WHAT SHOULD RUGBY'S TRANSGENDER POLICY BE?
IN FEBRUARY experts in everything from science to performance, law, risk and ethics came together in London. They met to discuss one of the thorniest issues that face modern sports: transgender players.
World Rugby’s working group was run on a simple principle: to assemble experts and the very best advocates for and against each position, and identify areas both of agreement and discord.
“Just to get the opposing sides in the same room was a significant step,” says Ross Tucker, a science and research consultant involved in the forum. “It’s wrong to say we wanted to run it like a court case, but it sort of also isn’t because we wanted each side to be able to learn from, hear the issues that matter to and then interrogate the other side.”
By the time the forum ended, World Rugby was on the way to evolving its policies on transgender athletes.
Since 2016, the International Olympic Committee hasn’t required trans women – natal
