Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has been accused of “making a mockery” of women’s sport after suggesting that there could be some circumstances in which trans athletes could compete in women’s sport.
Speaking to The House magazine, Nandy claimed that individual sports “should decide whether or not biological males should compete against women”.
She added: “We ought to respect the fact that they’re far more expert in making those judgments and decisions than we are.
“I want to make sure that they feel supported, to be able to make those decisions fairly, but I think most have come to the conclusion now, although they want to be as inclusive as possible, biology does matter when it comes to sport.”
Lisa Nandy has been criticised for ‘passing the buck’ on transgender athletes
PA / GB News
Hitting out at Nandy’s remarks, former Olympic athlete Mara Yamauchi slammed the Labour politician for contributing to the “corruption of women’s sport” by “leaving it to national bodies” to decide.
Speaking on GB News, Yamauchi explained: “She said biology does matter – she’s correct, that’s the truth, I welcome that. But the logical next step of ‘biology does matter’ is that males should not be competing in the female category under any circumstances.
“Sport needs to be fair and safe for women and girls. But what she said instead was, let’s leave this to our national governing bodies to decide – in theory that would be okay, but in practice it has proved not to be.”
Host Patrick Christys suggested that it appears Nandy is “passing the buck” on trans issues in sport, and put the argument to Discrimination Lawyer Robin Moira White as to whether biology “does matter in women’s sport”.
Three trans athletes dominated the podium at a cycling event in America last week
GB News
In defence of Nandy and British sport, White argued that many of the trans issues within female sports are “happening in America”, and governing bodies such as British Cycling have “followed the science and followed the law”.
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White told GB News: “If we actually look at British Cycling, they are one of those codes that Mara would support. There are other sporting codes where the sport is not gender affected, such as shooting.
“On the other hand, we’ve just watched Wimbledon where the strength of serve is important, and it would be very obvious that the strength of serve would make a difference in terms of fair competition, but there will be sports in between.”
Offering her verdict on White’s remarks, Yamauchi stressed that any sport where sex is affected “should have separate categories”.
Yamauchi argued: “If a sport is sex affected, even to the tiniest degree, then there must be a separate male category. We’ve seen males deliberately underperforming in the female category – this makes a total mockery of sports.
Yamauchi claimed that transgender athletes are ‘corrupting women’s sport’
GB News
“Sport is about doing your absolute best and male sandbagging to try and hide their male advantage, is just totally corrupting what sport is.”
When pressed by Patrick on why women of the Labour Party “struggle to stand up for women”, White responded: “Labour stands up for everyone, that’s the point of the Equality Act. It balances the needs of all people, and where it’s fair to exclude, it allows exclusion.
“And where it’s not fair to exclude, it doesn’t permit exclusion.’