Germany is looking at how people who are transgender can play in football, or soccer. Other countries including England, Scotland, and Wales have asked the German Football Association for advice on including transgender players in their own teams. The DFB’s diversity ambassador Thomas Hitzlsperger said that Germany was doing a great job by allowing transgender athletes to play in football.
Outside of Germany, people don’t think the same way about transgender inclusion in sports. People worry if the playing field is fair and if the other players are safe. That’s why Sport News Center went to Berlin to learn more about the policy directed at this issue. The conclusion was that people need to have a serious conversation about fairness and inclusion.
Transgender Women
In 2019, the Berlin Football Association tested a new policy which was then used across Germany for competitions at amateur level. However, this rule will not apply to professional football matches.
This is different from other sports such as Athletics where transgender women are not allowed to compete in female events. The reason for this decision according to Lord Coe (the president of World Athletics) is so that there is protection for the categories of female athletes.
In Germany, transgender women won’t have to reduce their testosterone level to play on a women’s team.
Players in English football who want to play when they turn 18 need to prove that they are eligible. This is especially true for transgender women, who are required to show their blood hormone levels fall within the range of what a normal female has, and this needs to be checked each year so they won’t have an unfair advantage over other players. The Football Association decided last June that fairness should be the priority in deciding its rules on participation.
Fifa is looking for help from specialized professionals, such as scientists and human rights activists, to decide if they should change their rules on gender eligibility. This looks into if transgender people can play in female categories while still being fair and safe.
Recently, a UK sports review has found that it can be difficult for transgender people to participate safely and fairly in sports. It said that taking medicine to reduce testosterone does not guarantee fairness between transgender females and females who were born female. Furthermore, there are physical differences like strength, endurance and body shape between the average female and the average transgender person who was registered male at birth.
Hitzlsperger, who used to play in the Premier League before coming out as gay in 2013, said that everyone who loves football should be allowed to play. He then added that you need more than just strength and speed to play football; you need skill, a good team and effort too.
Thomas Hitzlsperger thinks that letting transgender people decide which sport teams they should join in amateur sports will not be a danger for women’s sports.
Germany Recognizes Third Gender
In 2019, Germany became the first EU country to officially recognize a third gender. This means that intersex people – who don’t perfectly fit the male or female categories – now have the option to select ‘diverse’ on things like birth certificates and driver’s licences. Ana di Lisio is the founder of a campaign group called RadFem Berlin that had something to do with this decision.
Although we don’t know for sure, it’s estimated that only about 1% of the world is transgender or non-binary. Women’s rights campaigners in Germany think it’s a bad idea to have even one transgender woman play on a women’s sports team because they say it will bring bad results.
Ana di Lisio from the RadFem Berlin group said to SportNewsCenter: “Although we can’t tell someone what they do or don’t feel, when it comes to sports, there’s a big difference between male and female bodies. So this new policy of the DFB (Deutscher Fussball-Bund) will hurt women who want to be athletes, and make young girls think that they won’t ever have a chance.”
“It might be the start of a tough time for women athletes,” she said.
Charlotte Jerke
Charlotte Jerke is a transgender footballer and has been playing for the ladies team of DFC Kreuzberg in Berlin since three years ago. Before that, she was part of a men’s team but things changed when she started taking hormones which caused her body to change too. That made her feel awkward so she decided to switch teams.
She says that this new rule was important because it gave them something to go off of – a clear place to fit in.
Generally, the 38-year-old gets a good response from her opponents, but she sometimes worries about how fast she can run or if it’s ok for her to tackle someone else and not have them complain.
At the start of my matches, I’m always a little bit nervous because when the other players see me, they sometimes give me surprised looks as if to say “What are you doing here?”
But even though there are some people who don’t believe that I should be playing football with this team, I know for sure that I don’t have an unfair advantage over everyone else. In fact, I’m not even the fastest or strongest player on our team.
I keep playing because I feel so happy and loved in this team – like everyone can really see and appreciate what I bring to the group.
When a new rule was introduced, Jerke said she felt relieved but isn’t happy that it doesn’t apply to the professional game. She added that people like her are in the minority and typically only one or two of them per team. Jerke hopes other sports will learn from football and we won’t need to separate people based on gender, although this likely won’t happen in her lifetime.
German Football Association Leads The Way on Transgender Policy
Hitzlsperger has said that everyone is safe so far and there haven’t been any problems. He also told us that other countries like England, Scotland, Wales, the Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium as well as Uefa have contacted the German Football Association about the policy.
Thomas Hitzlsperger, a 52-cap Germany international, believes it can be beneficial for other countries to wait and see how his country does with its initiatives before making their own changes. A spokesperson for the Football Association (FA) said that promoting diversity in their national game is at the heart of all they do.
Our transgender policy has helped many people who play or want to play football in their declared gender, or in a safe and friendly place.
This issue is complicated and keeps changing so we, like other sport national bodies, need to review our football transgender policy for England.
We are talking to and listening to everyone who is connected to football, like Fifa and Uefa who are still in the beginning of their own talks and discussions. We are also contacting other global football and sports officials including the teams from other countries.
The Football Association of Wales said that making sure participants feel safe is the most important thing to them. They are looking at their plan again and listening to what others have to say. Sports News Center has also been in touch with Scotland’s Football Association.
Fair Play for Women is giving advice to the English FA as part of a review process. This group stated that it’s important women players and women’s groups are heard and considered in the policy adoption process. They weren’t consulted before when similar policies were put into place and they want to make sure their needs are taken into account this time around.
Sport is very inclusive because it includes different genders, ages, and people with disabilities. There needs to be categories though, so that everyone can compete fairly and safely. Also, don’t miss the new drama Blue Lights about rookie police officers in Belfast on SportNewsCenter iPlayer. Lastly, we’ll look at four movies that predicted the future wrong – are hoverboards and flying cars just our imagination?
