00:00Janie, welcome to the show. Delight to have your company. Janie, you've been outspoken
00:04so many times on this channel and elsewhere. Primary to you is women's safety. I'm assuming
00:11today is a huge victory in your mind. Absolutely, Martin. Good afternoon and welcome back.
00:19Yes, absolutely. The safety is not just about the biology here and whether we are making sure that
00:26everybody gets their rights. It is about safety first and foremost. We always believe, rightfully
00:32so, that we have to protect the integrity of sport and the integrity is about fairness.
00:37This is absolutely the right decision because I hear so many times from women playing against
00:43trans women that the tackles are harder, the strength and stamina of trans women is much higher
00:49than women in general. This had to be the right decision. The only thing I'm surprised at, Martin,
00:56is why the FA made their ruling early April when they knew that the court ruling was coming within
01:03a few weeks because now they've had to do a U-turn. They have set standards so high in the past,
01:10which is why they did lots of research around the gender of children and young people playing football
01:17and they ruled that above under 13, you couldn't have mixed genders for that very reason. All the
01:24time trans women are not biological women, it cannot be a fair playing field.
01:30And Janie, talk our viewers and listeners through, if you can, some of the obvious physical advantages
01:37that trans women have and also the types of injuries that we've seen sustained in sport since trans
01:45women started to play. We've seen a huge increase, have we not, in impact injuries on biological women?
01:51Sure. So if you look at the strength and stamina of a biological man and you compare it to that of a
01:59biological woman, there is a huge difference, which is why women's football and men's football are
02:04completely different games. One is the strength, the long ball. One is the more technical play to feet
02:10because the women are just not as strong as men. So when you start to have a trans woman playing in
02:17a woman's team, that is a massive advantage for the team and a disadvantage for the other team.
02:23The tackles. My goodness, I refereed men's professional football, Martin, and the tackles were hard.
02:30That's not what women should be facing. And you are right. The injuries that women are sustaining,
02:35and I'm not saying from trans women tackles, but what they are actually sustaining now is more and
02:41more ACLs, for example, that we're experiencing. And explain to us what that means. What's an ACL?
02:48Yeah, it's the arterial cruciate ligament. So we, men in football get them, of course,
02:54but they're now realising that the way the woman's biology is and their physiology,
03:00women are getting more and more ACL injuries. And that can finish a woman's career, you know,
03:06and it's a really, really big operation and quite dangerous for them. So we've got to be really
03:12mindful. You know what? We are different. Our physiology is different. That's what makes us
03:17different, Martin. I'm sure you've noticed. Well, I try not to misgender anybody on this show.
03:23You know that, Janie, but on a serious point, netball, England netball, a swiftly followed suit,
03:29cricket expected to follow. Do you think that that Supreme Court ruling, and of course,
03:34Donald Trump in America, we heard a short while ago, a press conference from Washington,
03:38they are absolutely adamant that this era, this period of biological men being able to
03:44participate in women's sport is over, finished, showing the red card. Do you think today makes
03:49a significant moment in sport where this might signify a sea change? Or do you think actually
03:55there'll be resistance? We've seen resistance in women only swimming groups, even the NHS,
04:0028 boroughs in London refusing to comply with the Supreme Court law. Are you glass half full about it,
04:06Janie? I'm absolutely glass half full because I tell you now, this is not going to stop. You are
04:12going to get protests. Of course you are. But as a woman, I am proud to have been born a woman. I'm
04:18proud to continue being a woman. But I want to go into women safe spaces. I don't want to change in a
04:24communal changing room, in a department store, and change with somebody who's got a beard. I don't
04:30want to. And if that's wrong, then so be it. I'm wrong. I don't want to go into gender neutral
04:37toilets where, excuse it, but men often miss the seat. You know, so that's not what I want.
04:43You know, and most women are of the same mind. Everybody should have their own space. Trans
04:49women deserve their own space. But please don't erode my rights, you know, just so that we can give
04:56rights to another minority group.
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