hi i want to talk about the blatant inequality that the new gender rules of hockey USA may cause. and how this may affect the future of womens hockey.
released on april 1st of this year, usa hockey has released a policy stating that all leagues and teams under it's governance must restrict players to their assigned sex based team (excluding coed leagues and teams). this is not only incredibly disruptive to just trans athletes, but moreso female athletes
as you probably know, hockey is a predominantly male sport, so most local and smaller teams are more likely to be all-male teams. in the past, girls have been able to get around this by joining male teams as a female, playing the same game.
this is no longer possible, and female athletes, even beer league or low level leagues, are restricted to teams, leagues and games that are either female only, or coed. both of which are hard to find and usually are only low level--meaning it restricts a lot of girls and women from playing at a higher level.
most olympic level or professional hockey players in the PWHL were able to reach their level via playing in boys leagues and teams, because girls teams weren't available. with this new policy, it could be harder than ever before for girls to play and access hockey.
despite girls hockey growing exponentially in the past couple of years, this may prove to be a bigger challenge for girls than any actual trans athletes. this ban not arguably harms more athletes
the policy's an act of hostility towards women's sports and gender equality in sports. it may not explicitly state that it will put such barring limitations on women, but it does and will.
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