Obeisance Not To Nature, But To LGBTQ-2+

"[Players] must be able to participate in the sport in the Gender with which they identify [and be provided with] access to such facilities in accordance with their Gender Identity or Gender Expression."

"Hockey Canada's members unanimously approve of the gender expression and gender identity policy which is effective for the 2023-2024 hockey season."

"[The gender identity and expression policy] ensures that all players, including transgender and gender-diverse athletes, can compete in hockey in a way that aligns with their gender identity."

"For greater clarity, this means that trans women can play on the women's team, trans men can play on the men's team and gender diverse players can choose between the women's and men's teams."

"Transgender and gender-diverse players have the right to access dressing rooms and other team spaces that align with their gender identity, [and] must be welcomed and accommodated in the spaces where they feel safest and most comfortable."

"Eligibility is based on a player's self-identified gender without any requirement for medical or surgical transition related care such as surgeries or hormone replacement therapies. They can participate on the team that best reflects who they are." 

Hockey Canada's 2022 Gender Expression and Gender Identity Policy 

"A male that identifies as anything other than male is still biologically a male. They can severely hurt a girl and are at a physical advantage."

"Is there any guarantee that a boy identifying as female will not prey on girls in the dressing room or on the team bus?"

Unnamed Hockey Canada coaching source in disagreement 

Gender Identity Training

The Ontario Hockey Federation (OHF) is pleased to announce the launch of a new training module for team officials to support trans-inclusive hockey in Ontario:

• Understanding Discrimination based on Gender Identity
• Gender Expression Training.

These two modules will educate team officials on this important topic. Team officials will not be approved on a team roster until both modules have been completed.

Bench staff with Hockey Canada, including coaches and trainers were notified by Hockey Canada on July 3 that they are expected to attend a course on gender identity and expression if they wish to continue as certified members of the organization. The physical safety, competitive fairness and sexual privacy of girls and women have obviously been set aside by the organization as irritatingly irrelevant in comparison to the need to service the "gender diverse" community. 

 

A copy of the contents of the test was provided surreptitiously to the news media by an  unidentified coach who took exception to the fell swoop of Hockey Canada in establishing its new guidelines as writ in stone. Coaching staff who may feel bemused, confused and even angered at this adamant new direction in policy presumably will have all their questions answered by the test they are required to attend, clarifying in no uncertain terms how, when and why the new protocol on gender eligibility is to be regarded and acted upon with no exceptions.

 

The Ontario Women's Hockey Association happened to release an updated dressing room policy for female players 22 years of age and younger with the statement: "A player has the right to utilize the dressing room or appropriate and equivalent changing area that the player considers to be most safe, inclusive and reflective of their gender identity and gender expression, and transition status", on the very same day coaching staff were informed of the mandatory test course. 

 

Expressed concerns that females might be encumbered with in respect of biological males entering their formerly sex-segregated spaces, have come up against Hockey Canada's own dressing room policy, dismissive of concerns relating to gender separation and fears of inappropriate occurrences, categorizing these concerns as irrelevant, and urban-myth-based. "This example perpetuates the myth that trans girls/women are actually boys and men who transition to gain access to girls' women's-only spaces for their own gratification."

 

 

The all-inclusive policy was "built with expert guidance from the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, Canadian Women in Sport, stakeholders in hockey and individuals from the 2SLGTBQ+ community" according to the introductory video for the test. It might never have occurred to these decision-makers to consult beforehand with coaching staff, obviously the most knowledgeable of participants with the most experience given their time spent with players ranging in age from four years to 20, who recognize the biological differences between male and female players.

 

The course, in going to great pains to fully explain "gender diverse" to test registrants are given such details as the non-binary flag and what is represented by all of its colours. When the course has been completed they will understand that yellow represents those whose gender exists outside the male/female binary, while white represents people with many genders, and pink is for a melange for male and female. Brown, on the other hand, represents people who identify as absent any gender. 

 

 

"Gender-diverse" terms such as agender, biogender/polygender, gender-fluid, gender-queer and two-spirit all represent potentials for self-identification, for "gender-diverse" is an "umbrella term for people whose gender exists beyond the categories of man and woman. While many are raised to believe gender is strictly binary, gender diverse people experience and express gender in diverse ways. Each person's experience is unique, and these identities reflect the wide spectrum of how gender can be understood and lived". 

 

Any hockey staff who fail to agree to permit biological males to pass freely through the spaces normally segregated by sex, based on a chosen gender identity, will henceforth not be certified by Hockey Canada. The chosen identity need not necessarily be in any way consistent, since it is not tied to biological sex or medical interventions; reflecting instead the identity any individual feels reflects their persona on any given occasion. 

 

Ontario Hockey Federation