(Reuters) -New Zealand will update its guidelines on transgender athletes in community sport following criticism from Olympians that the principles ignore female athletes' rights and undermine fairness and safety.
New Zealand's sport minister Chris Bishop said he had asked governing body Sport NZ to update the two-year-old guidelines which encourage transgender athletes to compete in amateur-level sport in the gender they identify with and not need to prove or justify their identity.
"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," Bishop said in a statement on Wednesday.
"I have come to the view that the Guiding Principles do not reflect legitimate community expectations that sport at a community level should not just be focused on diversity, inclusion and equity – but also prioritise fairness and safety."
The minister's statement comes a month after he received an open letter from more than 50 New Zealand Olympians, doctors and sport administrators calling for an urgent review of the guidelines, saying they undermined "fundamental tenets of fairness and safety" in sport.
Critics of transgender inclusion in women's sport say going through male puberty imbues athletes with a huge musculo-skeletal advantage that transition does not mitigate.
Supporters of transgender participation argue that not enough research has been done into the impact of transition on athletic performance and excluding transgender athletes amounts to discrimination.
Sport NZ's "Guiding Principles for the Inclusion of Transgender People in Community Sport" do not apply to elite sport. Individual sports in New Zealand govern how transgender athletes participate at elite levels.
Sport NZ boss Raelene Castle said the guidelines issued in 2022 were developed after wide consultation, but the governing body would start work on updating them and incorporate "learnings from lived experiences within the sector".
"The updated guidelines will continue to be used by sporting bodies as a tool if they choose to develop their own policies that are specific to their sporting environment," Castle said in a statement.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Michael Perry and Sonali Paul)
