A women’s soccer team with five transgender players has sparked outrage after winning the pre-season Beryl Ackroyd Cup tournament in Sydney, Australia.
“Flying Bats FC won every game they played over the course of the four-week competition, winning the grand final 4-0 at Macquarie Park on Sunday to take home the $1000 jackpot,” according to the Daily Mail.
“Club officials have also contacted Football NSW to express their concerns, with some insisting that the Flying Bats should play in the mixed competition, which includes men,” it added.
The Flying Bats official website labels the team one of the “biggest LGBTQIA+ women’s and non-binary football club in the world.”
Some games saw a 10-0 margin of victory, with one transgender player scoring six goals.
The outcome of the tournament has sparked outrage among some parents, many of whom have begun pulling their daughters from future games for safety concerns.
A senior club official told the Daily Telegraph that the girls were there “to play for fun and expect to play in the female competition.”
“They did not sign up for a mixed competition,” the official said. “There’s no transparency from Football NSW, the girls don’t know if they are going to be playing biological males or not.”
“Some of the parents were so concerned they would not let their daughters play … It was so disheartening for them to see the huge difference in ability – they’re killing it,” the official added.
Jennifer Peden, president of the Flying Bats club, told Daily Mail Australia that the team stands “strongly for inclusion, and pride ourselves on safe, respectful and fair play, the promotion of a supportive community for LGBTQIA+ players, officials, and supporters, and the significant physical, social and mental health benefits that participation in sport brings, especially to marginalised members of the LGBTQIA+ community.”
“We are a club that values our cisgender and transgender players equally,” added Peden. “We strongly support the Australian Human Rights Commission’s guidelines for the inclusion of transgender and gender-diverse people in sport. These guidelines, along with the Sex Discrimination Act, inform the gender inclusion policies of Football Australia, Football NSW, and the North West Sydney Football Association at the community, grassroots level at which we play.”
The Australian Sports Commission’s statement on trans and gender diverse inclusion has said that “all Australians should have the opportunity to be involved in sport and physical activity, regardless of their gender, sexual orientation, ability, cultural background or ethnicity.”
“It is important that sporting bodies, from local clubs through to national sporting organizations, reflect the diversity in the communities they are a part of, and that together, we ensure every person is treated with respect and dignity and protected from discrimination,” it added.
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