The FA issued an update to its policy shortly prior to the ruling which continued to allow transgender women to play in women’s football with reduced testosterone levels, but added a formal process allowing the governing body to exercise ultimate discretion to refuse or remove eligibility to players on grounds of safety or fairness.

However, it has confirmed the policy is now being examined again.

An FA spokesperson said: “We are carefully reviewing our policy and taking legal advice.”

The Scottish Football Association is understood to have updated its policy so that only those born female can play in women and girls’ football from under-13s upwards next season.

The Supreme Court ruling issued on April 16 offered clarification on terms used in the Equality Act. It concluded that Section 195 of the Act, which allows the lawful exclusion of athletes based on sex from gender-affected sports, was “plainly predicated on biological sex”.

Former FA chairman Lord Triesman told The Telegraph at the time of the ruling: “The pitiful excuses of some sports bodies, and especially the FA, have been shown to be unlawful.

“Women’s sport, as in all else, is defined by biology facts. There is no room for alternative propositions and the bodies concerned must reform and comply with the law at once or certainly face constant legal challenges.”

Since the ruling was handed down, the Ultimate Pool Group has updated its policy to ban trans women, having also received a report that pool was a gender-affected sport.

Snooker’s global governing body, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, is also reviewing its policy.

The actor’s daughter opened up about her sexuality and how she hopes to be a role model for queer women of color. In an interview with Them, Airyn shared the reason behind why she wanted to publicly discuss her transition. “There’s a difference between being visible and being seen,” she said.

“I don’t think I’ve been seen yet.”

She continued: “Trans women being honest and open, especially [in] public spaces like social media and getting to see them in their success… I’m like, you know what? Maybe it’s not too late for me.

“Maybe I can start.”

Airyn came out as a gay man as a teenager but shared how she never felt as though she fit in at high school. “I was always told I was too much of something or not enough of something growing up: Too big, not skinny enough,” she said.

“Not Black enough, not white enough. Too feminine, not masculine enough. It was never just, ‘You’re just right, just the way you are’.”

However, the actor’s daughter shared how beginning hormone therapy in November 2024 helped her. “I think a big part of [my transition] is also the influence Black women have had on me. I think stepping into this new identity, while also being more proud of my Blackness, makes me feel closer to them in some way,” she added.

Family life

Robert welcomed his daughter alongside her twin brother Julian with his ex-partner Toukie Smith in 1995. “I wasn’t brought up having a side part in one of dad’s movies or going to business meetings or attending premieres. My dad was very big on us finding our own sort of path,” she shared.

“I would want [success] to happen on my own merit.”

Future

Airyn detailed her hopes for the future and the stars that she looks up to regarding queer advocacy. “I want queer people of color and bigger-bodied people to have an Alex Consani. I want queer people of color and bigger-bodied people to have a Hunter Schafer,” she said.

“A part of me has always wanted to model and sort of follow my mom’s footsteps. Honestly, if I could be on the cover of Vogue with her or recreating one of her pictures, that would be a dream come true.”

Airyn De Niro, 29, told Them magazine that she begun taking hormone replacement therapy in November last year.

Commenting on her transition, she said: “Trans women being honest and open, especially [in] public spaces like social media and getting to see them in their success… I’m like, you know what? Maybe it’s not too late for me… Maybe I can start.”

Newsweek has contacted Airyn for comment on social media outside of regular working hours.

Why It Matters

President Donald Trump has taken multiple steps to unravel protections for transgender people since returning to the White House.

Following his inauguration on January 20, Trump issued an executive order stating that it is “the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female.” He has targeted gender-affirming care for transgender youths, banned trans people from serving in the military, and excluded trans women from competing in female sports.

What To Know

Speaking about her transition, Airyn told Them magazine: “I was always told I was too much of something or not enough of something growing up: too big, not skinny enough. Not Black enough, not white enough. Too feminine, not masculine enough. It was never just, ‘you’re just right, just the way you are.'”

She added: “I think a big part of [my transition] is also the influence Black women have had on me… I think stepping into this new identity, while also being more proud of my Blackness, makes me feel closer to them in some way.”

Born to Robert De Niro and actress Toukie Smith, Airyn grew up largely out of the spotlight. She said that she hopes to pursue a career in modelling and acting, and has also trained as a mental health counsellor.

