The Australian Football League (AFL) has cleared a 6’3″ man to play in women’s competitions despite a number of concerns being raised about the risk he poses to female players. Anthony “Freya” Golding plays for the Westminster Old Scholars in the Adelaide Footy League after previously having competed in the senior men’s division.

Golding’s involvement in women’s sport came under fire earlier this year after formal complaints were submitted by three different clubs within the Adelaide Footy League asserting that he placed female players at an unacceptable risk, and that the AFL had a “duty of care” to bar his continued participation. Concerns were in part motivated by viral footage circulated earlier this year showing Golding casually knocking a woman to the ground during a game.

The Australian Football League’s Gender Diversity Policy Committee was prompted to investigate Golding’s participation, but has now determined he should be allowed to continue competing with women.

In a confidential email seen by Nine News, the committee confirmed it had decided against excluding Golding from women’s competitions, noting that it was “not satisfied that the Player’s participation in the Competition gives rise to unacceptable safety risks.”

However, Adelaide Footy League chief executive John Kernahan condemned the decision, noting that the League had not changed its position on the potential danger posed to other players.

“We to this day maintain that it is a safety risk,” Kernahan said to Nine News. “This particular player is 6’2″ or 6’3″, 92kg. I appreciate the notion that there might be other naturally born women that are 6’3″ and 92kg. But they are few and far between.”

AFL policies are under fire after multiple clubs raise complaints over a man playing in the women's league.

Male athlete Anthony "Freya" Golding can be seen knocking a woman to the ground during a game. He barely seems to notice her while she bounces off his body.

Golding… https://t.co/YA57KklKU1 pic.twitter.com/v9s5nfF1eu

— HeCheated.org (@hecheateddotorg) July 15, 2026

The Australian Football League’s ruling was made under its Gender Diversity Policy, a framework that is distinct from the eligibility requirements governing elite and semi-professional competitions.

At the community level, the policy generally allows players to participate in the competition corresponding with their self-declared gender identity. Males are therefore permitted to compete with women without being required to lower their testosterone.

The policy also makes clear that a male player cannot be barred from a women’s league “solely” on the grounds that they are believed to have a physical or competitive advantage over female players.

Speaking to Nine News, Golding celebrated the AFL’s verdict, and rejected claims that he had a physical advantage over his female opponents.

“I’m not the biggest and tallest player getting around,” Golding said, “and by no means am I a dominant player. I’ve had some good moments, but it’s rare I get in the best players. I just want to play the sport I love with a great group of people and I’ve been so lucky to do that this year.”

Australian women’s rights advocates have faced a number of setbacks this year in their fight to secure single-sex spaces and sport.

Earlier this year, the Federal Court of Australia dismissed an appeal by Sall Grover, founder of female-only social networking app Giggle. The court upheld and strengthened a prior ruling that Grover and her company unlawfully discriminated against a trans-identified male named Roxanne Tickle by removing him from the platform on the basis of his biological sex.

The ruling came after more than four years of litigation, with Tickle having first filed a discrimination complaint through the Australian Human Rights Commission in December of 2021. The latest and final ruling, handed down in the Federal Court on May 15, was a response to an appeal lodged by Tickle in August 2024 to a decision made by Justice Bromwich stating that Grover was guilty of “indirect discrimination.”

At the time, Grover was ordered to pay $10,000 in compensation to Tickle and to pay his court costs up to $50,000. Dissatisfied with the outcome, Tickle further pursued litigation seeking a verdict of direct discrimination and was successful.

An Australian entrepreneur has been found guilty of "direct discrimination" after correctly identifying a man as a man.@salltweets has been ordered to pay up to $120,000 for not allowing a trans-identified male to join her female-only social media app.https://t.co/N3hjVOE5kk

— REDUXX (@reduxx) May 15, 2026

Then, in July, the Supreme Court of New South Wales sided with two trans-identified male athletes against a women’s rights campaigner after they complained that she had referred to them as “men.” Kirralie Smith and her organization Binary Australia was ordered to pay a collective $95,000 to Justin “Riley” Dennis and Nicholas “Stephanie” Blanch after being found guilty of “vilifying” them by making reference to their biological sex.

Dennis and Blanch both participate on women’s football teams, and Dennis had previously been documented as injuring a female opponent on the pitch.

