Hundreds of UK women are expected to show up to an England's Nations League soccer match on Sunday to protest after a teenage girl who asked a trans-identified male opponent "are you a man?" was suspended from her club by The Football Association (FA).
The female footballer is reportedly suspected to have autism, and broke down in tears after she was questioned by a panel about her interaction with the trans player last month. Because of this, and the fact she is still a minor at 17 years old, her identity has been concealed. She was ultimately found guilty by the FA, the governing body over UK soccer, over asking her "bearded" opponent "are you a man?" and expressing concerns for her safety to the referee of the match in question.
While she asked for guidance on the eligibility of her trans opponent to play, the referee noted in her hearing that he didn't deem her inquiries as being discriminatory. Still, the governing body, whose policy is to allow trans-identified males to play in women's sports, suspended the girl from playing for six matches, which commenced on Monday.
The group behind the planned demonstration at Wembley Stadium is called Twelve O Five. The protest is set to begin at 1:30 pm before Sunday's 5 pm kickoff against Ireland.
Speaking to the Telegraph, one of Twelve O Five's leaders, Jean Hatchet, stated: "It’s blatantly unfair to put so much pressure on a girl so young and expect her to defend herself.
The female footballer is reportedly suspected to have autism, and broke down in tears after she was questioned by a panel about her interaction with the trans player last month. Because of this, and the fact she is still a minor at 17 years old, her identity has been concealed. She was ultimately found guilty by the FA, the governing body over UK soccer, over asking her "bearded" opponent "are you a man?" and expressing concerns for her safety to the referee of the match in question.
While she asked for guidance on the eligibility of her trans opponent to play, the referee noted in her hearing that he didn't deem her inquiries as being discriminatory. Still, the governing body, whose policy is to allow trans-identified males to play in women's sports, suspended the girl from playing for six matches, which commenced on Monday.
The group behind the planned demonstration at Wembley Stadium is called Twelve O Five. The protest is set to begin at 1:30 pm before Sunday's 5 pm kickoff against Ireland.
Speaking to the Telegraph, one of Twelve O Five's leaders, Jean Hatchet, stated: "It’s blatantly unfair to put so much pressure on a girl so young and expect her to defend herself.
"So, as women, as stronger women in better positions to oppose this unfairness, we feel that we have to do something. We’re hoping to pull big figures in. Martina Navratilova has agreed to help promote. We’re hoping that kind of attention will get quite a lot of people down there.
"We’ll have a big banner, we’re going to have a megaphone, we’re going to have leaflets. So we’re just going to hit as many fans as possible and get them to pay attention. Because I think that’s the only way we can get the FA to look closely at how they’ve been manipulated.
“Our aim overall is to reverse the policy that the FA has in place.”
