Hundreds of women are planning a protest at England’s Nations League game against the Republic of Ireland over the banning of a teenage female footballer who asked a “bearded” transgender opponent: “Are you a man?”
A group calling itself Twelve O Five is behind the proposed Wembley demonstration amid growing outrage over a six-match suspension imposed last month by a national serious case panel on a 17-year-old with suspected autism, who wept upon being grilled about her comments last month.
The action has been called for 1.30pm, before Sunday’s 5pm kick-off, with organisers expecting hundreds to attend in protest against the teenager’s ban, which began on Monday, and the Football Association’s policy of allowing those born male to play in women’s football.
Hundreds of women attended a demonstration organised by the same group at the German Embassy in London on November 1 in opposition to the country’s recent law change criminalising the misgendering of transgender people. Similar action took place on the same day outside the nation’s embassies worldwide.
The group behind the London protest adopted the name Twelve O Five, meaning five past midnight, in reference to what they say is a German maxim about something already being too late to prevent.
One of its leaders, Jean Hatchet, told Telegraph Sport: “It’s blatantly unfair to put so much pressure on a girl so young and expect her to defend herself.
“So, as women, as stronger women in better positions to oppose this unfairness, we feel that we have to do something. We’re hoping to pull big figures in. Martina Navratilova has agreed to help promote. We’re hoping that kind of attention will get quite a lot of people down there.
“We’ll have a big banner, we’re going to have a megaphone, we’re going to have leaflets. So we’re just going to hit as many fans as possible and get them to pay attention. Because I think that’s the only way we can get the FA to look closely at how they’ve been manipulated.
“Our aim overall is to reverse the policy that the FA has in place.”
The girl whose plight has triggered Sunday’s protest will miss her club’s next two matches, with the remaining four games of her ban suspended for a year.
Her identity has been concealed by Telegraph Sport as she is a child and on the assessment pathway for autism.
She was found guilty at a hearing last month on the basis of her own evidence to the panel, which had included that she had sought guidance from the referee over the eligibility of a trans opponent and had expressed concerns for her own safety.
That is despite her denying that doing so constituted transphobia and the referee also having not noticed anything he deemed to be discriminatory.
The hearing conducted online was described as “farcical” by one of those present on the call, who said the alleged victim was repeatedly “misgendered” as “he” by panel members, while the girl was also said to have been asked: “How many LGBQT+ players do you have in your team?”
The FA has been approached for comment.
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