15/02/2024
So here we are, back in the part of the news cycle with an inflated trans panic in sports. The victim this time: Parkrun, what is effectively a large, regular fun run. A right-wing think tank Policy Exchange had cricitised them for including trans women in the women’s records on their website.
The overall thrust of the report was that a harder stance needs to be taken at grassroots level to enforce “single-sex categories” – i.e. exclude trans people from the category of the gender they live in, or else they should lose public funding. Endorsed by the usual helpful celebrity transphobia mouthpieces such as Sharron Davies and Martina Navratilova, it was brought more into the public eye a couple of days ago on Sky News. In an admittedly quite funny segment with shades of The Day Today, they cut to interviews with several members of the public, all of whom gave a similar sort of “I don’t really care, it’s just a bit of fun, people should be allowed to run” answer, and then cut back to the presenter in the studio emphasising what a big deal this “problem” is.
Here’s the thing, one of the main things in fact, and we’ve said it before and we’ll keep saying it. The vast majority of people could not give a shit about this. In a good way. If you spend a lot of time on twitter you could convince yourself that the anti-trans movement is a vast beast, when it’s a very small minority that also happens to be very loud.
Jonathan Liew wrote a very sound piece in The Guardian that got the expected response on twitter from people who never go outside, blue-tick accounts with “queen terf” in their bio losing their shit over it. Possibly the actual Queen Terf herself JK Rowling swooped in, and of course Glinner got involved, but hardly anyone saw his posts about it because he’s such a loser nobody really cares what he says anymore as he frantically posts and reposts his own posts and tags people, because if he doesn’t have attention on the internet he doesn’t have anything anymore, having ruined his own life becoming obsessed with trans people.
“Why have rightwingers made even parkrun a battleground for trans people?” was the headline of Liew’s article. My partner saw it and said “so that you’ll write about it in the newspaper”. And he’s kind of right – the goal of these fringe whackos is to have their hateful views legitimised in mainstream media and reach more people – but by the time this was published in The Guardian, it was already there, and as much as we need to not give these views traction, there needs to be someone in the mainstream press opposing it.
Anyone who is vocally pro trans rights will understand the online battleground – particularly on Twitter (I’m sorry I can’t call it X), the owner of which, ultimate failson Elon Musk, is virulently transphobic (so much so his own trans child has disowned him) and thus happy to let transphobia run amok regardless of what the actual guidelines of the website are. You see it and you want to respond, you want to fight, but you also know that the more attention you give to these people, the more people see it – it’s a hard balance to get right, do you yell back or do you let them yell at clouds?
And anyway, it’s not just that – there is an explicit focus on grassroots sports Policy Exchange and the anti-trans movement. This is incredibly concerning, because the vast majority of people playing a sport will be playing at that level. Make no bones about it, this movement is always about excluding trans people. When that applies to say, an Olympic event, or international cricket, it’s shit and unfair but it affects a couple of people – take that to grassroots sports and it’s going to affect literally any trans person who just wants to turn up and take part.
The other week I spoke to Danielle McGahey, who was the centre of her own Twitter storm at the end of last year after becoming the first trans woman to compete in an official ICC T20 match, with a coinciding BBC article – and then the first trans woman to retire from internationals after the ICC decided to ban trans women* from participating in international matches. We spoke a lot, so I’ve decided to break it up a bit. One of the things we discussed was the potential impact of the decision on grassroots sports:
This rule change only applies to international cricket, but my concern is that the ICC have now provided a framework for exclusion that could influence people at amateur level – do you worry about that?
Absolutely. That was my biggest concern, what impact it would have on community level cricket, where people just want to train a couple of times a week and rock up at the weekend and have some fun. What impact will this have if there’s a trans woman in a local league and suddenly she doesn’t feel safe anymore because the ICC have said she’s not welcome?
Thankfully, I haven’t heard a lot of stories of trans women being excluded because they’re trans. If anything I’ve heard more stories of people looking at cricket as a space where they can be safe and enjoy their hobby. But it’s definitely a worry of mine and why I am still doing my best to educate people beyond the view they get from the computer screen.
