Girls Soccer Team Featuring Five Trans Players Dominates Tournament, Enrage Concerned Parents
A girl's soccer team in Sydney, Australia with five transgender players - biological males - cruised to a pre-season tournament win and a $1,000 prize over the weekend. Club officials and parents of girls having to compete against a team filled with males are rightfully concerned.
According to Australia's Daily Telegraph, the team with the trans players on the roster called Flying Bats FC won every game during the four-week competitions. The squad won the grand final 4-0, but also secured a 10-0 win earlier in the tournament with one trans player scoring six goals on their own.
The team's official website displays its bat logo with the colors of the LGBTQ+ flag underneath it.
"A core part of our mission as a club is to challenge these wider cultural attitudes, to actively call out transphobic, homophobic and biphobic abuse when and where it happens on and off the field, and to make football a safe and accessible space for everyone," part of the club's gender and sex diversity policy reads.
Some parents have pulled their daughters from games over safety concerns of having to play against males while also explaining that players did not participate having to take the field against trans athletes in the tournament.
Club officials in the North West Sydney League believe Flying Bats FC, which is supported by Pride Football Australia, is part of "the "biggest LGBTQIA+ Women’s and Non-Binary Football club in the World." Officials also believe the team should play in mixed competitions on Saturdays, which includes men.
"There’s no transparency from Football NSW, the girls don’t know if they are going to be playing biological males or not," one senior club official said.
"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."
Binary Australia spokeswoman Kirralie Smith claimed that some girls teams were warned not to complain about having to compete against biological males at the risk of having to forfeit matches, being fined, or referred to Anti-Discrimination NSW.
The league itself is not taking fault as it is sticking to Football Australia adopting the Australian Human Rights Commission's guidelines which states players are permitted to participate in soccer on the basis of the gender with which they identify, not their biological sex.
In other words, a man could wake up tomorrow, say they identify as a woman, and join a team in the league in an instant.
The entire situation is a mockery. You have a ‘girl’s' team that can field nearly half a team of biological men to take on women and the decision makers don't see an issue with it, despite that team running through the tournament with ease.