CALGARY, Alberta (LifeSiteNews) — A Canadian female hockey player has warned that a new rule allowing “transgender” males to compete in women’s recreational hockey is bad for the sport and aspiring women hockey players as it will allow men who claim to be women to “come in and dominate” in the league.
As per a Western Standard report, a 34-year-old female hockey player from Calgary, who asked to remain anonymous and who plays on a women’s only team comprised of players aged 30 to 70, warned that the Ontario-based Canadian Adult Recreational Hockey Association’s (CARHA) new policy allowing “all genders” to play on women’s teams will hamper women who want to play only with women.
According to the female hockey player, who was referred to as Rachel in the Western Standard report, she “personally chose to be in a women’s league” and said she does not “love changing and undressing in front of people, but I’m okay with just other women.”
“I’m just trying to picture what it would be like (with men in the changerooms),” she said.
CARHA bills itself as a “not-for-profit sport organization that supports the recreational hockey market in Canada” that provides resources for recreational hockey leagues, such as offering team insurance and benefits.
On September 30, 2023, it updated its website with a “transgender policy,” which was also emailed to all players on February 24, 2024. CARHA also helps to run many recreational leagues.
“CARHA Hockey encourages leagues, teams, tournaments, players and coaches to implement policy in regards to transgender and non-binary/gender fluid individuals so that all persons feel welcome in the inclusive sport that is hockey,” reads the policy.
The new rules state that players who “identify as transgender can use the dressing room corresponding to their gender identity,” as well as “be addressed by their preferred name and pronoun, both in person and on league documents.”
According to Rachel, she said the way the new policy is worded so “You don’t really get to question it.”
“I signed up for this woman’s league, but now all of a sudden someone identifying as a woman can just come in there, but I can’t do or say anything about it. I just have to accept it. And that just kind of threw me off,” she added.
Rachel said the new policy is also bad for women in hockey, as it is only now that there is a viable women’s only professional league, the PWHA (Professional Women’s Hockey League), which has allowed female hockey players to shine in the sport they love.
Rachel noted that the biggest problem she has with allowing males to compete in women’s sports is that it makes it “hard to make a name for women in the sport.”
“All of a sudden now, well it’s not really a women’s league at this point,” she said.
For many years, most recreational hockey leagues in Canada have allowed co-ed teams, however, there are some men-only leagues, as well as female-only leagues. With the new rules changes, it remains to be seen how many leagues follow CARHA’s new transgender policy, but as many of the leagues use the services of CARHA, uptake will be high.
New transgender policy a ‘slap in the face’ for women: player
Rachel said that the new transgender policy that affects her hockey league is “like a slap in the face” to females “because they work so hard” to get good at the sport.
“They’re doing everything they can to get to their maximum ability. And then you have somebody that’s at their maximum on a different, harder level, but no, they can come. It’s gonna get taken away,” she said.
“And now they’ve got the PWHL for women, which is so cool, and that’s doing really great,” she noted, adding, “But the NHL has men, we have like our women’s league, okay, but now what? And now we can have a male identifying as a woman coming into the PWHL after we just finally made a name for women’s hockey,” she added.
Some provincial governments in Canada, notably Alberta, have promised to protect women athletes in sports. On January 31, Smith announced that her government would bar men claiming to be women from women’s sports.
She also introduced what is the strongest pro-family legislation in Canada, by protecting kids from life-altering so-called “top and bottom” surgeries as well as other forms of transgender ideology.
“Our government also needs to deal with the emerging issue of the unfair disadvantages that young women and girls are experiencing when competing with biologically stronger transgender female [sic] athletes in sporting competitions,” Smith said.
Smith pointed out that “there are obvious biological realities that give transgender female [sic] athletes a massive competitive advantage over women and girls.”
Accordingly, Smith promised that women and girls will “have the choice to compete in a women’s only division in athletic competitions and are not forced to compete against biologically stronger transgender female athletes.”
The new policy comes as studies have repeatedly revealed that gender-confused males hold a massive advantage over women in athletic competitions. A recent study published in Sports Medicine found that a year of transgender hormone drugs results in “very modest changes” in the inherent strength advantages of men.