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A Brazilian influencer has been handed a two-year prison sentence after using male pronouns to refer to a transgender politician. Bianca Barreto received her sentence from the 9th Criminal Court of Salvador on July 29, after she was found guilty of the “intentional and pejorative use of the gender opposite… [to a] self-declared identity.”

The sentence follows a lengthy case stemming from a 2024 video posted to social media by Barreto. In the video, she criticized Duda Salabert, a member of Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies. Salabert is a member of the left-wing Socialism and Liberty Party, and was one of the first openly trans-identified people to be elected to the Chamber, serving since 2022.

Barreto’s video described an earlier case involving Salabert and conservative parliamentarian Nikolas Ferreira. Ferreira, another member of the Chamber of Deputies, stood in the same election as Salabert in 2020 to be a local councillor for the city of Belo Horizonte. At the time, Salabert was the first trans-identified person to run for office to the city council.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Duda Salabert (@duda_salabert)

In an interview during the campaign, Ferreira told a local newspaper that he will still refer to Salabert with male pronouns.

“He is a man. That’s what’s on his birth certificate, regardless of what he thinks,” he said, while in another interview saying he wasn’t worried about being sued by Salabert for his remarks. “It’s biology. I’m not saying something I think. He is a man. And it’s important to make it clear that there is no criminalization related to biology,” he added.

However, Salabert did file a criminal complaint against Ferreira, referencing the fact that Brazil’s Supreme Court had classified transphobia and homophobia as crimes of “social racism” since 2019. The case was later dismissed on procedural grounds, but in a separate civil action, Ferreira was forced to pay R$80,000 in 2023, equivalent to around $15,500 USD, reduced on appeal to R$30,000.

Barreto discussed the case against Ferreira in her video in 2024, telling her audience that they “must have already heard of Congressman Duda Salabert,” adding that “he’s a guy who says he’s a trans woman, but he’s married to a woman and has a son or daughter.” She continued, saying that whatever “she does in her private life is not my problem. Now, it will always be a problem when these people try to impose things on us that are not real, that are a product of her imagination. By ‘her’ I mean the person, because a man is a man, a woman is a woman, and that’s it.”

In a written summary displayed throughout the video, Barreto repeated how it was insane that someone was being sued “for calling a man a man.”

But her remarks on the case against Ferreira ultimately led to her own prosecution, and Salabert filed a criminal complaint against Barreto as well.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Vieira Silva & Guimarães (@vsgadvocaciaempresarial)

Barreto argued in court that her content was legitimate political discourse, and that as a Christian she had the right to advocate for candidates that share her values, but that she was neither encouraging violence against nor hating trans-identified individuals.

The judge disagreed, claiming that it is a form of “marginalization” to refer to trans-identified individuals with masculine pronouns. Citing the 2019 Supreme Court ruling, the judge argued that the recognition of self-declared gender identity is completely mandatory in Brazil, because it is an “inseparable element of personality rights and the dignity of the human person.” The judge added that “the deliberate use of biological sex at birth to ridicule and disqualify the social identity of a trans woman in a public arena is not merely an exercise of opinion; it is an act that refuses to recognize her citizenship.”

Barreto’s sentence will be served in the “open” system, which is similar to house arrest in that her movement will be restricted and she will be required to check in with a police officer or judge regularly. Barreto was also forced to pay damages of R$20,000, which is around $3,800 USD.

The conviction of Barreto follows another high-profile case in Brazil, that of women’s rights activist Isabella Cêpa, who was granted refugee status in Europe after facing the possibility of a prison sentence for referring to another trans-identified politician as a man. As Reduxx previously reported, Cêpa was facing five counts under the “social racism” statutes, which could have carried a sentence of 25 years, after describing candidate Felipe Santos Silva as a man in the 2020 São Paulo municipal elections.

Silva, who also goes by the name Erika Hilton, reported the women’s rights activist to the police, with European authorities in August of 2025 accepting that Cêpa had a well-founded fear of persecution on account of her political beliefs, granting her protection. Luckily for Cêpa, the complaint was forcibly dropped for good just one month later, after Justice Gilmar Mendes in Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled that calling Hilton a “man” does not constitute a hate crime, and refused to re-open the criminal case after it had been previously dismissed.

