England's major ice hockey bodies are reviewing its policies
Transgender athletes playing in girls’ and women’s ice hockey is reaching a boiling point in England as parents express fear about their teenage daughters going up against biological males in the sport.
Female ice hockey players as young as 14 years old have played against transgender girls in the sport, The Telegraph reported Saturday. One anonymous father told the outlet that his 15-year-old daughter was playing in a game where a transgender competitor hit a female opponent around the head and neck.
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Parents expressed concerns to The Telegraph. (iStock)
"I’m watching my 15-year-old daughter taking on fully grown men and thinking this isn’t right," the man told The Telegraph. "It’s dangerous, it’s unfair and there’s no good reason for it. Any of these men could play in mixed teams that exist, but they insist on playing in the ladies’ team.
"Ice hockey is a physical game, and if you’re going head-to-head with a man as a 15-year-old girl, there is obviously a strength difference. There’s also much higher levels of aggression in male ice hockey and then these players go to play in women’s teams. I was seething when I saw the female player being hit."
An adult female hockey player who plays in an amateur league also expressed concerns to the paper.
"I’ve heard from a woman who plays on a different team to me that the parents of a younger player will not bring that player to a game where they know a biological male is playing on the opposite team," the hockey player said. "So that girl is being excluded from her sport because of the presence of a biological male in the women’s league."
English ice hockey organizations are reviewing their transgender policies. (iStock)
England Ice Hockey and Ice Hockey UK are currently reviewing their transgender policies. However, Ice Hockey UK Chairman Lord Clifton Wrottesley suggested that allowing transgender athletes to compete against women was akin to doping in sports.
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Ryan Gaydos is a senior editor for Fox News Digital.
