Trans women banned from competing against biological women in another sport after cricket clamped down
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Men who transition to become women are in the spotlight as the gender debate continues to rage on
The Angling Trust, which is the governing body for recreational fishing, have decided to ban men who transition to become women from the sport.
They will, however, still be allowed to play in the open category for both domestic and international events.
There was controversy earlier this year when half ot the England team stepped down at the Home Nations shore fishing championship.
Becky Lee Birthwhistle Hodges, who was born male, was selected - having been competing in the women's team since 2018.
Those England team members were concerned that Birthwhistle Hodges had an unfair strength advantage.
They felt this was important due to fishing requiring casting and dealing with sometimes difficult weather conditions.
The ban comes after the international federation, the Confederation Internationale de la Peche Sportive, ruled in September it was 'absolutely discrimintary' to allow transgender women in the ladies' category.
Jamie Cook, chief executive of the Angling Trust, said: “This is an extremely emotive subject and one we have seen a number of other sport struggle with.
“Angling has a strong heritage of open events and both our national and world championships are already universal (open) categories allowing the best anglers to compete regardless of gender.
“The evidence generated through our review process established that strength, stamina and physical attributes have the potential to offer competitors a significant advantage and in doing so impact fairness.
“Growing female participation is a core focus for the organisation and an area in which we have seen great success in recent years.
"Ensuring the integrity of the female category across all disciplines of angling will remove potential barriers and ensure clear pathways for participation growth to lead to domestic and international success.”
The new sports strategy states that 'competitive fairness cannot be reconciled with self-identification into the female category in gender-affected sport'.
It also says that, even with testosterone suppression, trans athletes have can have certain advantages.
The decision comes just a week after the ICC released a statement saying trans women wouldn't be able to play women's cricket.
A statement read: "The new policy is based on the following principles (in order of priority), protection of the integrity of the women’s game, safety, fairness and inclusion, and this means any Male to Female participants who have been through any form of male puberty will not be eligible to participate in the international women’s game regardless of any surgery or gender reassignment treatment they may have undertaken.
"The review, which was led by the ICC Medical Advisory Committee chaired by Dr Peter Harcourt, relates solely to gender eligibility for international women’s cricket, whilst gender eligibility at domestic level is a matter for each individual Member Board, which may be impacted by local legislation.
"The regulations will be reviewed within two years."
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Trans women were recently banned from competing against biological women in cricket
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ICC Chief Executive Geoff Allardice said: “The changes to the gender eligibility regulations resulted from an extensive consultation process and is founded in science and aligned with the core principles developed during the review.
"Inclusivity is incredibly important to us as a sport, but our priority was to protect the integrity of the international women’s game and the safety of players.”