Women’s rights advocates are expressing concern after it was revealed that a recently transitioned biological man was playing on a women’s field hockey team in Scotland. Reduxx has now learned that the player is alleged to have injured a young female player at a match earlier this year.
On May 6, Monarch Hockey Club shared photos on social media showing their ladies team after winning a second trophy in one week. In the photos, a trans-identified male can be seen amongst the women on the mixed-age team.
The post was shared by St. Andrew’s Radical Feminists, a Facebook page run by a collective of anonymous female students at St Andrew’s University in Scotland. The collective expressed concern about the safety of the female players on the team, as well as the fairness of the sport.
“A man can change his name but it doesn’t somehow make him a ‘lady.’ How is this fair to the other women on the opposing team? Are the St. Andrews University women’s team ok with playing against men? We aren’t blind,” the women’s rights advocates wrote on Facebook.
The St. Andrews Radical Feminist page shares both local and international news pertaining to gender ideology. It has been previously targeted by trans activists who have accused the group’s members of “promoting transphobia” and perpetrating hate speech for misgendering trans-identified males.
Reduxx can confirm the identity of the trans-identified player as Greg MacDonald, a former student of St. Andrews University who formerly played on the University’s male hockey team. MacDonald now goes by “Anna” on social media.
It is unclear if MacDonald has undergone any cross sex hormone treatment, but official guidance from Scottish Hockey (SH), the sport’s governing body, explicitly states that participation on teams should be based entirely on gender self-identification.
“Hockey is a non-contact sport and SH sanctions men’s, mixed and women’s hockey competitions; as such there are no evidenced safety concerns for any trans male or female wishing to take part in sanctioned hockey competitions, in training or friendly/recreational hockey. Accordingly, you should accept people in the gender they present and verification of their identity should be no more than that expected of any other player,” the guidance reads.
“We recognise, however, that there may be some concerns about fairness in the women’s and mixed game. Our policy assumes that trans women (male-to-female trans person) wishing to compete in mixed or female sanctioned hockey competitions do so with the best of intentions and with no intent to deceive about their status to gain any competitive advantage.”
News of Macdonald’s participation on a women’s hockey team was spread on Twitter by For Women Scotland Sport, an advocacy group working working to ensure a fair and safe playing field for women and girls in sports.
In a statement to Reduxx, a representative from For Women Scotland Sport denounced MacDonald’s participation, and noted that males had clear physical advantages over female players.
“Sport is categorized to recognize physical advantage [and] to ensure fairness and safety for players. By including a male in a female team, we are ignoring those physical advantages and risks in favor of identity,” they said.
Despite Scottish Hockey’s assertion that inclusive policies pose no risk to female players, Reduxx has been made aware of an allegation that MacDonald injured a minor female player during a ladies match earlier this year. The specific date of the match and information on the opposing team are being withheld by Reduxx for the protection of the underage female player involved.
Speaking to a spectator who was present at the match, Reduxx was told that “MacDonald looked and moved like a rugby player,” and was “taller and more muscular than everyone else on the pitch.”
The source has requested to remain anonymous for his privacy, but says that MacDonald’s presence on the opposing team prompted “a lot of raised eyebrows” from the crowd.
MacDonald was competing against a team with mixed-age players, and amongst them were multiple young teenage girls. The source explained that while field hockey is not “officially” a contact sport, there are commonly collisions between the players both inadvertently, and when rules aren’t adhered to.
“MacDonald was trying to tackle a girl who had got behind the defense and had a clear run at goal,” the source says. “The tackle from the left is hard to do without making contact, particularly at speed. It was a high-risk maneuver.”
In an instant, the girl was “flattened,” and the match came to a halt for several minutes as she was tended to. She was ultimately removed from the game and was found to have suffered injury to her neck, arm, and hip.
“There was a gasp from the spectators,” the source says. “A free hit was awarded for the foul, but there were no personal penalties. The game restarted once the injured girl had left the pitch.”
Following the match, the source says that some of the spectators wrote to Scottish Hockey to express concern about the safety risks their “inclusive” policies were resulting in, but no changes have yet been made to policy and MacDonald continues to play in the women’s league.
The source also expressed disagreement with Scottish Hockey’s gender self-identification policies, stating: “It is not safe for women, and certainly not for young girls, to be playing in these circumstances. The differences in size, speed and weight are too much.”
The issue of men self-identifying into women’s sporting categories has triggered a heated international debate which has resulted in public scrutiny of policies which prioritize a self-declared gender identity over biological sex.
In January of 2023, the Scottish Rugby Union banned trans-identified males from competing in women’s contact rugby, citing the safety of female players.
“Our Gender Participation Policy recognises the need to balance considerations of safety and fairness with our underlying desire to be as inclusive as possible. At this moment in time, Scottish Rugby has opted to make a decision which puts safety first, based on the current research.” The Union said in a statement regarding their decision.
This follows similar policy changes by other sporting bodies internationally. FINA, the international swimming world’s governing body, voted to ban trans-identified males from elite female competitions if they had undergone male puberty.
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