A trans-identified male soccer player in Australia has successfully petitioned a New South Wales court to obtain an Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) against a women’s rights campaigner he had never met. Stephanie Blanch, a male who plays on a women’s soccer team, told the court he felt “threatened” by the knowledge of women’s rights campaigner Kirralie Smith’s views about men who participate in women’s sports.
Smith is a spokeswoman with Binary Australia, a campaign group dedicated to advocating for single-sex sports in Australia. Smith’s vocal view that males should not be allowed to self-identify into women’s sport had previously made her a target for controversy. Last year, she launched a letter-writing campaign encouraging concerned individuals to contact Football New South Wales after it was reported that a trans-identified male on a women’s football team had caused injuries to multiple female players.
For her role in bringing awareness to the injuries sustained by female athletes, Smith was visited by New South Wales Police and handed an Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) on March 30, 2024, requiring that she neither discuss nor approach Riley Dennis, the male players involved. The AVO, a legal measure similar to a restraining order, was withdrawn by authorities in September.
An Australian woman has been handed an Apprehended Violence Order by Police for opposing the participation of a transgender player in women's football.
— REDUXX (@ReduxxMag) May 2, 2023
The Australian Government has also been censoring those naming him as trans activist Riley Dennis.https://t.co/2ZQ9lftfPw
But Smith has now been hit with a new AVO by a different trans-identified male player. While mainstream coverage of the ruling has censored the identity of the man involved, Reduxx can report his identity as Stephanie Blanch, a player with the Wingham Warriors ladies team.
Blanch first applied for his AVO against Smith in March of 2023, but was rejected in January of 2024 after the Civil and Administrative Tribunal of New South Wales found that the scope of the request was out of their jurisdiction. But Blanch appealed, arguing that Smith’s “conduct” had caused him to fear for his safety.
Among his evidence was that Smith had tweeted about “a bloke on the women’s team in Wingham” in January of 2023, as well as posted a publicly-available photo of Blanch receiving an award and referred to him as a “bloke in a frock.” Blanch also complained that Smith had been spotted in the general Wingham area one month later.
According to court records, which referred to Blanch with feminine pronouns, the player “believed the Respondent was focussing on her and her involvement in football as taking away women’s rights,” and “feared for her safety and the safety of her football friends and community. She feared that the Respondent was not going to stop.”
In February of 2023, Blanch claims to have filed a police complaint against Smith, despite the fact the two had never even met in person.
In a December 2024 ruling on the AVO, the District Court emphasized the fact that Smith had declined to refer to Blanch by his chosen pronouns, writing that she “repeatedly referred to the Appellant as a male, a man, a bloke and ‘he,’ where the Appellant does not refer to herself that way.”
“The term ‘misgendering’ is a reference to the Respondent re-naming the Appellant in a way that she does not wish to be referred to, and in that sense, it was belittling and offensive. It denigrates the Appellant’s right to describe herself as she wishes, not as a stranger wishes to label her.”
The judge continued by acknowledging that while the relevant laws do not mention “misgendering” as a violation, it could be considered “sufficiently harassing.”
In the December 2024 ruling, the judge imposed an AVO against Smith, prohibiting her from approaching, contacting, or naming Blanch. She is also barred from gong to the Wingham Sporting Complex or soccer fields.
Since pursuing the AVO against Smith, Blanch has taken great steps to largely scrub his online presence. Multiple results related to Blanch have been completely withheld on Google, a likely response to an order from the eSafety Commissioner. The Commissioner is an agent of the Australian government who regulates “online harms.”
The eSafety Commissioner has previously worked to censor information related to the exposure of trans-identified males participating in women’s sport in Australia.
Last year, Reduxx was contacted by the Commissioner and advised to censor or delete an article naming Riley Dennis as having been the subject of complaint after he was alleged to have injured female players during a match.
In the article targeted by the eSafety Commissioner, Reduxx had revealed that Dennis was one of as many as five trans-identified male players currently competing against women in Football New South Wales competitions. An initial report from The Daily Mail Australia had chosen not to identify him when reporting on the injuries he was alleged to have caused, censoring images of him and declining to provide his name. However, Reduxx confirmed the player’s identity using the censored images from The Daily Mail Australia report and cross-referencing them to Dennis’ social media.
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