Chief executive of Sport NZ Raelene Castle said the guidelines were a “start point for conversation” about inclusion and diversity in community sport.
Sport Hawke’s Bay and the governing bodies of various codes in the region have been in discussion about the likely guidelines for some time. Now they’ve been published, the focus is turning towards actions.
Sport HB chief Aspden said, “The first thing to start with is just acknowledging that this has raised some really tricky and sensitive issues. It’s new to a lot of sports organisations and they’re trying to work their way through them and, from what I’ve seen, trying really hard to work out how they can be the most inclusive.”
Aspden said there remained some confusion about what was specifically required of clubs, and how to best equip themselves to embrace non-binary athletes.
“For any given organisation, it’s possible nothing will happen depending on the size of the organisation. And it probably is quite hard, I think, to deal with it in the abstract, which is where I think Sport NZ’s guidelines have come in,’’ said Aspden.
“Here are a set of principles, not a set of rules and [have a] think about what people of non-binary gender might be concerned about.’’
Aspden used rugby as an analogy, in terms of dispensations being provided to players who exceed the weight limit to play in a certain grade. It’s a common situation that few people object to.
But, he added, if that player was “well outside” the weight restrictions and “a dominant player” that can cause disquiet.
How might people react if that player was born male but competed in a female grade?
“I think we’re going to see that kind of practical consideration come up around player safety. I’ve heard legitimate concerns about that, versus balancing that against wanting to be inclusive,” Aspden said.
“It’s really hard to be definitive in a general sense except sports need to want to be inclusive because there’s real pressure around memberships for our sports so you don’t want to be ruling out keen players.
“It’s also about education. The administrators broadly are considering issues of inclusivity anyway and I think sport is changing and this is a subset.
“But for any given set of parents, they might only have to think about the issue in one context once and it is about supporting the sports administrators to educate their communities.’’
It might prove that a “case-by-case” approach needs to be adopted by clubs and governing bodies to ensure the best outcome for everyone, Aspden said.
“In the end, it’s really hard to come up with something that will cover all the situations that you can think of, because even if you look at people who might be moving from one gender to the other, it’s potentially different depending on the direction of movement and that person’s aspirations in the sport.”
Netball leads race to meet gender-neutral guidelines
One sport in Hawke’s Bay that is well-advanced in its efforts to accommodate new guidelines around transgender athletes is Hawke’s Bay Netball.
The Sport New Zealand protocols mean a few changes for community sports organisations, to ensure they have gender-neutral and inclusive policies around things such as uniforms, and toilet and changing facilities.
Hawke’s Bay Netball are as prepared as anyone, having amended their rules around outfits two years ago.
The move wasn’t made with transgender athletes in mind but it gives Hawke’s Bay Netball a head start on other governing bodies.
“We were just trying to be more inclusive of our community right across the board and to remove those barriers that stop people from playing netball and uniform was one of them,” Hawke’s Bay Netball general manager Denise Aiolupotea said.
“Not everyone likes to wear a tight-fitting dress for netball so we have removed that entirely and clubs and schools can submit any type of uniform, whether it be leggings or shorts or singlet or whatever. They just need to have some kind of uniform that resembles a team.’’
The rise of male netball contributed to that, with Hawke’s Bay set to stage a secondary schoolboys’ competition in 2023.
For Central Football chief executive Darren Mason the question is, where will everyone change?
It’s not uncommon for football teams to do that on the touchline and what dressing room facilities are available are owned and operated by Hawke’s Bay’s councils.
“Council has received guidelines around gender self-identification in community sport and how that relates to the facilities council provides in the way of changing rooms and toilets,’’ Hastings District Council public spaces and building assets manager Colin Hosford said.
“We have a programme of upgrading facilities at sports grounds and will look to incorporate these guidelines in our design considerations. In the meantime we will work with the governing bodies as to any interim measures that may be able to be introduced to make these facilities more private and inclusive.”
Sports routinely have different cuts of uniform for male and female teams, including football and cricket.
Hawke’s Bay Cricket Association chief executive Craig Findlay was waiting for a board meeting and advice from his national body before making detailed comment, while Basketball Hawke’s Bay general manager Nick Hogan was in a similar boat.
“We probably need a little bit of guidance about what would happen in the secondary schools space. We haven’t had any requests or any experience with it, but that’s not to say it’s too far away,’’ Hogan said of the instance where an athlete self-identifies their gender.
