Just as the International Olympic Committee has determined to ban transgender women and Differences of Sex Development (DSD) athletes from the female category of events at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, motion E34 to “end gender-based blanket bans in sport” moved one step up towards becoming Party policy as a result of a staw poll of Green Party members at a pre-conference workshop on Wednesday 25th March.
E34 conflates sex with gender, ignores the Equality Act 2010 and all the science-based evidence submitted to the International Olympic Committee.
The 2026 Spring Conference due to start on Saturday 28th is to be an on-line only event. Paid up members can still register here. Members can access the 227 pages long Final Agenda from the site.
Should E34 motion therefore be approved by 1% or 2% of self-appointed members who are accountable to no-one but themselves, it will nevertheless be added to 2016 Green Party Trans Rights policy proposed by Aimee Challenor and Carla Denyer which declared that ‘Trans Women are Women, Trans Men are Men and non-binary identities exist and are valid’.
If adopted, all 220000 GPEW members will be expected to give their unconditional support to such policy, including councillors and other elected members. Speaking against such policy to members of the public, online or at a Party’s event could result in a formal complaint being submitted for a breach of the ‘Guide to the Definition of Queerphobia’ and the defendant being suspended or expelled from the Party.
This Guide comes from Transactual. As opposed to a definition of anti-semistism – to be revised again if motion E12 ” Zionism is racism ” is adopted – it was never approved by Conference, but simply added to the Code of Conduct by a quorate number of the Green Party Regional Council – which may have been less than 10 members – and by a show of hand.
The minutes of that meeting held in March 2023 have disappeared from the Members’ site. Sadly, much of important internal documents have been lost with the closure of Green Spaces. Furthermore, the new members’ site does not allow for topics for discussions across the 10 Regions and 350 Local Parties.
In addition to proposing to insert into Record of Policy statements ( RoPS) a new paragraph, E34 motion states that “Historical colonial and Eurocenric attitudes, as well a current misogynistic attitudes (especially misogyny rooted in transmisogyny and misogynoir ), have influenced or still are influencing sporting norms in elite-level competition”. If adopted, it will commit all Party members, including councillors, to implement the following:
Call for all sporting bodies that enforce bans that affect trans, directly or indirectly, to publicly disclose all scientific evidence they base this decision on, with consutlation reports and equality impact assessments they have carried out included.
Call for the enforcement of the Equality Act 2010 to ensure that trans people are not excluded from any part of public like, including sports, and for the recognition of the duty of care that sporting bodies have to their athletes.
Call to require mandatory inclusion reporting on gender, race and disability membership to sports- focussed CIS and CASCs over a certain size
Call for an independent inquiry into the development and inmpact of recent blanket eligibioity bans on trans, intersex and other gender non-conforming athletes, to ensure transparency and compliance with equality obligations.
In the long terms, the Green Party will :
Work alongside sporting oversight bodies to implement restorative measures to address the barriers these policies have created, for example, ensure that support is given to both trans centric and trans-inclusive sporting projects.
Ensure the proper funding, recognition and celebration of women’s sports in all categories
Work in goverment to undo the toxic environment around trans, intersex and gender-non-conforming peoiple in sport.
Interestingly, not a single member of the Leadership Team, nor any of the Party’s transgender absolutists, Sian Berry, Carla Denyer MPs and Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle appear to have added their names to the list of 67 proposers to this motion. Here is the list of the co-proposers for the record:
Kieran Collin, Rob Marsden, Brooklime Jamie Linne, Olive Welch, Liron Morgne, John Young, Tomm Aucote, Emma Wolfe, Athena Blight, Emily Raven, Sage Ralph, Ryan Moloney, Sefira Davison, Sophie Le Blanc, Arran Benzie, Ashley Trig, Thea Down, Joanne Clements, Joel Cartwright, Fanxi Liu, Em Dean, Aaron Howe, Robin Cafferata, Lyra Dick, Vanessa Billington, Maddie Skelland, Eden Hills, Alyx Bedwell, Phoebe du Maurier, Anna Winterton, Rahul Imran, Elizabeth Jordan, Derek Eagle, Tyler Campbell, Josh Winn, Alice Roseblade, Ben Auton, Nathan Parsons, Lewis Wilkins, Tom Sharlot, George Walton, Manu Durkin, Rachel Bilski, Francesco Piscitelli, Eth Townsend, Toby Bin, Dane Smith,Jeremy Mealing, Zoe Leask, Jacqueline de Beaudrap, Michael Lewis, Fern Haigh, Frederic Heath-Renn, Cassie Crofts, Iwan Sinclair, Julie Read, Michael Hall, Andrew Godfrey-Collins, Silver Rees, Mark Ross, Mark Harrison, Jess Murray, Leonard Domingue, Berin Whitehead, Cristiana Mirosanu, Kim Matthews and ER Wilson.
But of equal interest are some of the comments posted in the Conference Agenda. Here are a few illuminating quotes from 39 transgender zackactivists:
” People that argue “transwomen have unique biological advantages ” don’t seem to care about all the other biological advantages in sports, such as height, body composition and so on “
“These bans have unique discriminatory effects on many Global Majority people who are often policed even more so to “check” their gender status “
“ In a sense, no sport is truly fair because some women will have naturally high testosterone levels…”
” I have yet to see any evidence that trans women’s advanatges outweigh any other “
“...there is evidence to suggest that trans women may have a disadvantage in women’s sports “
“ the mistake is assuming that the IOC is in good faith “
” …particular female athletes being harrassed and” transvestigated” if they don’t conform to colonial/Western gender norms and people that have seen themseleves their whole life as females, and would have no reason to suspect otherwise ..”
” Sports should be available to everyone and segregation is wrong, the bans have made it so sports at all levels, including recreational/ beginner, are exclusing people based on perceived advantages “
” The rhetoric around those bans is based on old Nazi tropes ( see ” The Other Olympians : A True Story of Gender , Fascism and the Making of Modern Sport ” by Michael Waters )
“ If fairness were a goal. we could have weight classes. But policies like that aren’t about fairness, they are about maintaining a imaginary natural order “
For a more nuanced argument against the ban of transwomen in women’ sports, the proposers issued a Briefing paper. Under chapter “Safety and Fairness”, it boldly declares:
“There is no evidence that trans women pose any greater safety risk to cis-gender women in sports of any kind, including those which are full contact “.
The paper povides a non-exhaustive list of 38 ” Trans- Exclusionary Sporting Bans”, which includes: boxing, American football, Rugby Union and Rugby League, and Wheelchair Rugby. A number of Trans inclusive sports, are also listed – some on the basis of gender reassignment – such as Aikido, Baseball, Quadball, Darts, Yoga and Motorsport UK.
Most Green Party members who seek to always go with the science will consider that those bans are indeed evidence-based and fair to women.
But why the International Chess Federation has also banned transwomen in female category may indeed be a case of ‘transmysogyny’ !
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