(Reuters) – New Zealand’s sports minister has called for a review of the country’s guidelines on transgender athletes in community sport following criticism from Olympians that they ignore female athletes’ rights and undermine fairness and safety.
Sports Minister Chris Bishop said he asked governing body Sport NZ to update the guidelines which encourage transgender athletes to compete in amateur-level sport in the gender they identify with and not need to prove or justify their identity.
“It is important that transgender people feel able to participate in community sport – but there are obviously difficult issues for sporting bodies to grapple with around fairness and safety as a result of that participation,” Bishop said in a statement on Wednesday.
“I have come to the view that the Guiding Principles do not reflect legitimate community expectations that sport at a community level should not just be focused on diversity, inclusion and equity – but also prioritise fairness and safety.”
Sport NZ did not provide immediate comment when contacted by Reuters.
The minister’s statement comes a month after he received an open letter from more than 50 New Zealand Olympians, doctors and sport administrators calling for an urgent review of the guidelines, saying they undermined “fundamental tenets of fairness and safety” in sport.
Critics of transgender inclusion in women’s sport say going through male puberty imbues athletes with a huge musculo-skeletal advantage that transition does not mitigate.
Supporters of transgender participation argue that not enough research has been done into the impact of transition on athletic performance and excluding transgender athletes amounts to discrimination.
The Sport NZ guidelines issued in 2022 do not apply to elite sport. Individual sports in New Zealand govern how transgender athletes participate at elite levels.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Michael Perry)
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