The Doll Haters
Until now, parkrun has been Mr Blue Sky. Everything is good and there’s not a cloud on the horizon.
Enter the Doll Haters. This is my name for the new Reality Rules Runners UK running club. According to media reports, this organisation represents female runners who object to the parkrun policy of allowing trans women to register in the female category at parkrun.
I have seen (via Facebook) a Daily Mail article promoting the club’s views. According to the article, thousands of female runners are upset because trans women are coming first in the female category at parkrun events. The club is planning a mass protest at parkrun events on Saturday 3 October.
The Reality Rules Runners UK running club is a shadowy organisation with a very limited online presence. There is no information at all about the people who run the club or who fund it. And there is no information about the thousands of female runners who are allegedly unhappy about trans women runners. No one is named.
The article also reports an upcoming legal challenge by another recently-formed organisation, the Women’s Sport Union, who want trans women banned from the female category. They argue that allowing trans women to compete amounts to gender discrimination and is contrary to the 2025 Supreme Court ruling that “trans women cannot be female for legal purposes.”
Of course, there are issues about trans women competing in women-only sporting events. Trans women have been banned from a whole range of sports. I can see the point of this in top-level events such as national championships, or any such events where winning matters more than taking part. Even allowing for the effects of hormone replacement therapy on athletes transitioning from male to female, their historical physical characteristics may give them an advantage in competition. All the same, once you accept the principle that trans women are women, banning them from women-only activities requires a great deal of justification.
Anyway, parkrun is different. The organisers stress that it is not a race. People are not competing against each other. There are no prizes for finishing first or indeed taking part at all. There have to be records for statistical purposes, but it really does not matter if a trans woman finishes ahead of or behind a cis woman in any parkrun event. There is no winner cult to set alongside official athletics competitions.
As far as I know, the parkrun central organisation has not yet responded to the legal threat. I hope they stand their ground and refuse to ban trans women from the female category. This would be partly on principle – being inclusive is central to the parkrun ethos.
But also for sound legal reasons. The Supreme Court judgement was much more limited than the campaigning groups and the right-wing media are making out. The judgement simply provided that, for the purposes of the specific protections in the Equality Act 2010, women are defined in terms of their biological sex. It does not exclude trans women from being considered women in all other respects. It does not make it illegal for trans women to use the Ladies toilets in public buildings – the head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission admitted that much in a recent interview. And if it doesn’t ban trans women in female toilets, it certainly doesn’t ban trans women running as women in outdoor social activities.
The campaigning groups must be hoping that the threat of legal action will be enough to force a change in parkrun policy. This is no more than bullying and intimidation. As I’ve written elsewhere (Responses to bullying), the healthiest response is to stand up to bullies. It’s time for central parkrun to channel its inner Mark Carney.
What can individual trans women runners do about this latest threat? What can I do? Because I am a relatively new trans woman, I am still operating in boy mode in a number of areas. Parkrun is one of these, where I am still categorised as a male runner. I don’t see any prospect of changing that in the short term. But I am now actively looking for other trans and queer runners to make common cause. I haven’t found any yet in my own part of the world, here in West Surrey. But I have joined Queer Runnings, the online running club for queer people. Its members support each other – that’s what queer people do – and who knows, there may be opportunities to meet up in person for occasional runs. I have also ordered a sports top in the colours of the Trans Pride flag. That’s going to be my way to Fly the Flag.