Is it too late to save women’s sport? | The Spectator Australia

There’s a change in the air.

Last week, transgender swimmer Lia Thomas’ ‘wins’ and ‘records’ at the Ivy League Women’s Championships were met with anger and frustration. One feels for Thomas – a biological male – who had simply followed the absurd rules as set, but after dominating female competitors and catapulting from #462 in men’s swimming to #1 in the female ranks, the gross injustice was impossible to ignore.

Then this week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison publicly threw his support behind Senator Claire Chandler’s ‘Save Women’s Sport Bill’ also known as the Sex Discrimination and Other Legislation Amendment (Save Women’s Sport) Bill 2022.

Sporting groups may continue to offer mixed-sex sport or open categories, but the legislation will ensure that if they do choose to provide single-sex sport for women, they are protected from the perverse threat of legal action that they currently face. The current vague legal exemption for female-only sport being trumpeted by those opposed to Chandler’s bill is useless when sporting organisations are too afraid to use it.

Again, the Bill will not ban trans people from playing sport, but will simply restore a level playing field for women and girls. If anything, it is the status quo that is harming trans people – the indignation felt as biological males continue to thrash women in the sporting arena will only grow.