Victorian netball leagues have been exposed for their terrible policies that allow males to complete in female competitions. They shamefully defend their nonsense policies that promote and protect males at the expense of women in the sport. David Capron, who goes by he/him and they/them pronouns, has been competing at an elite level in men’s netball, while also playing in Victorian women’s netball leagues for the past two seasons. Separately, the Riddell District Football Netball League in Melbourne’s north has held an urgent meeting with Netball Victoria after transgender player, Manawa Aranui, applied to join the league. Since 2018 the netball associations have allowed participants to “elect which team they consider more appropriate to join” irrespective of the Player’s “legal sex classification”.
This means women have either had to self-exclude for the sake of fairness, safety and dignity, or risk injury and humiliation. One coach echoed what many female athletes have reported when faced with playing against males who have taken advantage of dreadful policies. Furious female players and a coach have told the Herald Sun Mr Capron’s presence on the all-women’s netball court was “dangerous”, with some feeling he was taking away opportunities from women. The coach, whose team has played against Mr Capron, said allowing him to compete against biological women was “ridiculous” and “a joke”. She said, “so many clubs were fuming because he was taking the piss” and that complaints had been made to the league, but that officials pointed to the Netball Victoria rules.
“I told my girls, as others did, that I was comfortable for them to not take the court due to the physically dangerous and unfair situation,” she said. The recent UK supreme court ruling has forced many codes to hastily change their policies, rewriting them to protect the female category regardless of how males identify. In Australia there are provisions for sporting codes to exclude males based on the fact they are males, but sadly few choose to protect women enough to do so. It is only a matter of time until the lawsuits roll in. It is only a matter of time until they realise they are out of step with reality, biology and the rest of the world when it comes to protecting and promoting males at the expense of women in sport.
Source: Binary