Emily Bridges once dreamt of racing for Olympic glory in Paris this summer. But after British Cycling barred transgender women from competing in the female category last year, she has all but given up on elite sport.
“It’s not something I allow myself to think about too much because that part of my life is gone now, and it’s not something I really want to do anymore,” she told ITV News Sports Editor Steve Scott.
“If we were allowed to compete, if I was allowed to compete, it would be a different conversation,” she added, “but I can’t compete…I can’t do something I used to love.”
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In another world you might be training at the moment for the Paris Olympics or at least trying to get into one of the squads is that something you ever think about occasionally but it’s it’s a completely different it’s completely different world now um it’s it’s not really something that I that I allow
Myself to think about too much just cuz that kind of part of my life is is gone now um I just like it’s not something that I really want to do anymore um and like but obviously there’s it’s not possible either so Elite Sport is over
For you now I don’t really have a choice um like if if if we were allowed to compete if I was allowed to compete um it would be different conversation um I would have I would be having to weigh up um if it was if it was safe for me to
Compete if it was the right thing for me to do at this part of my life um but I can’t compete so Elite support is is over for me because I can’t I just can’t I can’t do what I at least at some like at least I used to
Love but you can compete in an open category can I is would it be safe for me to compete in an open category for me obviously I’ve I have passed in cycling so I have previous results people know me but for another trans woman who hasn’t competed in the past is lives
Completely through like she she lives her life as a CIS woman effectively she she’s trans but she has seen as the World by the world as a CIS woman how is it fair to ask her to out herself to and compete in in open car that’s not fair and it’s just how can
It’s not safe either the fact that trans women aren’t allowed to compete now in a women’s C category is about fairness and the only way you can Main maintain that fairness uh is the exception of inclusion in other words it cannot be fair for a trans woman to compete in a
Women’s category but is it about fairness have the bands been as a result of fairness is like I think that’s the question we have to ask us ask ourselves obviously they’ve been under the guise of fairness and that has kind of been the vehicle to um like promote this
Exclusion of trans women from female sports um there need to be nuanced adult conversations about certain about regulations and using all of the available data and that’s all of the available data not just the data that um supports a certain view there are many peer review papers that show why a
Transom has an inbuilt advantage you don’t accept those do you how many of those studies are done on athletes none of them there and i’ I I’ve been I’ve been part of a study and there’s very clear data and the data will be coming out soon um and opponents
To my inclusion they’ve been trying to discredit the all of the data that that I’ve collected that like yeah like the moment they they like realized I was going to be doing this study they’re just like no you can’t you can’t do that like it’s obviously not going to be not
Going to be properly recorded um like yeah it’s just but and and they’ve tried to discredit it but the DAT is going to be coming out and hopefully that will that will be useful to make a more informed decision the decisions that have been taken it is said are
Taken with fairness in mind in Elite Sport isn’t fairness a non-negotiable yeah fairness is important um and I I understand how um how important it is to have the conversations around um eligibility guidelines and um certain medical requirements um but I just I think having a blanket ban on on a group of
People where there is so much diversity um in in our biology and our sporting um abilities and like our physical s um I don’t see how you can blanketly ban a group of people what would you say to those people and there are many of them who say that you or another transwoman
Competing in a an Elite Squad is stealing a place from a a biological woman so for a transwoman who goes goes through her life exactly the same as this woman they so so she trains all of the time with with her fellow this women and like do everything together do
Races together surely it’s and undergo all of the misogyny that in that is involved with being a woman in sport surely the same opportunity should should be available for for her than than her fellow women and do you see that anti-trans sentiment bleeding into all areas of sport from Elite to
Grassroots yeah I mean like it’s it was like BR British cycling it was first like ban at the elite level ban at the like competitive level and then everyone’s like that they’re also trying to get Grassroots band as well and it’s it’s the same across um other sports
Like I know that um in athletics obviously they’ve they they’ve done a band and and even kind of the the orchestrator of that band um SE Co has said that it needs to be inclusive at at a lower level do you think sport in general and the decisions it’s made over
The past 18 months has enabled anti-trans feeling yeah but yes I do but it’s also come come from a place and there’s been a lot of political pressure from um from anti-trans activists to to ban us from Sport and yeah like it’s it’s kind of cyclical like it it reinforces
The the um the belief that trans women aren’t aren’t women and that that they’re a threat and it it reinforces all of that and the the pressure is coming from from the groups that that wish to see us not exist anymore last time we spoke Boris Johnson
Made the comment he made not that long ago rishy sunak made a trans Jive in prime minister’s questions what impact does that sort of language have it’s not surprising it’s not it is not surprising at all that he did that he’s done it multiple times before um I
Think there’s only been so much like so much made of it because um like yeah obviously Brianna J’s mom was in the Commons that day I don’t know if if she wasn’t there I don’t know if if if he would have been ped up on it because it’s happened so many occasions
Before and nothing’s been said of it it’s just and but even then even with all of the all of the backlash he got there were still members of the government defending him and saying that this is this is a valid statement it’s just like how can it ever
Be a valid statement to like question someons Humanity like that when the Prime Minister does say things like that what is the impact on you and your community I mean it normalizes violence against trans people that that at the end of the day that is the impact like In in court um the judge presiding o over the trial of brianized murderers said that transphobia was a factor that transphobia is directly linked to the normalization of of these comments what does the future hold for you um so I want to get one with my life um I’ve
Got I’ve got some some goals I want to do I’ve got um yeah I just want to I want to be happy in the future um and I’ve got things things that I’m going to do um I know that a lot of trans people still want to compete in sports so I’m going
To try and I’m going to continue to do to do my part and fight for inclusion when I can when I have the capacity for it um and yeah we we’re we’re challenging bit recycling um and if if they don’t pull their policy we intend to challenge it legally and I
I don’t I don’t care if I never compete again it’s for other people who who want to compete and and it’s just just about what’s right and the way things are at the moment with with blanket ban no no Nuance it’s just like no you can’t do this it’s just that’s not right
Obviously you hope any any court case will be successful and you will get a decision overturn but even if you don’t do you believe there is any chance of you changing the narrative I me I hope so because the narrative is not sustainable at the moment because people
Are getting killed um so that there needs to be a change in narrative because it’s is dangerous and yeah um I I have hope um because you have to you have to have hope if if you don’t have hope you won’t survive um and that
At the end of the day is is my desire and desire of my community to keep on living to to survive um