An Australian amateur women’s soccer team with five transgender players stirred controversy and outrage among parents within the league after going undefeated in a women-only tournament and winning the $1,000 prize.
The Flying Bats FC of Sydney dominated the four-week tournament, including one game where one of the transgender players, a biological male, scored six goals with a final score of 10-0.
The team won the Beryl Ackroyd Cup final, beating the Macquarie Dragons 4-0.
Some parents refused to let their children play against the team, citing safety concerns, officials in one of the other teams in the North West Sydney League said.
Other parents said the Flying Bats should play in a mixed league that includes both genders.
“There’s no transparency from Football NSW, the girls don’t know if they are going to be playing biological males or not,” one senior club official said.
“Our girls are here to play for fun and expect to play in the female competition. They did not sign up for a mixed competition,” the official added.
“Some of the parents were so concerned, they would not let their daughters play,” the official continued. “It was so disheartening for them to see the huge difference in ability—they’re killing it.”
The team is backed by Pride Football Australia, which has a stated mission of participation by the LGBT community, including transgender players.
Its profile on social media platform X describes the team as “Sydney’s premier LGBTQIA+ football (soccer) club for women & non-binary people. Est 1985. Fun, friendly, inclusive.”
The team was established in 1985 and the website states that it is the “the biggest LGBTQIA+ women’s and non-binary football club in the world.”
President of the Flying Bats FC Jen Peden defended the team’s victory in the tournament and said that “trans women belong in the women’s competition because that is the gender with which they identify.”
“As a club, the Flying Bats FC stand strongly for inclusion, and pride ourselves on safe, respectful and fair play, the promotion of a supportive community for LGBTQIA+ players, officials and supporters, and the significant physical, social and mental health benefits that participation in sport brings, especially to marginalized members of the LGBTQIA+ community. We are a club that values our cisgender and transgender players equally,” Peden said.
“We strongly support the Australian Human Rights Commission’s guidelines for the inclusion of transgender and gender diverse people in sport,” she added.
Peden also pointed out that there have been transgender players in the Flying Bats for 20 years.
A league spokesperson said the league takes “pride in being at the forefront of developing inclusive policies for the sport in Australia and operates within the existing legal framework, including antidiscrimination legislation.”
However, some of the players say they were threatened if they protested the team by forfeiting or refusing to play. Binary Australia Spokeswoman Kirralie Smith also said there were threats to refer complainers to Anti-Discrimination NSW.
“Are you getting angry yet?” Sky Australia contributor Katherine Deves Morgan wrote on X about the team. “Five blokes on the winning women’s soccer team. Girls were threatened with fines if they forfeited. What a joke.”
The situation even attracted the attention of tennis legend Martina Navratilova, who posted, “Been angry for years now – the unfairness is off the charts. I will say it again – keep women’s sports female. It is not the place for any (failed) male athletes.”
Mark Harris of Outkick commented, “A man could wake up tomorrow, say they identify as a woman, and join a team in the league in an instant. The entire situation is a mockery. You have a ‘girl’s’ team that can field nearly half a team of biological men to take on women and the decision makers don’t see an issue with it, despite that team running through the tournament with ease.”
