Labour peer raised issues about trans athletes competing in single-sex sports activities greater than twenty years in the past, historic information present
A Labour peer raised concerns about trans athletes competing in single-sex sports more than two decades ago, files reveal.
Estelle Morris, then minister of state for the arts, said EU laws on equality could prevent sports governing bodies from excluding transexual competitors.
Her prescient warning came long before today’s debate about trans athletes in sport and raised many of the problems that are still being grappled with.
Prominent female athletes argue that it is not safe for them to compete with those who were born male due to differences in biology, strength and weight.
Trans people can be excluded from single-sex sports on the grounds of fair competition or safety under section 19 of the Gender Recognition Act 2004.
In her letter, the former education secretary – now known as Baroness Morris of Yardley – warned that the EU’s proposed Directive on Equal Treatment could come into conflict with the act.
She wrote to then foreign secretary Jack Straw: ‘We are concerned about the impact of the Directive on single-sex sports events and private sports clubs and the new rules on the participation of transexual people in sport, set out in the Gender Recognition Act 2004.
‘We need to ensure that we can maintain the existing sports-related exemptions in UK sex discrimination that Section 19 of the Gender Recognition Act 2004, which permits sports governing bodies to have rules excluding transsexual people from single-sex sports events where necessary to secure fair competition or on safety grounds, will not be undermined by the new Directive.’
Labour peer Estelle Morris warned that EU directives could come into conflict with the Gender Recognition Act 2004, which allows for trans people to be excluded from single-sex sports
Baroness Morris warned that the EU law could clash in areas of art, such as a creative writing workshop for female victims of domestic violence
She also warned that the directive could clash with areas of art where there was a ‘strong public interest’ in limiting access on the grounds of gender.
‘One example might be a poetry or creative writing workshop for the female victims of domestic violence where the concept of a “safe space” is important,’ she wrote.
She added that dance classes for just women and girls would be more likely to attract people from ‘culturally diverse communities with strict dress codes and more restricted attitudes to mixed gender activities’.
She added that if she was not successful in securing a broad opt-out for such examples ‘then consideration should be given to blocking the directive’.