Ironically, Silva, who was elected along with Salabert to the Chamber of Deputies in 2022 as the other trans-identified candidate, was promoted to the president of the Women’s Rights Committee in March this year. He argued that the parliamentary committee must focus on women “without exception in their dignity and plurality,” even including transvestites in his definition.

In a statement, Barreto’s legal team said they would appeal the decision, as they believe it “does not correspond to the legal understanding of the defense regarding the facts and evidence contained in the case file,” and that therefore “all applicable appeal measures will be taken within the legal timeframe, with the aim of submitting the matter to the competent authorities for review.”

Barreto’s team further noted that they remain convinced that the case should be analyzed in light of the fundamental guarantees provided for in the Federal Constitution, especially the freedoms of expression, conscience, belief, and religious manifestation, the scope and application of which will be duly presented within the appropriate procedural framework.”

Speaking to Reduxx on Barreto’s case, Clarice Saadi of Brazilian women’s rights advocacy group MATRIA noted that the nation was struggling under a wave of trans activist censorship.

MATRIA has recently released a short documentary about the negative impacts of gender identity ideology on women and children in Brazil and in the world.

Watch it on Youtube, with English subtitles.https://t.co/alUTJHOIMS

— MATRIA (Brasil) (@MATRIAoficial) July 30, 2026

“Bianca Barreto’s conviction represents another step in a growing series of court decisions that are imposing on society—and especially on women—the obligation to refer to men as women under the threat of criminal sanctions, something that is only happening in Brazil,” Saadi says.

“Referring to someone as ‘sir’ or using masculine pronouns for a man is a basic rule of language and should not be treated as an offense. These are ordinary forms of address in Portuguese and refer to the objective perception of a person’s sex. If stating that a male person is a man can be treated as a crime, then the State is punishing people for describing reality,” she continued.

“The State should not require everyone to adopt a particular view of sex, gender identity, and language, nor should it turn the acknowledgment of reality into a criminal offense.”

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A trans-identified male with a long and disturbing criminal history of sexual offenses against children has had his appeal to have his status as a “sexually violent predator” revoked. Joseph Matthew Smith, who now uses the name Josie Maria Dunham or Josie Smith, is currently serving a life sentence in the state of Iowa, and has previously attempted to claim he was no longer a sexual risk due to being on feminizing hormones.

In December 2023, Smith was deemed a Sexually Violent Person. In Iowa, being deemed a Sexually Violent Person (SVP), or colloquially referred to as a “sexually violent predator” allows the state to keep an individual in custody for specialized care and treatment beyond the completion of their criminal prison sentence, if they are determined to pose a severe ongoing risk to public safety. An SVP is defined as someone with a “mental abnormality” which makes the person “more likely than not to engage in predatory acts constituting sexually violent offenses, if not confined in a secure facility.”

Smith has been involved in an appeal process seeking to have the SVP designation removed, which would enable him to be released from specialized custody. However, on July 22, the Iowa District Court for Buena Vista County rejected Smith’s appeal to have his SVP status overturned.

In September 2023, Smith completed a sex offender treatment program, and the State petitioned to have him civilly committed as a sexually violent predator in December. In April 2025, the case went to trial, with the State calling on psychologists who work with sex offenders to present oral arguments.

Throughout the court documents, Smith is referred to with feminine pronouns.

While both psychologists had diagnosed Smith with pedophilic disorder and had categorized him in the “well above average” risk category for reoffending, Dr. Luis Rosell, testifying in defense of Smith, argued that his completion of a sex offender treatment program, coupled with his use of feminizing hormones, meant that Smith was not likely to engage in sexually violent offending in the future.

However, expert witness Dr. William Schmitt disagreed, saying that Smith “lacked insight” into his sexual offense history, which increased his risk of reoffending. “You have to look at the case as a whole. And again, what have they done? What have they learned about what they’ve done? How do they talk about it? What’s their concept of what their remaining risk is going forward, and how well does that map onto the risk measures?”

Dr. Schmitt pointed out that when questioned, Smith had denied offenses that he had previously admitted to. The serial pedophile had also said, “I’ve changed. I’m not interested in kids anymore.” He also stated that he believed he was now capable of babysitting children overnight, and, “while she wouldn’t go into a bathroom with a child, she could do so safely if needed.”

