ASK Musings

At my old blog, I had a special category called the Asshole Hall of Fame. It was mostly reserved public figures that did something fucking absurd to bring them to asshole status. It gave me the opportunity to have a bit of a rant about something so out of pocket that I couldn’t limit myself to just a couple of posts on Twitter (RIP). When I shut that page down, I moved some things over here, including the Asshole Hall of Fame. Today, I’m inducting another member, and I’m pretty fucking pissed about it.

You might be familiar with the recent utterly ridiculous UK Supreme Court ruling attempting to define what a woman is by excluding trans women. That ruling is straight up misogynistic, and wrong for many reasons. Others more well-versed in the law can speak to that, such as the Good Law Project. A little over a week after the ruling, the absurdly named (given their current actions) Equality & Human Rights Commission (EHRC) put out bigoted guidance that again, others – specifically members of the trans community – can speak to better than I.

I could talk about how silly and cruel it is to exclude trans women from the toilets that cis women use. I have, after all, used the women’s toilets many times over the years, as someone who pretty much always needs a wee. I’ve used the standard women’s room with cubicles. I’ve used single-person gender neutral toilets. And I’ve used cubicles in spaces where everyone uses a cubicle to do their business, and we all share the same sink to wash our hands. Cis women, cis men, trans women, trans men, non-binary people. It was fine, it was safe, it was (usually) clean. CIS WOMEN ARE NOT IN DANGER FROM TRANS WOMEN USING THE SAME TOILETS.

But what I’m here to talk about instead is the bigoted, unnecessary, absurd decision that the FA and the SFA (that is, the governing boards of football in England and Scotland) have made to bar trans women from playing. This is not needed, it’s not helpful, it is cruel, and it is a fucking embarrassment to the sport.

I have played football (known as soccer in my country of birth) since I was a very tiny girl. I played throughout primary and secondary school, picked up games here and there in my 20s, played in a mixed gender league in my 30s, and have played in three clubs since moving to the UK. In my last club in England, I played in a league where some teams had trans women players. I refereed a match featuring a team of trans and non-binary players. I’ve written about my love of football before. What I’m saying is, I know my football, and specifically, I know my women’s football.

Here’s the thing. Much like as is the case with the toilets issue, trans women pose absolutely no threat to cis women playing amateur football. Zero. None. Considering that according to the FA itself there are around 20 trans players in the entirety of the amateur leagues, this is just bigotry for the sake of publicity. To state what should be obvious, there’s literally no evidence that playing against trans women puts cis women at any higher risk than them playing against another cis woman. And it’s not like trans women are taking the places of cis women in these leagues. The population of trans women in the UK is tiny, and the subset who want to play competitive amateur football is of course small enough to be statistically insignificant.

But these women themselves are not insignificant. They want to play. And they have the right to play in women’s leagues BECAUSE THEY ARE WOMEN. The fact that there is no law requiring the FA to take this action (the EHRC guidance is non-binding) and yet they still chose to do so is quite telling. They chose to do the wrong thing to appear to be doing the ‘right’ thing for (cis) women. Let’s be clear – the FA does not care about women in football. I mean, they banned women from playing it for 50 years, so I guess this isn’t a huge shock, but it is pretty disappointing for an organization that rebranded itself as ‘FA: For All’ to add an asterisk to that so they can exclude trans women.

If the FA and SFA really cared about women in football, maybe they’d do things like fight for equitable facilities for the men’s and women’s teams. Equitable pay and equitable air time for the professional game. Better referees for the women’s games. There’s not nearly enough being done to study actual injuries that women players face (not some mythical injury cause by playing near a trans woman). And that’s just a start. But that’s not what the FA and SFA are focusing on; they’re focusing on being cruel to the most vulnerable of players.

I want to play football. I love the game. And I think everyone who wants to play it should have the opportunity to play it. Preventing trans women from playing while lying about the risks they pose is bigotry and hatred, pure and simple. There was no need for them to take this action now, and the fact that they chose to do it shows their true colors.

So FA and SFA, let’s be real. What you care about most is publicity and money, and you love the chance to look like you’re doing something when you’re really not doing anything to improve the game. Welcome to the Asshole Hall of Fame. And fuck you.

Note: I am a qualified football referee, so if there are any folks out there setting up or running trans-inclusive leagues and you need a ref, please get in touch because I’d be happy to ref matches for you.