We can all use numbers

How did sport in New Zealand end up with Sport New Zealand?

In the document issued with the roll out of their Sport New Zealand Transgender Guidelines, there is a section on page 10:

‘In 2018, 1,178 self-identified transgender and non-binary people took part in the first comprehensive national survey on the health and wellbeing of transgender and non-binary people in Aotearoa New Zealand.

My comments follow each point in non-italics.

The survey found that: Only 14 percent of transgender and non-binary people had participated in any sports competitions, events or other organised activities in the past four weeks, such as bowls, football practice or a netball game.

·       That’s 165 people from their survey.

·       This is almost half the rate of participation by the general population (26 percent)

·       306 people.

·       This means that of this survey, 141 people were ‘missing’ from sport, when compared to the general population.

·       More than half (61 percent) of those participants were worried about how they would be treated as a transgender or non-binary person in competitive sports.

·       They’re talking about 86 people out of the 141. Non-binary is a figment of people’s imagination and another ridiculous term.

·       This concern was more common for transgender men (81 percent) than for transgender women (42 percent)

·       Of those 86 people that were biological women (transgender men) 81 percent of them had concerns.

·       My observations suggest that less women pretend to be men than men pretend to be women.

·       I suggest that of those 86 people who are transgender (pretending to be the opposite of their birth sex) and who do sport and are worried about how they’ll be treated: 40 percent are women and 60 percent are men (each pretending to be the opposite gender).

·       That gives us 34 women pretending to be men and 52 men pretending to be women in total.

·       That 81 percent of the 34 women equates to 27 who are concerned about how they’ll be treated.

·       Of those 27 women (pretending to be men) who had concerns, was that because:

o   Do they even take part in sport? Did they take part in sport pre identity change?

o   They know they’re women and they’re determined to take part in men’s sport which has a contact element to it. Soccer, rugby, basketball, volleyball etc.

o   Have they taken drugs as part of their transition which are prohibited in sport.

o   And any number of other possible reasons.

·       That 42 percent of the remaining 52 men equates to 22 who are concerned about how they’ll be treated.

·       Of those 22 men (pretending to be women) who had concerns, was that because:

o   They were concerned about harming women accidentally when taking part in women’s sport. (Hmm, not sure of this one.)

o   Concerned about the reaction of women should they go into single sex changing rooms.

o   Concerned that other members of the sports club or code would point out to them the obvious unfairness of them competing in women’s sport.

o   They’ve never been part of a sports club before and don’t know how it works.

o   Or any number of an unlimited number of reasons.

·       One in five participants had been told they could only participate based on their sex assigned at birth.

·       The vast majority of people involved in sport know full well that the women’s and girls categories exist to allow women and girls to compete against each other. One in five of these 165 (that’s 33 people) have been told that, but I’d reckon that those that haven’t been told is because of fear of speaking out by many people involved in sport.

·       More than half of the participants (56 per cent) had seriously thought about attempting suicide in the last 12 months.

·       Almost two in five participants (37 per cent) had attempted suicide at some point and 12 per cent had attempted suicide in the last 12 months.

·       The impression that’s put across by these two statements (which I tend to think is their deliberate intention) is that people who pretend to be the opposite gender are so harmed by our non-acceptance of them in women’s sport and other women’s places that they are at a greater risk of suicide and if only we’d stop being so ‘petty and small minded’ (To quote our Minister of Sport Grant Robertson) things would be a lot better for them.

·       My amateur perspective of this is that they’re at a greater risk of suicide anyway. Their mental health issues that don’t allow them to accept themselves for who they are is the real issue.

·       Just in case you’re in any doubt, I’m all in favour of folks doing what they want with their lives. If you’re James and really feel that you want to be called Jane and dress and live like your neighbour’s sister, go for it. What you will never be is a woman.

·       These results show that fear of discrimination and concerns about eligibility limit the opportunities of transgender people to have equal access to sports. This is concerning because exclusion from sports negatively affects both mental and physical health.

·       In my 50+ years of being involved in sport, I’d really struggle to find any circumstance when anyone has been limited from joining in by anything other than not wanting to follow the rules, categories, and ability and perhaps $ in some sports and some occasions, (there are other ways to get by lack of money though.)

·       The trouble is James/Jane doesn’t want this. James/Jane want’s special treatment. James/Jane doesn’t want to follow the rules. Sport as an entity relies on the vast majority of participants willingly wanting to follow the rules. Bollocks James, (which is the issue at the centre of it.) James was born with them and that makes all the difference.

How did we end up with a Minister of Sport and an organisation that is so far removed from the very thing they’re there to serve? How did the folks at Sport New Zealand think is was right to upend the sporting world of women and girls based on such a small very noisy group of ideologues?