The jury, siding with Dr. Schmitt’s opinion, then agreed with the State’s 2023 decision to classify Smith as an SVP. Smith appealed the decision. Counsel for Smith claimed that Dr. Schmitt’s judgement was “flawed” and “ignore[d] significant mitigating factors.”

“The State’s case, built on speculative statistics, ignores overwhelming evidence of Ms. Smith’s amenability to treatment and profound personal change, creating a substantial reasonable doubt that she meets the narrow criteria for commitment,” the appeal argued.

Despite the appeal, district court judges have upheld the sexually violent predator status, while noting that “while in prison, Smith refused sex offender treatment, was disciplined for sexual misconduct, and engaged in more than one thousand consensual sexual interactions with other inmates.”

The decision similarly recounted details of his prolific history of preying on over a dozen children, with the youngest victim being a one-year old infant.

Smith’s history of sexual abusing children began in 2011, when he was just “fourteen or fifteen years old”. While a teen in Louisiana, Smith was charged with indecent exposure after he masturbated in front of two girls under the age of seven on a school bus. Smith was placed on probation until 2012, after which time he moved to Iowa to live with his father. Smith “almost immediately” began sexually abusing his three-and-a-half year old sister, and was placed in a residential treatment facility.

At the age of sixteen, while in the care of the treatment facility, Smith voluntarily recounted details surrounding another five victims he claimed to have sexually abused in the state of Louisiana. According to the recent appeal decision, “one of those victims was an eleven-year-old girl whose genitals Smith touched under a lunchroom table… Another was Smith’s one-year-old half-sister.”

In 2013, while Smith was still at the facility, he was charged with sexually abusing a ten-year-old boy who he had been mentoring there. Smith was convicted of lascivious acts with a child for that offense and sentenced to ten years in prison as a suspended sentence. Instead of being locked up, he was placed on probation, the terms of which he went on to violate thirteen times.

In 2015, the court finally revoked Smith’s probation and imposed the prison sentence. At the time, Assistant Attorney General Andrew Schoonhoven determined that Smith suffers from “at least one mental abnormality, specifically the mental abnormality of pedophilic disorder,” which predisposes Smith to “commit sexually violent offenses to a degree constituting a menace to the health and safety of others.”

After serving less than half of his sentence, Smith was released in 2020 and placed on lifetime parole.

That year, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller had endorsed the move that saw Smith released from custody. Despite his record of sexual offending, on January 9, the Iowa Attorney General’s office filed a motion to dismiss a petition requesting that the serial pedophile be considered a sexually violent predator.

The petition, filed in December in Buena Vista County District Court, requested a civil trial in order to determine whether Smith should be re-classified as a sexually violent predator with a high chance of re-offending.

“[Smith]’s mental abnormality makes him more likely than not to engage in predatory acts constituting sexually violent offenses if not confined in a secure facility,” the petition reads. “[Smith] should be committed to the custody of the Department of Human Services to be held in a secure facility for control, care, and treatment until such time as his mental abnormality has so changed that he is safe to be at large in the community.”

The Iowa Attorney General office’s defended the decision to dismiss the motion by citing Smith’s reduced testosterone levels as a result of hormone treatments. Attorney general spokesman Lynn Hicks stated that “an offender’s hormone levels are an important part of substantiating an offender’s likelihood of recidivism.”

Officials claimed Smith was at a lower risk of re-offending due to an altered testosterone level, and that he “no longer had the sex drive of a man” as a result of the medical interventions associated with his transgender status.

Smith had been receiving hormones related to his self-declared gender identity while being held at Newton Correctional Facility, where, in January 2016, he began serving an indefinite sentence after being convicted of molesting a child. In October 2017, he first expressed a desire to “get started on transgender classification” and started using female pronouns.

Hicks also claimed that an expert had determined that Smith was not at a risk of re-offending due to his gender identity. An Iowa district court judge therefore granted the motion to dismiss “in the interests of justice.”

In January of 2020, Smith was released on parole; but by October of 2021, he had already violated the terms of his strict conditions by using an unauthorized electronic device and seeking out sex. Despite the violation, Smith was not remanded to custody, and was instead allowed to continue to live in the small city of Sloan, Iowa.

