Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop has asked Sport NZ to review and update its Guiding Principles for the Inclusion of Transgender People in Community Sport.

Bishop said he believed the guidelines do not reflect expectations that sport be about fairness and safety rather than diversity, inclusion and equity.

“The guiding principles, published in 2022, were intended to be a helpful guide for sporting bodies grappling with a tricky issue. They are intended to be voluntary, not mandatory.”

He said he has met a range of individuals and groups, and sought advice from Sport NZ on “this genuinely difficult issue”.

“The National-New Zealand First Coalition Agreement commits the Government to ensuring publicly funded sporting bodies support fair competition that is not compromised by rules relating to gender.

“It is important that transgender people feel able to participate in community sport – but there are obviously difficult issues for sporting bodies to grapple with around fairness and safety as a result of that participation.”

He said he expected an update from Sport NZ in the coming months.

Several high-profile New Zealand sporting identities and Olympians recently signed an open letter urging the Government to “prioritise fairness and safety” by rethinking the guiding principles for transgender athletes participating in sports.

More than 50 former Olympians, including gold medal winners Barbara Kendall and Joseph Sullivan, four-time Olympian Steven Ferguson and former Silver Fern Anna Stanley (nee Rowberry), signed the letter that challenges the Government to ban male advantage from women’s sports.

The letter claimed Sport New Zealand’s guidelines disregard the rights of female athletes and allow males who identify as female to compete in women’s sports without any explanation or transition. The group argue that accepting self-identification of gender as the sole criterion for inclusion goes against scientific evidence and disrespects female athletes, emphasising the importance of ensuring a fair and safe future for the next generation of female athletes from community sports to the elite level.

The group believes Sport NZ is out of step with recognising the biological and physiological differences and inherent genetic advantages between sexes in sports.

Dave Gerrard, former Olympic swimmer, Commonwealth Games gold medallist, chef de mission and sport medical doctor, told the Herald the primary concern was the permission granted to transgender athletes – from male to female – in elite sport.

“Although Sport NZ are making it clear their policy addresses community sport and recreation it’s hard to imagine you could allow someone to compete under self-identification and then get to a point where they are perhaps considered good enough to be selected for a provincial or representation at more elite level such as national or world championships,” Gerrard said. “There’s a fine line between saying we want inclusivity based on self-identification but then when do we then tell those individuals ‘sorry this is as far as you can go’.”

- NZ Herald