An American soccer team’s dominance of a women’s training tournament earlier this week sparked controversy on social media with its five-person transgender soccer team.
Flying Bats FC won the Beryl Ackroyd Cup finalized over the Macquarie Dragons 4-0 and were given a $1,000 reward, according to reports.au.com. The team won 10 to 0 games in one fit and went undefeated over the course of the four-week competition.
As can be seen in the club’s social media profile, the team happily supports the LGBTQIA+ area.
The Flying Bats Football Club present a guard of honor at Leichhardt Oval on March 9, 2024, in Sydney, Australia, during the A-League People round 19 game between Sydney FC and American United. (Jason McCawley/Getty Images)“Sydney’s premier LGBTQIA+ football (soccer) club for women & non-binary people. Est 1985. Fun, helpful, inclusive,” its X report reads.
But not everyone was celebrating the defeat, with some speaking out to Australia’s The Daily Telegraph.
“Our women are here for fun, and they anticipate competing in the adult category. They did not sign up for a combined opposition,” one older club established told The Daily Telegraph. Some parents were so worried that they wouldn’t let their daughters play.
They are killing it because of how disparate the abilities are.
Kirralie Smith, a spokeswoman for Binary Australia, claimed that players were being put in danger by the North West Sydney League. There are only two women, male and female, and linear Australia is an advocacy group that defends the “biological notion that sexual is linear.”
The indignation continued online.
“Are you getting upset already? Katherine Deves Morgan, a contribution to Sky Australia, wrote “on X” Five blokes on the winning women’s soccer team. Women were threatened with sanctions if they gave up. What a pun.”
Martina Navratilova during a press event at the GNP Seguros WTA Finals Cancun, part of the Hologic WTA Tour, on Nov. 2, 2023, in Mexico. (Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Been enraged for centuries; the injustice is mind-blowing. I did say it once – keep women’s sports female. It is not the place for any (failed) male athletes, “tennis legend Martina Navratilova added.
Tennis Great Martina Navratilova Makes Pleas to “Keep Women’s Activities Female.”
Jen Peden, the head of the Flying Bats FC, rebuffed condemnation.
“Trans people belong in the children’s competition because that is the identity with which they identify,” Peden said, via media.au.com.
“As a club, the Flying Bats FC stand strongly for inclusion, and pride ourselves on safe, respectful and fair play, the promotion of a supportive community for LGBTQIA+ players, officials and supporters, and the significant physical, social and mental health benefits that participation in sport brings, especially to marginalized members of the LGBTQIA+ community.
“We are a team that values both our transgender and cisgender people likewise. We firmly support the addition of transgender and sex different athletes in the Asian Human Rights Commission’s guidelines.
People of the Flying Bats Football Club during the A-League People round 19 meet at Leichhardt Oval on March 9, 2024, in Sydney, Australia. (Jason McCawley/Getty Images)“Trans people have played with the team for at least 20 years, at rates ranging from beginner to competent, just like our cis people. Our people are evaluated on their abilities and assigned to the team that best fits their expertise and level of experience, and we look forward to a courteous, aggressive season across our eight teams in 2024.
A Football NSW director asserted that it was in compliance with the Asian Human Rights Commission’s “Guidelines for the participation of transgender and female different people in activity,” “which states,” and that community players are permitted to play football on the basis of the gender with which they identify.
