Rugby League Also Bans Transgender Athletes From Competing in International Events

Just the other day, FINA, the world governing body for swimming competitions, announced that transgender athletes such as Lia Thomas would not be able to participate in international events.

Well another sport's international governing body has joined in banning transgender athletes from competing. According to multiple reports, the International Rugby League has announced they will be also be enforcing a level playing field.

In their announcement, the league said they'd like to further evaluate the "perceived risk" to female athletes:

Until further research is completed to enable the IRL to implement a formal transgender inclusion policy, male-to-female (trans women) players are unable to play in sanctioned women's international rugby league matches," the IRL said in a statement.

60 Minutes Australia covered the story by interviewing affected transgender AFL rugby player Hannah Mouncey and a "specialist in transgender health issues," Dr. Lisa Watson.

Watson, who is also transgender, made the laughable claim that Mouncey is "actually at a physical disadvantage" due to receiving hormone therapies.

Photos of Mouncey competing with biological females make it extremely obvious who is actually at a "physical disadvantage" in women's rugby.

In the interview, Mouncey claimed that the Rugby league is concerned about potential size increases from physical training creating an advantage in future competitions, but that "physiologically, that's just not going to happen."

It seems abundantly clear that there's already a dramatic physiological advantage, which of course, the 60 Minutes "expert" ignored. In fact, the report did not contain a single interview with a biological female to get their opinions on the subject.

That's a dramatic oversight given how many teammates of Lia Thomas have spoken out about their concerns.

Hopefully this is yet another domino in a long line of dominoes to fall in female sports competitions. It seems like the AFL, and likely other organizations, have been waiting for the first governing body to step forward and take the appropriate steps to ensure fairness.

No one wanted to be the first to endure the inevitable activist criticisms and media pressure. FINA's banning of transgender swimmers appears to have broken the dam, giving rugby the cover to enact this new policy.

Biological males competing in women's sports is quite simply unfair, and it's encouraging progress to see more leagues acknowledging reality.