(Reuters) – British Sports Minister Lucy Fraser said all sporting bodies in the country should carefully consider rules regarding transgender athletes competing in women's sports to ensure fairness.
In recent years, the global governing bodies for cricket, cycling, track and field, swimming and chess have tightened rules for transgender athletes in elite women's competitions.
Some British sporting bodies, including the Football Association, allow transgender athletes to compete in women's sports as long as they have reduced testosterone levels. In December, a group of British parliamentarians called on the English FA to ban transgender players from participating in women's football, as international soccer governing body FIFA reviews its eligibility policy.
Mr Fraser was asked about the issue during a Sky News debate on the powers the government's proposed independent football regulator would have.
“I would encourage competitive sports to think about this very carefully,” Fraser said.
“I think it’s really important for women to be able to compete with women, but there’s an inherent inequity where you don’t have to be biologically female to have a competitive advantage.
“Many sports communities have considered this carefully and have decided that it is not appropriate to have women compete against people who are not biologically female.”
Critics of transgender participation in women's sports argue that experiencing male puberty gives athletes significant musculoskeletal advantages that are not mitigated by transition. .
LGBT advocacy groups argue that excluding transgender athletes amounts to discrimination and that there is not enough research into how gender reassignment affects athletic performance.
Over the weekend, the Sunday Telegraph reported that Chancellor Rishi Sunak was considering a review of Britain's Equality Act as part of a bid to “protect” women's sport.
(Reporting by Shifa Jahan in Bengaluru; Editing by Nick Mulvaney and Peter Rutherford)
