His “hateful language” directed at Orlando Pride’s Barbra Banda during their 2-0 defeat of Gotham FC last Sunday, understood to be transphobic and racist, is part of an alarming trend, with several non-white athletes targeted for not fitting Westernized standards of femininity.
The language directed at Banda from the stands was “directly addressed” by stadium security, said the hosts, Gotham FC, in a statement, and the situation was “monitored for the remainder of the match”.
A statement from the NWSL said: “The National Women’s Soccer League is aware of an incident involving hateful language directed at Barbra Banda during this weekend’s match between Gotham FC and Orlando Pride. We are united in our message: this behavior is unacceptable and has no place in our league or our stadiums.”
Banda has faced similar before. After being named the BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year for 2024 in November, the forward from Zambia became the subject of a flurry of abuse. The unveiling of Banda as the BBC’s winner should have been a moment of celebration and it was, for herself, her teammates, fans, opposition players, and the world of women’s football. But some – including JK Rowling and the former British Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies – used it as an opportunity to perpetuate a narrative about the involvement of trans and DSD (differences in sex development) athletes in women’s sports.
It was also an opportunity to crucify the BBC, the public service broadcaster, despite the award being won based on a public vote. But just the most cursory bits of research would have exposed the contradictions in information around Banda’s case.
In 2018 and 2022 Banda was not selected by the Football Association of Zambia (Faz) for either of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations tournaments, organized by the Confederation of African Football (Caf). The Faz president, Andrew Kamanga, told BBC Sport Africa in 2022: “All the players had to undergo gender verification, a Caf requirement, and unfortunately she did not meet the criteria set by Caf.”
Caf, on the other hand, stated that it did not test the player and that Faz had withdrawn her. BBC Sport has since reported that two sources told them that Banda did not take a gender eligibility test before the 2022 tournament.
Anton Maksimov, her agent at the time, claimed that she had not taken any tests and that no governing body had banned or suspended her. She hasn’t taken any “gender verification” or “gender eligibility tests” before the tournament, and as a result, she hasn’t failed them. Barbra is also perfectly healthy and fit.”
Multiple sources in a position to know have said the same to this reporter. Somewhere, someone was being economical with the truth and the evidence suggests that Banda, who was born and raised as a woman, is the victim of this misrepresentation of the facts.
Orlando Pride’s sporting director, Haley Carter, brutally and concisely exposed the contradictions at play in those who condemned the BBC’s award for Banda. “For anyone worried about the safety of women athletes, especially in Zambia, here’s a cause to take up,” she said on social media, linking to articles about the grievance she filed with Fifa against Faz over a lack of care around the midfielder Grace Chanda during the 2024 Olympics, allegations of sexual misconduct made against the Zambia head coach, Bruce Mwape, who denied the accusations, and the death of Norin Betani while in camp before the Olympics.
There have been inconsistencies and inadequacies in reporting on Banda, but there have also been inconsistencies and inadequacies in the reporting on gender testing and research around it too. As in many areas of women’s health, the science on testosterone levels in women of different ethnicities, and in female athletes of other ethnicities, is limited. Most studies into testosterone levels are carried out on men and some have shown higher levels in African-American men when compared with white American men.
Those most publicly affected by restrictions on testosterone levels in elite women’s sports have been non-Caucasian. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation podcast Testing delves into the in-depth history of gender testing, which contains numerous scientific flaws and has contributed to the dehumanization of those being investigated. It was somewhat inevitable that other players would find themselves targeted in a similarly dehumanizing way. Last month, it was the Chelsea and Colombia forward Mayra Ramírez who was the subject of a mountain of online abuse and queries about her gender. The evidence? Ramírez doesn’t look “feminine” enough.
The reality is that the chances of a trans woman being able to compete as a top women’s football player, while not zero, are extremely slim. They would have had to transition at a very young age, going through the development pathways, and working their way up to be at the requisite level, or would have to have been relatively good athletes competing in men’s football before transitioning mid-career and then attempting to play in the women’s game.
What the hysteria over an almost impossible hypothetical situation does is open the door for transphobic and racist targeting of female football players and creates an environment that makes trans people, young trans people, or those questioning their gender identity at the grassroots level feel as if they don’t belong in football or sport.
For decades women have had to fight for the right to play sport and reap all the benefits – physical, social, mental, emotional – from it. Why on earth would we want to exclude trans people, some of the most marginalized in our society, from those experiences and benefits? The starting point in this discussion should be: how do we help everyone benefit from and enjoy sport? And how do we achieve that in a way that is safe and fair for all?
Women’s football can be a safe and inclusive place because female footballers are vocal advocates for the positive impact sport can have on everyone. Let’s discuss that.
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