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A National Women’s Soccer League club has grown divided after one of its players called on the league to “adopt gender standards” to protect the integrity of the organization and grow the sport.
Elizabeth Eddy’s column appeared in the New York Post last week and she asked, “How do we preserve women’s rights and competitive fairness while fostering meaningful inclusion?”
Eddy wrote that controversies in swimming and track and field have shed light that women’s professional soccer lacks standards when it comes to intersex and transgender athletes. She wrote that the NWSL “must adopt a clear standard,” adding that only players born with ovaries should be allowed to play, following the standard in the Women’s Super League in the United Kingdom, or the league should adopt an SRY gene test, like World Athletics and World Boxing.
“Fairness and inclusion are core American values. Reasonable people can disagree about where to draw lines, but avoiding the conversation altogether by shutting out diverse views does not serve us. In fact, we owe it to current and future female athletes to solve this,” the 11-year veteran wrote.
But Eddy’s column didn’t sit well with her own teammates.
Sarah Gorden and Angelina Anderson both offered a scathing rebuke of Eddy.
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“That article does not speak for this team in this locker room. I’ve had a lot of (conversations) with my teammates in the past few days and they are hurt and they are harmed by the article, and also, they are disgusted by some of the things that were said in the article and it’s really important for me to say that,” Gorden said on Friday.
“We don’t agree with the things written for a plethora of reasons, but mostly the undertones come across as transphobic and racist as well. The article calls for genetic testing on certain players and it has a photo of an African player as a headline. That’s very harmful, and to me, it’s inherently racist because to single out this community based on them looking or being different is absolutely a problem. As a mixed woman, with a Black family, I’m devastated by the undertones of this article.
Anderson talked about what she believed the club stood for.
“For me personally when I think of LA, and I think of Angel City, I think of a place that was founded upon inclusivity and love for all people – that’s what our locker room is, that what our staff is, that’s what our fan base is. Angel City is a place for everyone. It always will be. That’s how it was from the beginning, that’s how it will always be. Period,” she said.
“I think this situation, there’s an element of timing to it where this feels like another really big challenge that we have to go through as a team on top of an already really challenging year. And it’s definitely not the note that we as a group want to end on, and so I just want everyone to know that we’re doing our best in the locker room to preserve respect and belonging on this team and we look forward to ending the season on as positive of a note as possible.”
The NWSL reacted to Eddy’s column, too. The league told The Athletic it was “committed to working directly with the NWSL Players Association on any changes to our league policies.”
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