It’s amazing to see how much worse transphobia is in the UK compared to here in Australia.
For the last week or so, parkrun has been caught up in a new cycle by transphobes in the UK, who are pushing for the exclusion of trans folk from their gendered categories.
parkrun has, possibly as a response to this, simply removed performance data from their records. Names, gender and position are still there, but times, records, age grading are gone now. parkrun says this is to push the focus towards community sports and wellbeing, rather than focusing only on runners and competitive elements.
Somehow though, it took me a week to even become aware of it! the Australian parkrun communities have been talking about the removal of the stats, and what it means for their apps and their unofficial performance badges, but no one is talking about the transphobes.
I’ve been the face of parkrun Australia’s trans inclusion for a few years now, so it says something that this whole thing can blow up in the UK without making waves here in Australia.
I don’t know whether that’s a good thing or not.
#parkrun #transphobia #transgender
There’s a petition to get the stats back online, for me it’s not really worth it without that data and the achievements, personal progress tracking. I’m not informed enough to comment on the transgender aspects of the issue.
They won’t add them back. If they do, it’s a safe bet that the transphobes will come at them with a court case about “protecting the rights of women” under transphobic UK law. A case that parkrun has no desire to fight and can’t afford to lose if they do fight it.
