A pivotal meeting is being held at the Australian Football League headquarters today to discuss the approval for transgender athletes to be allowed to nominate for the Women’s Football League draft.
Last October Hannah Mouncey was denied the right to nominate for the AFLW draft, and since then, with Mouncey threatening to take the code to the Human Rights Commission, the decision about whether any transgender athlete will be allowed to nominate for this year’s draft has been put on hold.
Speaking on Nine’s Footy Classifieds, veteran AFL reporter Caroline Wilson suggested a meeting would be held today to move the decision one step closer.
“Tanya Hosch the AFL executive in charge of Inclusion and Diversity has brought in a corporate facilitator and the decision might not be made, but the decision on transgender athletes coming into the AFLW will take one step further to being made,” Wilson announced.
“Hannah Mouncey who is currently leading the goalkicking in the VFLW is going to attend the meeting as are several other transgender athletes, some of them footballers.
“There will be several representatives and I think we will know in the next week or two whether the AFL will allow transgender athletes to put their names up for the women’s draft.
When questioned as to what the result of the meeting will be or the final decision on the draft Wilson declared the decision one of the biggest in the code’s history.
“It’s really hard to call but I think that legally there will be inclusion but transgender athletes will have to be checked for their strength and their stamina and I think this is the most complicated one,” explained Wilson.
“It’s a difficult one to come to terms with and the AFL CEO’s talked about it last week and they’re having trouble coming to grips with it as well.
Mouncey had given the AFL a deadline of the end of July to make a decision before she went to the Human Rights Commission, her involvement in this meeting and its result may determine her and the competition’s next steps.
Gay Nation has contacted the AFL for comment.
Last Updated on Aug 15, 2018
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