I know I’ve seen a real incuriosity online – i.e. people see the ICC decision and think that because they’re the governing body they must know best. How do you approach your education and advocacy?
There’s so much potential for people to, maybe not have their minds changed, but to see things differently with education.
My first experience in women’s cricket was weird. Not because of the players. Their opposition coach came up to me and wanted to have a chat. And he said he has a personal question for me, and I will use the term because it was weird – he asked “are you a shemale?”
He was a decent guy and we had a conversation regarding correct terminology and showing each other respect. He made it very clear that he didn’t have an issue with me participating. But he didn’t know how to ask questions – and this showed me that education is going to be the biggest thing I have to bring to this.
I have played with players, you know, from Afghanistan, the West Indies, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, India, Pakistan, so many different cultures. At the end of the day, we normally sit down for a drink after a game and talk about life. Everyone has a different story, and I think that’s the cool thing about cricket – it’s just about enjoying the game and then enjoying your mateship. Like that’s why you play, you have a bunch of mates and, you know, you rock up with that same team every weekend. You might be losing by 200 runs a game, but you’re there for each other.
Some people are really harsh in their advocacy, and that’s needed, but then, there’s other people who just want to have a conversation. I’ve had conversations with so many different people about so many different trans-related topics and it’s just fantastic when someone leaves a conversation knowing more about a community than they did when they started the conversation.
You really have to choose your battles, don’t you!
You’ve got to – there are people whose minds you can change and those who you can’t, and you’ve got to focus on the ones that are going to make some movement. If you’re going to put energy into it, it has to be worth it. Initially I thought, yeah this is how advocacy works, arguing with everyone, but it’s exhausting and I’m better off spending my energy in places it will make a bigger impact than, say, arguing with people online about my basic rights.
Obviously, I’m still going to be working on advocacy, and working with the ICC – as much as I dislike the decision they made on a personal and community basis, I do need to work with them because that’s the only way change can occur.
I think being online can give you an inflated sense of the hate out there, and then you go out and it’s not reflective of your existence in the real world.
It’s also really like “oh you’re, thinking about me!” Like, “oh wow, I’m on your mind a lot more than you’re on my mind. You’re thinking about me all the time and I’m not thinking about you at all.”
I did shut down my accounts for a little bit. When the BBC released that first article there was just a storm of awful, vile things getting thrown directly at me. After I finished playing, I opened things back up because I do want to communicate with other trans people. So I’m finding a balance of, okay, I’m going to get the odd bit of hate, but people who need to reach out to me can do so.
What advice would you give to other trans people who want to participate in sports?
If you think you’re in danger then get yourself out of that position, find somewhere else where you’re accepted. You have to make sure you’re in an environment where people support you and you can thrive. Be yourself, and put yourself first. It’s these things that let us enjoy our lives and we shouldn’t feel we have to lose them.
One of my goals for 2024 is just to find happiness in cricket again because it’s something I love beyond the competitive nature of it. I’m moving to Brazil to live with my fiancée (Brazilian women’s cricketer Dudah Ribeiro) and there are a bunch of co-ed teams where I can go hit a ball and have a laugh. It’ll be a case of participating in as many games as I can and get back to that base level enjoyment.
It’s actually been really hard for me to even consider training again because of what’s happened. I did fall out of love with the game. But then, I’ve been watching the Test matches recently and actually feeling invested again, thinking, okay, the spark is still there, I just need to get back into it. Like, I’m watching cricket in the middle of the night – I know I still want to be there, the sport still ignites a passion in me.
*the ruling technically only bans trans women who have been through male puberty. However. given the lack of access to puberty blockers for trans girls almost everywhere, this is a de facto blanket ban on trans women.
Ildikó Connell is the main admin @daisycutterzine and probably won’t fight you online, but never say never.
Danielle McGahey is currently having a lovely time in Brazil.
Daisy Cutter 
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