In January 2022, Christine Louis, administrative law judge for Iowa Correctional Services, sentenced Smith to two more years in prison, as he had again violated the terms of his parole. During an inspection in January, Smith’s parole officer discovered child pornography on his phone which depicted boys and girls aged between five and eight years old. Smith requested leniency, but was ultimately denied.

During the April 2025 civil trial, when the jury confirmed that Smith was a sexually violent predator, he was ordered to be commited to the Cherokee Civil Commitment Unit for Sex Offenders (CCUSO) for an indefinite period based on what he determined to be a high likelihood of sexual re-offending. A pre-sentence psychological report was prepared by the State’s expert, Dr. Jeffrey Davis, a psychologist from the University of California.

Davis recommended that Smith be confined at the CCUSO. The report noted that Smith had told a state forensic psychologist he had molested as many as 15 children under the age of 13, the youngest being a 1-year-old baby. He added that he believed Smith was more likely to commit a sexual assault than 92% of male sex offenders.

There has not been even one recorded case of a female patient having been committed to the CCUSO in the unit’s 25-year history, reports the Cherokee Chronicle Times. But there have been at least three trans-identified males in the civil commitment unit. One of those patients, a man named Christian Dane Schiebel who uses the feminine name Tina Keller, told the Storm Lake Times-Pilot he was advised by his attorney that a transgender identity would increase his chances of release.

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A serial rapist serving a 167-year sentence for seven sexual assaults on women has begun claiming to be transgender while behind bars. Aaron Michael Pernell, who now refers to himself as “Arya Milan” Pernell, has initiated a civil rights complaint demanding transsexual surgeries in a bid to obtain “a fully sexually functional female anatomy” before an eventual transfer to a women’s prison.

On December 13, 2009, Pernell, then a Specialist with the 82nd Airborne Division, broke into the home of Maria Durden, a military spouse residing on base at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Pernell, who was intoxicated at the time, then raped Durden in front of her child.

After being detained in January 2010, Pernell told investigators that “Jason”, a voice inside his head, instructed him to attack women. During questioning by Army CID agents, Pernell blamed his internal voice, saying : “I myself would not commit these crimes. The voice in my head makes me do bad things.”

He consented to provide a DNA sample to law enforcement, which matched the biological evidence recovered from the crime scene. That December, Pernell pleaded guilty during a general court-martial at Fort Bragg to rape and burglary.

Following his conviction, Pernell was sentenced to 50 years in prison, reduced in rank, and dishonorably discharged from the U.S. Army.

However, after he was initially sentenced, DNA evidence connected him to a series of unsolved home break-ins and sexual assaults against women in the surrounding communities of Fayetteville and Hoke County, North Carolina, dating back to 2008.

Prior to the Fort Bragg assault, Pernell had been arrested by Fayetteville police in September, 2009, for burglarizing a home and assaulting its occupants with a pellet gun.

Following this incident, Pernell went on a sexual assault spree, and was convicted of raping and sexually assaulting three women in Cumberland County, and another three women in Hoke County. During court proceedings, family members said that Pernell had returned from a 15-month deployment to Iraq in 2006 as a troubled man.

According to court records, Pernell legally changed his name to Arya Milan in 2020, and notified the Federal Bureau of Prisons in January 2021 while demanding that the judgement and commitment file in his case be updated to reflect his new identity. Pernell also told the FBOP that he had been diagnosed with “gender dysphoria” in 2019 after having attempted self-castration.

Now, Pernell is demanding several taxpayer-funded surgeries that would ultimately allow him to secure a transfer to the female prison estate.

“ARYA has identified as transgender since 2016. ARYA declared herself as transgender to FBOP staff in 2016 during her first year confined in the FBOP,” Pernell wrote in a legal complaint filed in February 2023. “In September 2016 she was diagnosed by a psychologist as being male to female transgender. In April of 2019 ARYA was diagnosed with gender dysphoria. In August of 2019, ARYA began her medical transition by undergoing female hormone therapy.”

Pernell goes on to state that he has been provided with makeup and “female undergarments” and “lives as a female.” Included in his submission are recent photographs of him in prison as evidence for his claim of being “female.”

Convicted serial rapist Pernell claims to have experienced “unwanted sexual attention” from other male inmates as a result of his appearance. He also says he was “the victim of three separate Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) incidents” while he was incarcerated at FCI Fairton, in New Jersey.