“People of color and queer people definitely need more mental health advocacy and support. So I’m hoping I’m able to do that,” she said.

Mental health is a critical issue for Black transgender and nonbinary young people. According to the Trevor Project, as of 2023, one in four Black transgender and nonbinary people had reported a suicide attempt in the previous 12 months.

What People Are Saying

Lexxe, a musician, responded to Airyn’s Instagram post, writing: “You are such a vision I loved reading your words!”

Hannah Joelle Kamphof, a blogger, wrote on Instagram: “Amazing, thank you for showing the world you are with your own voice! Our world needs so much more of this from our diverse community.”

Tomi Lahren, Fox News commentator, wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “Isn’t it amazing that all these deranged celebrities end up having kids who don’t know what gender they are… Feels like child abuse.”

“The situation is really chaotic, desperate,” said Florencia Guimares García, a travesti activist who is president of the House of Lohana and Diana Civil Association. “There is also a lot of fear among the trans and travestí community towards the government’s policies.”

Guimares’s group is named after Diana Sacayán, a prominent trans activist who was stabbed to death inside her Buenos Aires apartment in 2015, and Lohana Berkins, the founder of the Association for the Fight for Travesti and Transsexual Identity who died in 2016.

Guimares and three other trans activists — Julia Amore, Sasha Solano, and Daniela Ruíz — spoke with the Blade after they participated in a trans and travestí rights forum that took place at an LGBTQ cultural center in downtown Buenos Aires. Alba Rueda, the country’s former special envoy for LGBTQ rights, also took part.

“We are in a bad moment for the rights and quality of life of LGBTQ+ people,” Rueda told the Blade during a February 2024 interview.

Milei took office on Dec. 10, 2023, after he defeated then-Economy Minister Sergio Massa in the second round of that year’s presidential election. Rueda resigned before Milei assumed the presidency.

Milei, an economist and former congressman, shortly after he took office eliminated the country’s Women, Gender and Diversity Ministry.

Milei last year closed the National Institute Against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism, a government agency known by the acronym INADI that provided support and resources to people who suffered discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and other factors. Milei in 2024 also dismissed trans people who the government hired under the Trans Labor Quota Law, which set aside at least 1 percent of public sector jobs for trans people.

Argentina’s landmark Gender Identity Law that, among other things, allows trans people to legally change their gender without medical intervention, took effect in 2012 when Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was president. Milei on Feb. 5 issued a decree that restricts minors’ access to gender-affirming surgeries and hormone treatments.

Gay Congressman Esteban Paulón, a long-time LGBTQ activist, filed a criminal complaint against Milei after he linked the LGBTQ community to pedophilia and made other homophobic and transphobic comments during a Jan. 23 speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Millions of people in Buenos Aires and across Argentina participated in marches against Milei that took place less than two weeks later.

Milei is among the heads of state who attended President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Milei also spoke at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md.

“Violence is more explicit, more common,” Guimares told the Blade, noting police violence has become more common against sex workers who are trans or travestí since Milei took office. Guimares added this situation is worse outside of Buenos Aires.

“The situation is different, depending on the location, and even more so in other provinces,” she said. “Even living in the province of Buenos Aires isn’t the same as living in Salta, or in Jujuy, or in Corrientes, or in provinces where the population is more conservative, where the discourse from the churches is much stronger, where all of this has a much crueler impact.”

“Milei’s discourse has legitimatized all of this,” added Guimares.

Amore said Argentina before Milei “had been a beacon” for human rights around the world.

“We’ve been building these laws with a lot of struggle, a lot of effort, with allies, and it wasn’t enough because we didn’t reach our goal,” she said. “These are very young. Our democracy is very young; we have a 40-year-old democracy and we are talking about a Gender Identity Law that is 12-years-old.

Amore added Milei is trying to erase trans and travestí people. Ruiz, an activist and actress who founded Siete Colores Diversidad, an advocacy group, agreed.

“It is a cultural battle for us,” Ruiz told the Blade, referring for the continued struggle for trans and travestí rights in Argentina.

“It marks a cultural paradigm shift that we were carrying out day after day, making ourselves visible,” she added. “We carried it out by making ourselves politically visible, by presenting our travestí and trans Latin American visibility as a beacon to the world.”

