That’s not how it works.

An Irish “LGBTQ+ Inclusive” football team beat out the female competition in the 2022 Junior J Shield Final, claiming a significant margin of victory in every placing that many attribute to the fact a biological male was on the team.

Silly many, what difference would that make?

Na Gaeil Aeracha, which bills itself as Ireland’s “first explicitly LGBTQ+ inclusive” football club was forced to lock down its social media accounts following backlash as sport fans noticed one of the players appeared to be an older man.

Giulia Valentino, a male who identifies as a transgender woman, was playing against young women and girls in the Ladies Gaelic Football Junior J Shield tournament on July 27 and August 3 on behalf of Na Gaeil Aeracha. Photos from the event began to circulate on social media after sport writer Ewan MacKenna called attention to the results.

MacKenna posted a screenshot of Na Gaeil Aeracha’s policy on inclusivity from their now-private Instagram page in which the team reiterated that its players “may play at training or in a match for the team they best identify with, without restriction.” Another policy posted by the football club explicitly states that medical transitioning is not necessary. Curiously, the only restriction the club has is on non-binary players due to a lack of gender neutral competitions.

Emphasis added. There’s your problem right there. No gender neutral competitions: therefore it makes zero sense, and is unfair, to tell players they can play on the team they best identify with, without restriction. That would be a gender neutral team. Create a gender neutral team then. Don’t have a women’s team and a men’s team and then tell people to play on whichever team they “identify with.” Pick a side. Have a gender neutral team, or don’t, but don’t create nonsense (and of course grotesque unfairness to women players) by having women’s and men’s teams but also telling players to inclusive themselves on whichever team they want. Do one or the other, not a stupid mishmash of both whose only result just happens to be cheating women.

The Na Gaeil Aeracha policy in their words on their website:

Any person playing for Na Gaeil Aeracha club may play at training or in a match for the team they best identify with, without restriction. 

Na Gaeil Aeracha will support any athlete who is interested in playing for our club and encourage them to play on the team that they feel most comfortable with.

In terms of non-binary athletes, as the GAA currently does not facilitate mixed team competitions, we only have an LGFA and GAA competitive teams. If you are comfortable playing for either of these teams, we will respect your pronouns regardless. 

We hope to set up a social mixed team in the future to facilitate those who do not feel comfortable playing on either of our current teams available, but just due to resources, we cannot do this just yet.

We don’t have mixed teams, but feel free to play on either team, so we do have mixed teams, or rather, we have a men’s team and a mixed team, but we don’t have a women’s team, because we tell men to feel free to play on the women’s team, so the only ones who lose out here are the women, so that’s grand, isn’t it boys.