Dutton Has An Opinion On Transgender Women In Sport

Peter Dutton has weighed in on the issue of transgender women in sports, declaring that “young girls want to be able to compete on a fair basis and I think that is a perfectly reasonable position to hold.”

Speaking to Sky News’ Peta Credlin on a range of issues, Dutton argued that allowing trans women to compete as women is unfair, despite insisting he does not support discrimination against anyone.

“Not in the spirit of sport”
“It’s one of those debates that we have to be honest in, and it’s not about discriminating against anyone including young girls. Young girls want to be able to compete on a fair basis and I think that is a perfectly reasonable position to hold,” Dutton said.

He went on to stress the need for community discussion on the topic, adding, “I just don’t believe in discriminating against anyone, on the basis of anything, and for young girls not to be able to achieve their Olympic dream, or their pathway to a World Cup, or to be displaced from a team because somebody has a physiological advantage over them – I just don’t think that is in the spirit of sport”

Reactions online divided as usual
As expected, Dutton’s comments have sparked heated discussion online. Reddit commentators have dubbed Dutton “Temu Trump” while comments on Sky News and Facebook praise him for showing “common sense.” 

Dutton’s comments come as coalition partners The Nationals have strongly come out in favour of trans discrimination. Many within The Nationals have urged Dutton to follow Trump’s lead and declare that there are only two genders – a call Dutton has so far rejected.

How sporting bodies are responding
In Australia, there is no federal legislation guaranteeing or denying trans people the right to compete in sports as their gender. 

Governing bodies such as Sport Australia have noted that trans people are often discriminated against and underrepresented in sport, and have issued inclusivity guidelines. Individual sports like swimming and rugby have implemented strict policies limiting trans women’s participation in elite female categories. 

The AFL, for example, requires trans women to prove that their testosterone levels have been in the female range for at least two years, and provide records of their height, weight, bench press, squat, 20m sprint time, vertical jump, match raw GPS data from three Australian Football matches, and 2km run time for at least two years.

However, Dutton’s emphasis on young girls suggests he is mainly concerned about community sport at a local or school level – a space in which schools and teams usually determine their own individual policies.

Notably, research has shown that trans women do not have a significant advantage over cis women athletes, and might even be disadvantaged (though this depends on the sport). 

Dutton’s anti-LGBT agenda
Historically, Dutton hasn’t been an ally of the LGBTQIA+ community, voting no on the same-sex marriage postal survey, voting no to increasing legal protections for LGBTIAQ+ people, calling the inclusion of new LGBTIAQ+ census questions a ‘woke agenda’ and banning the defence forces from holding LGBT morning teas.