A trans-identified male in Germany has become the first to be approved by the Bavarian Football Association (BFA) to play in a women’s football league. Laura Hannah Holstein, 25, was the subject of a glowing profile in the Main-Post after joining the Effeltrich/Hetzles Football Syndicate.
According to the article, Holstein, who is a Master’s Student at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, was given the ability to participate after Grit Labahn, the head of policy at the Munich BFA headquarters, personally vouched for him.
“I can’t tell people who have a different, non-binary gender identity and want to play football: You were unlucky,” Labahn said. Though there are only male and female categories in German football, the BFA has a “case-by-case” inclusion policy, so Labahn explains she had to argue for Holstein’s right to participate in the women’s league.
Labahn said that an opening had emerged in the club after a trans-identified female had decided to opt out due to the fact that testosterone was making her too strong to participate with the other women. Labahn then “turned the tables,” arguing that estrogen had caused Holstein to “lose” muscle mass and would have stripped him of a competitive advantage.
Labahn then compiled additional information, using the cases of South African runner Caster Semenya and New Zealand powerlifter Laurel Hubbard to bolster her case.
“It was clear to me that we can justify a case-by-case decision by means of the hormone levels,” Labahn said, excitedly noting that allowing Holstein to compete with the women has created a type of “blueprint” they can use for future cases.
“We will certainly not revise our decision even if hostilities come. On the contrary: I can only encourage trans people to dare to go public and play football,” Labahn explained.
Holstein reportedly began identifying as a woman after watching The Danish Girl in 2015. The film is based on the life story of Lili Elbe, a trans-identified male who died of complications after his body rejected a uterus implanted into him in 1931. Following the movie, Holstein says he was “touched extremely internally. I questioned what I really feel deep inside.” He then says he “discovered the woman” within himself.
In 2020, Holstein began hormone replacement therapy and laser hair removal. He is set to legally change his sex to “female” in September of this year.
In his profile by Main-Post, Holstein is described as “discreetly masculine at first glance,” something the author attributes to his “high forehead.” The author also describes Holstein’s “breast gently emerging under [his] jersey.”
Holstein is apparently unconcerned about his appearance, questioning “what is so hard to understand about it: I’m just a woman who looks different. Why should I flaunt excessive femininity?”
While Holstein won’t officially begin playing against opposing women’s teams until the August season, he has begun participating in training sessions, and is sharing the female locker room with the women and girls on the Effeltrich/Hetzles Football Syndicate.
As some players are underage, concerns were raised about Holstein exposing his penis during shower times — an issue the coach attempted to address by providing Holstein a shower schedule.
The coach, Christian Wagner, is also preempting “transphobic” remarks from other players or spectators, and says that anyone who is discriminatory towards Holstein will be immediately banned from the arena.
Wagner has also admitted that there are certain “anatomical advantages” Holstein has that he expects him to use to the team’s advantage as a goalkeeper, and boasted: “If I were a woman, I wouldn’t want to play against Laura!”
Concerns surrounding trans-identified males participating in women’s football have been raised by women’s rights advocates over the past two years, with multiple instances of women being injured while competing against men emerging.
As previously reported by Reduxx, 24 women recently dropped out of a football league in Australia after a team with five trans-identified males began dominating the women’s league. Some female athletes had also been left severely injured by competing against the men, including one woman who had her leg broken in two places after being tackled by a male player.
In 2022, an “LGBTQ+ Inclusive” football team in Ireland similarly came under fire after beating out the female competition in the Junior J Shield Final, claiming a significant margin of victory that many attributed to the participation of an adult male. Giulia Valentino, 39, later went on to win an LGBTQ+ Sports Award.
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