Outrage has hit the Irish sporting world after a women’s “LGBT” football team with a trans player beat their finals opponent by eight goals.
A so-called LGBT women’s football team, which included at least one trans player, has sparked outrage after it won the finals of a competition by beating its opponent by a devasting eight-goal margin.
The event has now sparked significant controversy within the Irish sporting world at a time when many sporting bodies have implemented bans on transgender players who are born as men from taking part in women’s competitions.
According to a report by the Irish Independent, pro-LGBT Gaelic football team Na Gaeil Aeracha swept their opponents Na Fianna’s ladies E team in the Dublin Junior J Shield football final.
Na Fianna’s coach is reported to have approached the referee before the game to query the presence of the transgender player, whom the publication names as Italian national Giulia Valentino.
The match official reportedly also stopped the match after the first break in play to tell the Na Gaeil Aeracha captain that there was “a problem with your number 21 [player]” and that “the player is a man”.
The captain is reported to have told the referee that Valentino was a transwoman, but the referee replied that “this is the Ladies’ Gaelic Football Association”.
Despite his own protests, however, the game appears to have continued with Valentino’s on-and-off presence, with Na Gaeil Aeracha reportedly romping to victory with an eight-goal lead — an improvement over the team’s four-goal victory in their semi-final match.
The Ladies’ Gaelic Football Association — the official body that regulates the playing of women’s Gaelic football matches — has since announced that it is developing a policy around the presence of transgender athletes in matches.
According to the Irish Independent report, Valentino has had a history of being an “outspoken proponent for transgender people being allowed to play sports in the gender they choose”.
The ex-rugby player, who switched to GAA after picking up an injury, is also reportedly said to have been keen on playing in a women’s sport “because of sisterhood, validation and political visibility; as a trans woman those things are very important to me”.
However, while Valentino may be keen on playing both with and against women, many sporting bodies have since proven to be far less fond of the idea, with some banning transgender individuals from playing in women’s games.
For example, international bodies for both Rugby League and Rugby Union games have banned transwomen from playing women’s rugby, with both bodies citing concerns for player welfare.
“Transgender women may not currently play women’s rugby,” a post on World Rugby’s website says. “Why? Because of the size, force- and power-producing advantages conferred by testosterone during puberty and adolescence, and the resultant player welfare risks this creates.”
The post also notes that some have argued that testosterone suppression could be used to enable trans players to compete by removing their advantages, but the body has outright rejected this.
“Research contradicts this, consistently showing that total mass, muscle mass and/or strength are reduced by at most 5 per cent to 10 per cent when testosterone is suppressed to levels in the female range, for a period of 12 months,” the body writes.
“With the additional factor of training, either before or during the period of testosterone suppression, it is expected that baseline/pre levels for these variables will be higher, and that training will attenuate the decline in these variables with testosterone reduction.”
“The consequence is that given the size of the biological differences prior to testosterone suppression, this comparatively small effect of testosterone reduction allows substantial and meaningful differences to remain,” the website goes on to state.
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