The activists spoke with the Blade less than three months after Trump took office.

The American president, like Milei, has targeted the trans community with executive orders and policy directives. These include banning the State Department from issuing passports with “X” gender markers and prohibiting trans adults and young people from sports teams that correspond with their gender identity.

Solana, a trans woman from Peru who advocates on behalf of migrants, noted one of the first executive orders that Trump signed directed the federal government to only recognize two genders: Male and female.

“Man and woman. Period,” she said.

Guimares added Milei’s anti-LGBTQ discourse isn’t even his “original speech, but rather a line drawn from the U.S. government of Donald Trump and its agenda, which he established from the beginning and which he campaigned on as well.”

“This also follows in line with parties like Vox in Spain and other European countries, where we see how in Hungary, where an LGBTI Pride march (in Budapest) is now banned, and in other countries around the world where the population is having a really hard time,” said Guimares. “So, it’s not something original from Milei, but rather he’s taking part in those political agendas to generate strategies and alliances to be able to access economic resources.”

Amore, for her part, urged her American counterparts to continue the fight.

“Don’t let down your guard,” said Amore. “Organize. Come together. Speak out. Become visible in community. Respect the diversity of voices and put your own voices first and make yourselves more visible.”

The updated policy came into force on April 1 and continues the practice of allowing transgender women to play in amateur women’s competitions if they have had reduced testosterone levels for at least a year.

Campaigners had wanted football to follow sports such as rugby union and hockey by restricting women’s matches to those who were born female, with an open category for all other players.

Instead, about 20 transgender women registered to play amateur football in England can continue to do so if their testosterone levels are below 5nmol per litre for at least 12 months. However, a change to the regulations means the FA can step in if it has any concerns and ask its Transgender and Non-Binary Eligibility Committee to make a decision.

 

The new FA rules state: “Where there is an issue about a player’s eligibility, efforts will always be made to resolve it through dialogue between the player, the county FA and the FA.

“In any case where (1) the FA does not approve a player’s application to participate in matches in the women’s game following a match observation, or (2) the FA reasonably considers on the ground of (A) safety to competitors and/or (B) fairness of competition that it might be necessary to withdraw a player’s eligibility to participate in matches in the women’s game having previously granted such eligibility under this policy, the player or the FA may refer the matter to the FA’s Transgender and Non-Binary Eligibility Committee for determination.”

Players’ medical records of hormone therapy have to be verified at least annually, before the start of each season, “and more often at the FA’s discretion”, according to the rules.

There are no transgender women playing in or even close to the elite level in England. It is understood that if this changes, the FA would seek advice from Fifa — however the policy of world football’s governing body is also around reduced testosterone levels, rather than a full ban.

In September Sutton United women’s team postponed their fixture against Ebbsfleet United after the club were criticised for signing a transgender goalkeeper, Blair Hamilton. Sutton’s manager, Lucy Clark, was the first openly trans referee before her appointment by the club in January 2024.

There have been no cases to date of transgender women wishing to play in professional or international women’s football.

The new FA policy follows a lengthy review and has been drawn up with input from two KCs. The FA is understood to wish to promote inclusion as a priority but to be able to intervene when there are concerns.

In November there was a protest against the FA’s transgender policy outside Wembley before the England men’s match against Ireland in response to a 17-year-old girl being banned for two matches over remarks she made to a transgender opponent in a grassroots match. She was sanctioned after she was found to have repeatedly asked a transgender opponent during a match: “Are you a man?”

Last month the FA’s chief executive, Mark Bullingham, said the governing body was “in the right place” with its transgender eligibility policy. “We do continue to look at areas that we might refine,” he added.

J.K. Rowling continues to be one of the biggest villains of the transgender movement.

Rowling believes women are women, men are men and spaces for women should be protected from biological men. And for this, she has received attacks and threats from trans activists.

While speaking with host Megan Phelps-Roper on “The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling” podcast, the wildly successful author said she stands by her beliefs.

“I thought about it deeply and hard and long and I’ve listened, I promise, to the other side,” she said. “And I believe, absolutely, that there is something dangerous about this movement and that it must be challenged.”

Rowling admits she knew what she was getting herself into.

