What’s Current: British Cycling bans trans-identified males from competing in elite women’s events

  • British Cycling bans sex self-identification policies, admitting that allowing male athletes identifying as women to compete against female riders is “unfair.” Last month, trans-identified male cyclist, Emily Bridges, was due to compete in his first elite women’s race, but has now been ruled ineligible by cycling’s world governing body, the UCI.
  • Spain has criminalized the harassment and intimidation of women going in for abortion services. Anyone found to be impeding women’s right to “voluntarily interrupt pregnancy” can face jail time of between three to 12 months.
  • A former Middlesbrough, U.K. councillor is standing trial on 11 counts related to sexually abusing two children. David Smith campaigned on being an “LGBTQ advocate” and made his first move in office to petition the Mayor for “gender neutral” toilets.
  • A new report analyzing thousands of direct messages sent to high profile women on Instagram has revealed “an epidemic of misogynist abuse taking place in women’s DMs.”
Genevieve Gluck

Genevieve Gluck is a writer and advocate for women's sex-based rights and creator of Women's Voices, an audio library dedicated to bringing awareness to feminist texts and speeches.