After he was transferred to USP Marion in October 2021, Pernell says he was sexually harassed while he was attending the Sex Offender Treatment Program.

“In July of 2020, ARYA attempted self-castration. ARYA used a safety razor and cut open her scrotal sack fully exposing one testicle. ARYA had to be hospitalized for four and a half days to recover.”

During his hospital stay, Pernell was evaluated by Dr. Karim Ghobrial-Sedky, who recommended him for “gender reassignment surgery.”

However, the legal complaint filed by Pernell argues that he has not yet received the surgeries he has been demanding, and says that he has attempted suicide on multiple occasions at being denied “fully sexually functional female sex anatomy.”

“After Transgender Executive Council (TEC) meetings on March 8, 2021 and April 14, 2021, an initial recommendation was made by the TEC finding ARYA appropriate for transfer to a low-security male facility in preparation for GCS [gender confirmation surgery] and eventual transfer to a female facility. The TEC has provided that these transfers were part of the TEC’s requirements for GCS to be provided. ARYA has consistently requested GCS before transfer to a female facility,” Pernell’s complaint reads.

The serial rapist is demanding that the TEC “immediately arrange to have ARYA obtain gender confirmation surgeries to include: vaginoplasty, clitoroplasty, vulvaplsty, labiaplasty and any other surgeries that provide ARYA with a fully sexually functional female sex anatomy… ‘Fully sexually functional’ defined by appearance, realism and sensation… ARYA does request GCS procedures to be completed prior to movement to a female facility where post-operative care would be available.”

The lawsuit accuses the TEC of “deliberate indifference to a serious medical need” and “failure to protect from sexual abuse”. He also accuses the TEC of discrimination, citing protocols established by lobby group the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), an organization known to have collaborated with anonymous members of a pedophilic forum when creating their most recent guidelines.

There have been several cases, documented by Reduxx, of male inmates serving life sentences who have requested transsexual surgeries and a transfer to a women’s prison. In some instances, dangerous convicts have also been released early, or not sent to prison at all, based on their self-declared “transgender” status.

In one recent example, a trans-identified male convicted of the grisly murder of an infant was released on parole a full 30 years early. Jonathan Richardson, who now uses the name Autumn Cordellioné, was convicted in 2002 after his 11-month-old stepdaughter died in his care while her mother was at work. Having served less than half of his 55-year sentence, Richardson was quietly released in late December of 2025.

Without an official statement from the DOC, it is unclear why Richardson was released early. However, the decision may have been linked to an injunction granted in state court that required the IDOC to provide Richardson with taxpayer-funded cosmetic surgeries. Releasing Richardson early may have been the IDOC’s strategy to avoid paying for the court-ordered cosmetic enhancements.

As previously reported by Reduxx, in 2023, the ACLU of Indiana filed a legal complaint on behalf of Richardson claiming that the IDOC was subjecting him to “cruel and unusual punishment” by denying him the various plastic surgeries he had demanded.

In the suit, ACLU lawyers referred to Richardson as an “adult transgender female prisoner confined in a male institution,” and complains that “the total ban on gender-affirming surgery violates [his] right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment.”

Among a list of demands prepared by Richardson and presented as evidence in court was a document titled “Surgeries to Reach My Ideal Self.” The first item on the list, the court heard, was a “vagina,” followed by: breast implants, a brow lift, a brow reduction, a tummy tuck, gluteal implants (BBL), a uterus transplant, hair removal, and wigs.

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A women’s rights advocate and PhD researcher in Brazil was subject to an investigation over her social media posts after trans activists at her University reported her for advocating against the medical transitioning of children. Celina Lazzari had her research suspended by the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Florianópolis for her social media posts despite having an outstanding academic track record.

Lazzari is the co-founder of MATRIA Brazil, an independent volunteer-based charity that focuses on advocating for the rights of women and children. The group offers legal and institutional support to women facing persecution, discrimination, or violence for defending their sexual rights and child protection. They also work in the fight against practices such as prostitution, pornography, surrogacy and other forms of female and child exploitation.