“When I first became interested in, and then deeply troubled by, what I saw as a cultural movement that was illiberal in its methods and questionable in its ideas, I absolutely knew that if I spoke out, many people who love my books would be deeply unhappy with me,” she said.

The 57-year-old author said the trans activist movement “echoes the very thing that I was warning against in ‘Harry Potter.’”

“In fact, a ton of Potter fans are grateful that I said what I said,”

And although she admitted it would have been easier not to get involved, Rowling said she feels she’s doing the right thing.

“I am fighting what I see as a powerful, insidious, misogynistic movement, that has gained huge purchase in very influential areas of society,” Rowling said. “I do not see this particular movement as either benign or powerless, so I’m afraid I stand with the women who are fighting to be heard against threats of loss of livelihood and threats to their safety.”

J.K. Rowling is not afraid to stand up for women.

And she first ruffled feathers in 2020 when she sent out a tweet suggesting that “people who menstruate” could simply be called “women.”

‘People who menstruate.’ I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?

Opinion: Creating a more equal post-COVID-19 world for people who menstruate https://t.co/cVpZxG7gaA

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 6, 2020

That initial tweet garnered a lot of backlash, but Rowling didn’t relent. She wrote about her views in more detail.

The idea that women like me, who’ve been empathetic to trans people for decades, feeling kinship because they’re vulnerable in the same way as women – ie, to male violence – ‘hate’ trans people because they think sex is real and has lived consequences – is a nonsense.

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 6, 2020

In the months following, woke activists and celebrities — including the star actors in the “Harry Potter” movies — spoke out against Rowling.

And it got even more asinine from there.

Quidditch — which Rowling literally invented – became “quad ball.” Then, critics called for a boycott of a new video game, Hogwarts Legacy, due to a lack of “queer” people in the development of the game. Even Rowling’s own friends begged her not to go public with her beliefs on gender ideology.

Still, she won’t kneel at the feet of the mob.

In a world where regular people can lose their jobs and be labeled transphobic bigots simply for acknowledging biological reality, high-profile voices like J.K. Rowling’s are so important.

She doesn’t care about legacy, cancellation or money. Because her legacy is undeniable, she’s un-cancellable and she’s already worth about $1 billion.

A disturbing TikTok video has gone viral showing the moment a transgender woman was verbally assaulted at a restaurant in San Francisco.

Content creator Lilly Contino was dining with her dog at the Cheesecake Factory in San Francisco’s Union Square while live-streaming a conversation with her followers when an unidentified woman began harassing her.

In the footage, the woman is heard proudly describing herself as a TERF to Ms Contino – an acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminist meaning a person who sees themself as a feminist but who is transphobic.

“You know I’m a TERF right? Trans-eccentric radical feminist,” the woman is heard saying off-camera.

When Ms Contino asks if she is a TERF, the woman doubles down saying: “I am a TERF.”

She then asks Ms Contino if she wants her to move away, to which Ms Contino responds: “No, actually, you should tell me about being a TERF.”

At that point, the woman misgenders Ms Contino saying: “You’re a boy, right?”

She then begins to threaten Ms Contino with physical violence.

“Don’t f*** with me, ‘cause honestly I hit. I hit hard,” she says.

The incident continues with the woman telling Ms Contino not to “judge” her for being a TERF and telling her “I get to be who I want to be and you get to be who you want to be”.

She then tells Ms Contino to “take your stupid dog, eat your f***ing food and get the f*** out of my life” before saying she will “have to label you a white racist”.

Ms Contino then asks to speak to the manager of the restaurant who is heard off-camera apologising for the incident.

Ms Contino shared a clip of the encounter on her TikTok platform and, as of Monday morning, it had racked up 9.7 million views.

Story continues

Ms Contino explained to KPIX that the harassment first began when the woman started telling jokes and then offered to show her a surgery scar on her stomach.

When she politely turned her down, the woman replied: “I’ll show you if I want to, son.”

“And, of course, as a trans person, I’m more sensitive to gender language,” Ms Contino said.

She said that she became more shocked as the incident went on, saying that nothing like that had ever happened to her before.

She was especially shocked, she said, given that she had moved from Georgia to the liberal city of San Francisco.

“I was just like flabbergasted. I’ve never been physically threatened in public. I’ve never been berated in public,” she said.

“Part of this was just shock and disbelief that this was happening. I live in San Francisco for a reason. I live here because it’s a liberal city, it’s one of the most queer-friendly cities in the world.

