Britain’s national governing body for tennis is set to ban men from women’s competitive events.
The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) announced that following a review of its ‘transgender and non-binary’ policy, the women’s category will be protected from local to national level. Men who claim to be women will still be permitted to join women’s social tournaments.
The policy, which comes into force in the New Year, does not affect internationally governed events such as Wimbledon.
Fairness
The LTA stated that testosterone suppression in tennis is unlikely to reduce men’s “significant” biological advantage in “strength, power, and endurance”, which could make “competition potentially unfair”.
For example, the governing body explained that this “includes longer levers with which to reach and hit the ball and increased cardio-vascular capacity means being able to get around the court more easily”.
Therefore, the LTA decided to ban men from women’s competitive events to ensure there is a “fair” national standard.
In addition, the governing body confirmed that it will restrict its venues’ communal changing rooms on the basis of biological sex.
‘Transphobic’
Judy Murray OBE recently said that it is not ‘transphobic’ to believe that sportsmen have a biological advantage over women and should only compete in male categories.
In an interview with the Sunday Herald, the experienced sports coach and mother of former Wimbledon champions Andy and Jamie said male players who identify as females benefit from the “advantages that accrue from being born male once puberty is reached”.
Earlier this year, tennis great Navratilova warned that trans ideology, especially gender self-ID, risks alienating a generation of women from participating in sport.
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