Thirty professional female pool players are threatening to sue their governing body for sex discrimination after it allowed transgender players to compete in women’s competitions.
They say this is unfair because trans competitors who were born male but identify as female have a physical advantage in games, including greater upper body strength, the ability to play games at a faster pace and reach further for difficult shots.
Peter Daly, of Doyle Clayton solicitors who represents the players, said: ‘The advantages all males have because of their sex… limit women’s ability to qualify and succeed in those competitions. The admission of males into women’s sport is therefore discriminatory.’
It comes after The Mail on Sunday revealed dozens of pro female pool players – including world No 5 Alexandra Cunha – were refusing to play against trans opponents in competitions.
They acted after the international governing body – the World Eightball Pool Federation (WEPF), and its main sponsor the Ultimate Pool Group (UPG) – reversed its own decision to let only players born female compete in women’s events.
We are constantly told that” sex and gender are different” yet they’re conflated in the law. I support fairness in sports, which is why the separation was created in the first place.
I think, as women, we need to seriously consider establishing female-only national sporting bodies if the existing governing bodies fail to provide sex-based competitions instead of gender-based ones.