The British Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) has changed its gender inclusion policy and placed a ban on transgender players from entering women’s categories based on scientific determinations that trans women retain their male physical advantages.
The previous rules allowed transgender players to “self-identify” and choose whatever category they want, but beginning next month, that rule is no more. Players born as males but “transitioned” after puberty will be required to play in the men’s division and will be barred from playing as women.
The updated rules on the LTA website note that they apply to tournaments that the LTA sponsors in the UK.
In its December 11 statement, the organization cited scientific evidence that male-born athletes have physical advantages over women, quite despite testosterone levels or surgical procedures.
“It is clear that tennis and padel are gender-affected sports – the average man has an advantage when playing against the average woman. 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,” the LTA says on its website.
The organization added that this advantage is “likely to be retained to a significant degree in trans women, making competition potentially unfair.”
LTA also said that the determination was made by a review by the Sports Councils Equality Group.
The group added:
We are changing our Policy to restrict trans women and non-binary individuals assigned male at birth from playing in the women’s category in Specified, inter-venue, competitions. These will be competitions ranging from our National Championships through to local county and district leagues, where the purpose is to provide fair competitive opportunities. This policy helps ensure there is a common national standard for all these competitions which is fair.
Women’s rights activist Martina Navratilova was thrilled with the LTA’s decision.
Navratilova, who is otherwise a radical leftist, stand in complete opposition to the transgender agenda. After the LTA’s decision, she jumped to her X account and wrote, “Congrats to @the_LTA, this is a good start and I am hoping the @usta and others will follow suit.”
The LTA is only one of several organizations that have finally moved to ban trans athletes from competing as women. Others include the LPGA, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the International Rugby League (IRL), World Athletics, the swimming federation FINA, and many others.
These bans have grown over the last few years as sports organizations have begun realizing that male bodies have inherent physical advantages over the female body in sports competitions.
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