As people and politicians in the United States continue to debate about whether or not transgender women and girls should be allowed to compete in women and girls’ sports, one country appears to be moving towards banning transgender athletes in all women’s public sports throughout the country.
According to a report from Liam Napier of the New Zealand Herald, the country of New Zealand is threatening to withhold millions of dollars of public funding from New Zealand sports bodies if they don’t agree to block transgender women from competing in women’s sports. This would apply not just to the professional level, but at the amateur sports level, as well.
The policy, which is led by New Zealand First, says it is to “ensure publicly funded sporting bodies support fair competition that is not compromised by rules relating to gender.” New Zealand First spokesperson Andy Foster says the push is “about fairness and safety in sport for women.”
Previously, this was an issue that the country seemed to leave to individual sporting organizations to work through and decide what to do, but this is now an attempt by the New Zealand government to make a move on this issue at a national level.
[NZHerald]
