Back in 2022, Dr Sheree Bekker, who researches gender and sport, said “Non-binary people are not a problem in women’s sport. They are meant to distract us from the real issues facing women’s sport. The medicalization of women in sport for what is perceived as the legitimate female athletes has harmed all female athletes.”
Now in 2026, we are really seeing what Dr Bekker predicted.
In March, the International Olympic Committee announced a new policy that “Eligibility for any female category event at the Olympic Games or any other IOC event, including individual and team sports, is now limited to biological females, determined on the basis of a one‑time SRY gene screening.” It was not supposed to apply to grassroots and recreational sports programs.
In June, the US Supreme Court ruled that State bans on transgender athletes in female school and college sports are allowed, despite Title IX, which bans sex-based discrimination in schools. Twenty-seven states now have bans on transgender participation in school athletics.
Shortly afterwards, the Heritage Foundation—the right-wing think tank—published a report calling for the rollback of the Title IX protections that have driven the explosion in popularity of women’s sports in the USA.
You can read the full paper for yourself, but one key point for me is that schools should be allowed to “accommodate sex differences” by replacing competitive women’s sports opportunities with “cheerleading, dance, yoga, hiking clubs, recreational intramurals, and other athletic opportunities more aligned with average female interests and tendencies.”
I have no issue with any of those activities, but do not appreciate them being considered “more aligned with average female interests and tendencies.” In fact, I see them as mostly welcoming spaces for all genders. My university cheerleading team had male cheerleaders when I started there way back in 1980. Dance schools and professional ballet companies go out of their way to recruit, train and retain male dancers.
And hiking? I associate that with Girl Guides, an organization that has been subversively feminist since its inception; the place where I and my friends learned the value of cooperation and supporting other women and girls (and also lots of useful skills). To learn more, I recommend this book:
There have also been allegations that since January 2025, the Office for Civil Rights in the US Department of Education has lost half its employees and regional offices, and failed to enter into any agreements addressing sexual assault or harassment in schools. Many of these cases involved girls in sport being harassed or assaulted by boy and men (but, notably, not trans women).
Through all of this, sports media has been obsessing about trans women in professional sport, “even though there are currently no trans women athletes in any major women’s professional league or on track to enter the leagues any time soon….[and] there is no trans woman dominating at professional—or any level, for that matter—women’s sports (source: Xtra Magazine).
It’s a pity, because professional women’s sport is booming. We have the WNBA, a new baseball league, four team expansion in the PWHL, and the Northern Super League in soccer. My PWHL team, the Ottawa Charge, is moving to the venue used by the Ottawa Senators this year because their old arena is just too small.
Xtra also reports that “In Washington state, spurred by this endless discourse cycle, a new policy is going to public vote that will subject children to invasive genital examinations if they want to play sports. Voters will head to the ballot box to weigh in on the policy this fall, and if it passes, kids from kindergarten to high school will be subjected to genetic screening, a testosterone-levels test or an examination of their reproductive anatomy at their yearly sports physical.”
We need gender inclusive sport that is safe for all women and girls, and we need the media to pay attention to the real issues that are making sports unsafe for them.