“To have it happen in such a public place and have nobody help.”

Despite public outcry both during and after its meeting, the Greenville County Library System’s Materials Committee voted Monday to advance a proposal limiting access to transgender-themed materials.

The full board of trustees will vote on the proposal later this month.

The committee debated changing the library system’s collections development and maintenance policy, which governs the type of books and materials that are included in the library.

The committee specifically proposed changes to the library’s juvenile and young adult collections, seeking to move materials with “gender transition ideologies” into other collections that require an adult-access library card to check out.

In its proposed policy changes, the committee also sought to limit access to materials containing explicit descriptions or depictions of sexual acts, incest, pedophilia and graphic depictions of violence or abuse.

Although the committee is only made up of five board members, all 10 Board of Trustee members were present at the meeting either in-person or virtually to debate the proposed changes.

Employees and advocates:Greenville County Library System has ‘toxic’ board leadership

Greenville County Library System’s Materials Committee reviews 24 books, chooses broader action

The committee was expected to make a decision regarding the fate the 24 books that have been under review since last November, but instead of issuing permanent bans on any of those books, the committee focused instead on the library’s larger collections policy.

The committee was initially tasked by the board last fall to review 24 books, many with LGBTQ+ themes, that were subject to scrutiny from the county GOP and board members themselves.

A single copy of each of the following books was removed from circulation pending that review:

• “Adventures with My Daddies”
• “Daddy & Dada”
• “Feminist Baby Finds Her Voice”
• “Generation Brave: The Gen Z Kids Who Are Changing the World”
• “Heather Has Two Mommies”
• “It’s Perfectly Normal”
• “It’s So Amazing: A Book About Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, and Families”
• “Love, Violet”
• “Pride Puppy”
• “Sex Is A Funny Word”
• “Stella Brings The Family”
• “Teo’s Tutu”
• “You Don’t Have To Be Everything: Poems for Girls Becoming Themselves”
• “Gender Queer”
• “Lawn Boy”
• “All Boys Aren’t Blue”
• “Out of Darkness”
• “The Hate U Give”
• “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”
• “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl”
• “The Bluest Eye”
• “This Book is Gay”
• “Beyond Magenta”

After its decision to review those books, the library system faced accusations of censorship from employees and local advocates.

The committee formally completed that review at its meeting on Monday, but it took no action to ban any of the books. Instead, the committee focused on making changes to the board’s broader collections policy.

Committee debate focuses on limiting transgender themes

Most of Monday’s discussion centered around the policy’s limitations on materials with transgender themes.

Joe Poore, vice chair of the board of trustees but not a voting member of the materials committee, expressed concerns about the proposals vague language, asking if it would disproportionately target the LGBTQ+ community.

Other board members expressed similar concerns about vague language, prompting committee chair Elizabeth Collins to include a further definition that gender transition ideologies are “anything that affirms that a person’s gender is other than that person’s biological sex.”

Marcia Moston, a materials committee member, spoke in favor of the proposed changes. She called access to children’s books with transgender themes “life threatening for our youth.”

Members of the public are not allowed to speak at library committee meetings, but attendees still expressed their outrage at Moston’s remarks by rising from their seats and waving posters in support of access to books with LGBTQ+ themes.

Tommy Hughes, a committee member, along with Kenneth Baxter and Brian Aufmuth, both board members who are not on the committee, all raised the point that librarians are already trained to ensure that content in each collection is age appropriate.

Later in the meeting, Aufmuth said the proposed policy changes were seeking to solve a problem that doesn’t really exist. His comment was met with snaps, claps and muffled support from the audience.

Poore said he fears the board could be overstepping its role with this policy. He said parents should be responsible for what their children read in the library, and the board should “empower and encourage that responsibility.”

After more than an hour of debate, the committee voted unanimously to advance its juvenile policy changes to the full board. One committee member, Tommy Hughes, abstained from voting on the young adult policy changes, but it still passed with four votes.

The full board of trustees will meet at noon on Monday, March 27, at Hughes Main Library to vote on the proposed policy changes.

− Tim Carlin covers county government, growth and development for The Greenville News. Follow him on Twitter@timcarlin_, and get in touch with him atTCarlin@gannett.com.