Lazzari had completed both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), earning exceptional grades and academic praise. She chose to continue her studies at the same university, pursuing a PhD in Social Work. Her research, titled The Listening Practices of Social Workers in Childhood and Gender Issues, had been approved by the university’s Human Research Ethics Committee (CEPSH), and Lazzari had successfully passed her doctoral qualification examination in November 2024.

“My doctoral research sought to understand how social workers respond to children and adolescents presenting with gender-related issues,” Lazzari tells Reduxx. “I exclusively interviewed professionals who were already dealing with these situations in their day-to-day practice. The aim was to examine how these professionals listen to, support, and assess such cases, the criteria they use in their decision-making, and the challenges they encounter.”

Lazzari says her research found that there was often a “tendency to identify children as transgender prematurely, that affirmative gender theories exert a strong influence on this process, and that gender-related behaviors, preferences, and stereotypes are frequently interpreted as indicators of a transgender identity.”

But Lazzari’s academic journey would come to a screeching halt in March of 2025 after other graduate students began to focus on her out-of-class advocacy.

Lazzari became the subject of criticism in a WhatsApp group of approximately 90 current and former graduate students. According to court documents reviewed by Reduxx, participants in the group accused her of transphobia, criticized her public statements concerning gender ideology, and discussed filing complaints with university authorities and professional regulatory bodies because of her views. 

Lazzari responded by filing a police report, arguing that the online discussion amounted to coordinated harassment and included accusations that could expose her to criminal and professional consequences. She also informed the graduate program of the incident the following day and offered to clarify any concerns.

Two months later, Lazzari says she hadn’t heard anything from any University department regarding any complaints that had been filed against her, and she initially believed the controversy in the WhatsApp group chat had died down.

On May 30, 2025, the Human Research Ethics Committee approved her doctoral project, concluding that it satisfied the ethical and methodological requirements governing human-subject research, and Lazzari was able to confidently proceed with her studies.

Unbeknownst to Lazzari, however, the complaints about her gender critical beliefs had reached UFSC through a complaint submitted to the university’s Ombudsman’s Office.

While it is impossible to know who ultimately filed the complaint, one student in particular, Rodrigo Faria Pereira, had previously compared Lazzari to the far-right former president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro. In the graduate student WhatsApp group, Perieira called Lazzari “schizophrenic,” posted links to MATRIA social media posts, and directly threatened to file a complaint with the graduate program.

Pereira’s academic research is focused on health policies for the trans population, and he is a member of the university’s Center for Studies and Research on Social Work and Gender Relations.

The Graduate Program had quietly investigated Lazzari, but ultimately determined that it lacked jurisdiction because the allegations were related to her statements outside the university rather than her academic work. It closed the matter without disciplinary action

Despite that decision, the Human Research Ethics Committee, which had previously approved Lazzari’s research, initiated its own review.

In December of 2025, the committee ordered the immediate suspension of Lazzari’s research and demanded extensive documentation, including signed participant consent forms, audio recordings of confidential interviews, publications, and social media material. Lazzari was given just two days to produce the requested materials, some of which would have violated research confidentiality agreements and Brazil’s General Data Protection Law (LGPD).

Lazzari says she wasn’t initially provided with the full complaint against her or the technical opinion on which the committee relied. After she submitted a formal response in March of 2026, the university suspended her research the same day she finally received the complete complaint. She contends that this sequence denied her a meaningful opportunity to defend herself before the decision was made.

In March of 2026, Lazzari filed a Writ of Mandamus in Brazil’s Federal Court, arguing that the university had violated her constitutional rights to due process, adversarial proceedings, academic freedom, and protection of confidential research data.

The trial court ruled partially in her favor, finding that the suspension and several of the committee’s demands were unlawful and that the university had to allow her doctoral research to resume. UFSC appealed that decision, but on July 1, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office recommended that the appeal be dismissed and that the lower court’s ruling remain in effect.

Lazzari has now successfully defended her thesis, but the trauma of her experience and uncertainty over her future is lingering.

“I went through these proceedings, publicly disclosed what had happened, sought judicial protection, and was able to finish my PhD. But this does not represent only a victory. I emerge from this as a woman who has been marked within academia,” Lazzari told Reduxx.

𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐳𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐨 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐡𝐃 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐬𝐮𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐜𝐲.

