Advocates and experts are criticizing Alberta’s transgender sports policy, saying there is a lack of evidence that requires the government to put in such restrictive measures.
Premier Danielle Smith tabled amendments to the Fairness and Safety in Sports Act last Thursday, which would restrict transgender women from participating in women’s sports divisions and leagues if passed. The bill will also determine eligibility requirements for people who want to participate in sports divisions, leagues and classes, but those eligibility requirements were not unveiled on Thursday. However, eligibility requirements will come into to effect next fall.
Organizations will also be required to report any complaints regarding athlete eligibility to the government, as well as how those complaints were handled. They will also be required to report any requests to establish and establishments of co-ed leagues, classes and divisions.
These rules will apply to amateur sports organizations in school divisions, post-secondary institutions and provincial sporting organizations.
The amendments were one of several sweeping changes to restrict transgender rights in health care, sports and schools that were introduced on Thursday. Smith said the new measures for sport organizations and teams are designed to protect the well-being of all children while also “upholding the rights of parents to care for, teach and protect their children.”
“This legislation aligns with the report to the UN general assembly from the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, in which the Special Rapporteur calls for female categories in sport to be exclusively for biological female athletes and for the creation of open categories in sport as part of a larger effort to maintain fairness while ensuring the ability of all to participate,” Smith said at a news conference last Thursday before the bills were tabled.
Hannah Pilling, a supporter of the policies, said she believes everyone should be able to participate in sports but they should do so “fairly and safely.”
“At the core of the matter, there are physiological realities that make the participation of a biologically male athlete in women’s sports fundamentally unfair,” she told reporters on Thursday.
Her father, David Pilling, said allowing trans women athletes to compete in women sports division is unfair to those who spent decades to “secure their place in athletics.”
“Inclusivity for one group cannot come at the expense of another group. Inclusivity cannot come at the expense of fairness in women’s sports. When girls step onto the track the court or the field, they should not have to face competitors who bring inherent physical advantages that fundamentally alter the women have fought for decades to secure their place in athletics,” he said.
But Smith did not answer questions about how many transgender athletes are currently participating in sports across Alberta.
“We don’t keep track of those specific numbers,” she said.
Senator Kristopher Wells, who is also the Canada Research Chair for the Public Understanding of Sexual and Gender Minority Youth, questioned why these policies are being put in place if there is little evidence to support them.
According to a scientific review commissioned by the Canada Centre for Sports Ethics (CCSE), there is little evidence regarding the impact of hormone suppression on transgender women athletes’ performance. Most of the studies reviewed had small sample sizes, the report said, and significant studies used misleading data sources and ignored contradictory evidence.
The review also suggests that available evidence indicates that transgender women who have undergone hormone suppression have no clear advantages over cis women in elite sport.
The report also went on to say that inclusivity policies often have the opposite effect because they use arbitrary boundaries that are not based on scientific evidence. Trans women have also been systematically underrepresented in elite athletics, and they face significant barriers in sports after they transition.
It also isn’t clear how the Alberta government is going to enforce these policies. The amendments will not just affect transgender athletes in Alberta but also trans kids who just want to play with their friends in school, he said
“What we’re gonna see happen is this trans hysteria that we’ve already seen in other parts of the country and in the world where it doesn’t matter if you’re biological women or not,” Wells told LiveWire Calgary.
“The moment somebody thinks that you’re not portraying your gender correctly based on stereotypes, they’re going to challenge you, they’re going to accuse you of being trans, and how are you going to prove you’re not?”
Wells also accused Smith of tabling these policies to appease her base ahead of the United Conservative Party convention in Red Deer on Nov. 2.
“Literally, the UCP is obsessed with trans people’s bodies. It’s weird, and it’s deeply disturbing. Show us all of these trans athletes that are winning medals at all of these sports and competitions. It simply does not exist,” he said.
Amelia Newbert, managing director at Skipping Stone, said sports organizations and schools have been trying to create more opportunities for transgender kids to participate and compete in sports for years.
“If you look in the Canadian Trans Youth Health Survey, you’ll see that over 80 per cent of trans and gender diverse youth stop all form of sports when they come out because of the discrimination that they faced,” Newbert said.
“When we look at the actions that that that government is taking, that just compounds something that’s already a crisis within our communities.”
