Transgender women soccer players to be banned from women's teams in England, Scotland
_vb_77.jpeg)
London (AP): Transgender women will be banned from playing on women's soccer teams in England and Scotland following a U.K. Supreme Court ruling last month, the sport's governing body said Thursday.
The Football Association said it had decided to change its rules that had allowed transgender athletes to play on women's soccer if they had reduced testosterone levels. The Scottish Football Association made a similar decision that applies to competitive women and girls' soccer.
The U.K's highest court issued a ruling two weeks ago that defined a woman for anti-discrimination purposes as someone born biologically female. The head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission said after the ruling that transgender women would be excluded from women's toilets, hospital wards and sports teams.
While the ruling was cheered by some feminist groups, it has been condemned by trans-rights groups who said it would have a broad and detrimental impact on daily life.
The issue has been polarizing in the U.K. and beyond, particularly in the United States, where President Donald Trump has signed executive orders to prohibit participation of transgender athletes in sports and to use a rigid definition of the sexes, rather than gender, for federal government purposes. The orders are being challenged in court.
The FA said that its policy before Thursday had been to make the sport accessible to as many people as possible, but that it would make alterations if there were changes in law, science or the operations of “grassroots football.”
“We understand that this will be difficult for people who simply want to play the game they love in the gender by which they identify, and we are contacting the registered transgender women currently playing to explain the changes and how they can continue to stay involved in the game,” the FA said in a statement.
About 20 transgender women have been playing in English grassroots games this season.
“The people I know that are talking about this are saying: Well, that's it for football for me,'" said Natalie Washington, a member of the group Football v Transphobia. “Most people clearly don't feel that they can go and play in the men's game for reasons of safety, for reasons of comfort."
Fiona McAnena, of the group Sex Matters, welcomed the English FA decision, saying it was long overdue.
“The FA has had ample evidence of the harms to women and girls caused by its nonsensical policy of letting men who identify as women play in women's teams," McAnena said. “The requirement to lower their testosterone tells you that everyone knew they were not women."
McAnena said that every other sporting body needs to take similar action.
The group that oversees netball, an offshoot of basketball played mainly by women, said Thursday that its female category would apply to those who were born female.
England Netball said its decision wasn't the result of the court ruling. It said that it would have three gender categories of participation: female, male and mixed, with the latter category allowing people to compete according to their gender identity.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Ordinance issued to increase number of Supreme Court judges from 34 to 38
New Delhi (PTI): The government has promulgated an ordinance to increase the strength of the Supreme Court from the present 34 judges to 38, including the Chief Justice of India.
The law ministry notified the ordinance on Saturday, which amended the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Act, 1956, to increase the sanctioned strength of the top court.
So far, the sanctioned strength of the top court was 34, including the Chief Justice of India (CJI). Now, the number of judges has been increased by four, taking the sanctioned strength to 38.
The top court will now have 37 judges, other than the CJI.
With the apex court having two vacancies at present, and the ordinance coming into force immediately, the Supreme Court Collegium will now have to recommend six names for appointment as judges in the top court.
A bill will be brought in the Monsoon Session of Parliament to convert the ordinance – an executive order – into a law passed by Parliament.
The Union Cabinet had cleared a draft bill on May 5 to increase the number of apex court judges.
The strength of the Supreme Court was last increased from 30 to 33 (excluding the CJI) in 2019.
The Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Act, as originally enacted in 1956, put the maximum number of judges (excluding the CJI) at 10.
This number was increased to 13 by the Supreme Court (Number of Judges), Amendment Act, 1960, and to 17 by another amendment to the law.
The Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Act, 1986, augmented the strength of judges from 17 to 25, excluding the CJI.
A fresh amendment in 2009 further increased the strength from 25 to 30.
Article 124(3) of the Constitution lists the qualifications required to become a Supreme Court judge.
An Indian citizen who has either served as a high court judge for at least five years, or as an advocate for 10 years, or is a distinguished jurist, can be appointed to the top court.
The strength of the Supreme Court is increased based on the recommendations of the CJI, who writes to the Union law minister. After consulting the finance ministry, the Department of Justice under the law ministry moves the Cabinet with a draft bill.
