Author: Steph

Sharron Davies Saving Women’s Sport – Opinion. Sharron Davies MBE (born 1962) is an English former competitive swimmer who represented Great Britain in the Olympics and European championships and competed for England in the Commonwealth Games. More recently, she has led a campaign to “save women’s sport.” Save womens sport from what? Trans women. At first sight, that may seem highly admirable if women’s sport was genuinely threatened, but look more closely, and big cracks appear. In June 2022, World Aquatics (formerly FINA) announced that trans women were banned from competing with cisgender females. “Hoorah!” shouts Sharron Davies and her…

Jill Foster Free Lance Journalist and Transphobia Recently, Katie Neeves, a trans woman from Leicestershire, won the East Midlands Outstanding Female LGBTQIA+ Champion 2023 at their Women’s Award ceremony. Now the clue is in the “LGBTQIA+” – someone from within the LGBT+ community would win the award, albeit the “G” was likely not to be a contender. Nor was a trans man – they qualify for men’s awards. Trans men like the pictured Patricio Manuel, a professional boxer based in the United States. In short, in society, trans women and trans men swap places. According to the last census, our…

Culture War – The Elimination of Transgender People If you asked most people in the UK what a culture war was, they would not have the faintest idea – yet ‘culture war’ is a phrase used regularly by our media, particularly concerning the boat and trans people – real human beings invariably without a voice.

No words – just watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=v01Isb_mDPo

The move by national and international sports federations to so-called ‘open’ categories is the latest trend in global transphobia. Portrayed to be “inclusive” in reality, it amounts to a ban for testosterone-suppressed trans women who wish to participate in meaningful sports competitions. Organisations adopting an open transgender sports policy include Swim England, World Swimming (formerly FINA), British Cycling, Union Cycliste Internationale, British Triathlon, UK Athletics, World Athletics and several others. For decades trans women athletes globally have won very little in the female category of sport, but because of the relentless persecution of trans women by gender-critical groups such as…

Twitter has been accused of being an echo chamber of hate, and indeed some posts border on the weird, cruel or damn right hateful. As a platform, at least before the new owner Elon Musk took over, there was a feeble attempt to protect trans people from threats, abuse and misgendering… sadly those ambitions are now gone. This week we saw Helen Joyce (left of picture) writing a cruel Twitter thread about how (in her opinion) trans women didn’t “pass” – what Helen doesn’t realise is the public doesn’t care one iota. I certainly have friends who don’t pass, but…

To declare a bias, I’m not exactly fond of Dr Jon Pike, who judging by his Twitter feed, has just one hobby – being hostile to trans women. I suspect Jon is not that keen on me, either. Jon has a specific interest in “saving women’s sports” and often aligns in this issue with some people who may be considered transphobic, meaning discriminatory against trans people – specifically trans women. The “saving women’s sports” trope suggests that hordes of trans women have, can or will dominate women’s sports is wearing thin these days – indeed, we can look back over…

At nearly seventy-one years of age, one dont expect to be jetted around the world talking about trans and women’s human rights, but earlier this month, that is exactly what happened to me. It was a week my body won’t forget. Friday, 3rd of March, a flight to the USA, returning overnight, arriving at Heathrow early Wednesday morning with just five hours of sleep over two long days. No time to unpack; it was International Womens Day. I was in the house for less than ten minutes before leaving so to attend a Portsmouth Labour women’s event to celebrate IWD…

If there is one controversial topic even within the TransLucent leadership, it is the issue of trans women competing in the female category of sport. So, to be clear, this article is very much “personal” and not our organisation’s policy.  Before my discussion at the University of New England in Maine with Carole Hooven, PhD earlier this month, I thought testosterone-suppressed trans women athletes with potential puberty advantage should not compete with females in elite sports. However, before the discussion with Carole, I did considerable research and even received advice from double Olympic Champion Dame Kelly Holmes OBE.  After my…

Being a human rights activist both for trans people and women, I guess it’s normal these days to upset some people. Sadly, though for some, a reasonable debate is not on the agenda, and they turn to hate. The message on this page (technically a hate incident) was sent to me via the contact page via the old Steph’s Place website on December 6th 2022. It was reported to the Police, who have done nothing other than send a letter saying they were sorry that I was a victim. Trans hate crime has, in the last year, increased by 56%,…