. It stopped transgender athletes from participating in women’s elite events if they had experienced any stage of male puberty.

Since then, international cricket, cycling, rugby, and athletics have all adopted similar policies. There are many different rules in place. However, national governing bodies have permission to adopt their own rules.

However, British Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer will host a roundtable of governing bodies to review policies across British sport. She will question administrators about the reasons for these new policies during the meeting.

Lucy said the safety of women and girls as well as competitive fairness cannot come at the cost of transgender inclusion. She will push governing bodies to prioritize what it refers to as common sense policies that show their position.

The Football Association should consider banning transgender women from playing women's football to remove any "unfair" competitive advantage, Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer has told Sky News pic.twitter.com/1Ff9Rz0Dbz
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) March 19, 2024

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The England and Wales Cricket Board and Football Association are two organizations. Their policies still allow transgender athletes to participate in women’s matches.

Meanwhile, England Netball’s policy which allows transgender women to participate in a friendly and informal environment is recently under review.

It stated the guarantee of fair and safe competition is the primary athletic goal. Hence, they may limit the participation of transgenders in domestic competition to respect these values.