NWSL veteran Elizabeth Eddy wants trans women barred from women’s soccer
Elizabeth Eddy says the current NWSL policy regarding inclusion of trans athletes is unclear and causing controversy. The post NWSL veteran Elizabeth Eddy wants trans women barred from women’s soccer appeared first on Outsports.
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Angel City FC defender Elizabeth Eddy, an 11-year veteran who was a part of three National Women’s Soccer League championship teams, wrote on X and in a column for the New York Post that the NWSL should adopt verification testing to bar trans and intersex women from the league’s main competition.
She said her concerns stem from what she claims is an absence of clear eligibility policy in professional soccer.
“I’m concerned that without clarity about who the league is for, it will lose its identity and its momentum,” Eddy wrote. “This uncertainty serves no one, as questions and controversy abound over intersex and transgender athletes.”
Eddy went on say that, due to the perceived lack of policy, “fans have used the uncertainty to harass players.” One such situation has been the anti-Black and transphobic remarks from fans toward Orlando FC striker Barbra Banda. The Zambian was on the wrong end of a gender verification test that was not handled correctly, and that kept her out of the 2022 African Cup of Nations.
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The NWSL currently has a policy on transgender women in the sport in line with current FIFA policy, which has been standard since 2015. A trans woman seeking to play in the league must disclose their gender identity, must be on hormone replacement therapy for at least one year, and are subject to a serum testosterone limit or undergo gonadectomy.
Eddy says the NWSL must instead restrict and regulate under different guidelines.
“One option is all players must be born with ovaries, as the FA requires,” she stated. The FA is England’s governing body. “Another option is an SRY gene test, like those World Athletics and World Boxing implemented.”
The SRY gene test, once eschewed by the IOC, has made a return in 2025. World Athletics mandated every female competitor who qualified for their world championships in September submit to verification.
Some have cast doubt on the process. The scientist who first found the SRY gene, Dr. Andrew Sinclair, stated publicly in August that such testing “is wrong because all it tells you is whether or not the gene is present. It does not tell you how SRY is functioning, whether a testis has formed, whether testosterone is produced and, if so, whether it can be used by the body.”
Eddy also noted the growing political issue as well but within the body politic mentioning politicians across the spectrum calling for sides to discuss joint solutions. She also thought the NWSL should join other sports in building in “open” category in pro soccer.
“Just as we built a new space for women to compete in the largest arenas, now we must honor that commitment and make the National Women’s Soccer League for women,” she noted. “It will take time, space and creativity to cooperate as we move forward.”
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The post NWSL veteran Elizabeth Eddy wants trans women barred from women’s soccer appeared first on Outsports.