Celina Lazzari was awarded a PhD in Social… pic.twitter.com/O3MLbMochu

— MATRIA (Brasil) (@MATRIAoficial) July 18, 2026

“I was subjected to extensive public exposure, profound institutional strain, and the creation of a perception that collaborating with me may entail conflict, complaints, or retaliation. This creates concrete obstacles to my ability to pursue new research in the future,” she explains.

Lazzari emphasizes that her research nor the quality of her academic work was ever the issue, and her completed thesis was “highly praised” by both her supervisor and committee. But despite her academic success, she believes the investigation and controversy may have marred her future prospects.

“I know that other professors and researchers may hesitate to work with me in the future—not because they question my competence or the value of my research, but because they understand that they, too, may face consequences simply for being associated with my name. They may be challenged, pressured, or accused merely for participating in a research project with me,” Lazzari explains.

“This is one of the most damaging consequences of this kind of persecution. Even when a researcher manages to withstand the pressure and ultimately prevails, the informal punishment remains,” she continues. “I was able to defend my dissertation and to have my academic freedom reaffirmed by the courts, but I paid a very high price. And that price will continue to shape my professional and academic career for years to come.”

Clarice Saadi, Lazzari’s colleague and co-director at MATRIA Brazil, called the treatment she had been subjected to “appalling,” and noted that no other Brazilian organization had stepped up to support her.

“The climate in Brazil is one of intense hostility toward any woman who says men cannot turn female. This hostility extends far beyond debate on social media: it’s present within public institutions, universities, professional settings, and even the justice system, all of which have increasingly incorporated the concept of ‘gender identity,'” Saadi says.

“At MATRIA, we support many researchers who have been silenced, pressured, or discouraged from conducting studies that critically examine issues related to the sex-based rights or trans ideology. Some have been warned to change their research topics, abandon certain hypotheses, or avoid conclusions that might generate institutional conflict,” Saadi continues, adding that censorship does not always rely on formal methods.

“More often, suppression occurs through warnings, intimidation, subtle threats, extraordinary demands, or the creation of an environment in which the researcher understands that she may face serious consequences if she proceeds. These consequences may include public attacks, indirect accusations, or other forms of professional retaliation. As a result, self-censorship takes hold. Research projects are never initiated, important questions are left unasked, and findings are never published,” she says.

“Celina’s experience is not an isolated case. It’s simply one example of a broader and institutionalized problem in Brazil: hostility toward women who refuse to comply with rules imposed by men.”

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The Supreme Court of New South Wales has ruled on appeal that a woman convicted of ‘vilification’ for referring to two trans-identified male athletes as men must pay a collective $95,000 to them, in addition to court costs, despite documented evidence of one player having injured at least one female athlete on the pitch.

The decision, handed down today, argues that by referring to the trans-identified males by their sex constitutes “serious contempt” and “severe ridicule,” and orders women’s rights campaigner Kirralie Smith and the publication Binary Australia to publish a statement provided by the court, to remain as a pinned and featured post on her social media for a period of three months.

In November 2023, Justin “Riley” Dennis and Nicholas “Stephanie” Blanch lodged criminal complaints against Smith for raising public awareness of their inclusion in women’s football. Smith, a spokeswoman with Binary Australia, a campaign group dedicated to advocating for single-sex sports in Australia, had been raising public awareness of their inclusion in women’s sports after learning of injuries sustained by female players.

The legal complaint accused Smith and Binary Australia of discrimination for a series of social media posts, made from January to March 2023, identifying the male players by using information and photographs that were obtained from public websites and posts made by Australian football associations.

For referring to them as men in social media posts, Smith has been ordered to hand over $55,000 to Blanch and another $40,000 to Dennis within the next 28 days.

In addition to punitive damages, Smith and Binary Australia have been ordered to publish a public statement “on all social media pages and websites over which they have control,” stating that they violated the Non-Discrimination Act. The statement, according to the ruling, must be “designated as a feature post,” “pinned to the top of the Defendants’ profiles,” and “published prominently on the front page” of the Binary Australia website.

Labeled as Annexure A in court documents, the statement forces Smith and Binary Australia to publicly announce that, by opposing male athletes in women’s sports, they have “contravened section 38S of the Anti-Discrimination Act,” and have “incited hatreds towards, serious contempt for, or severe ridicule of” the two trans-identified male players in posts they made identifying them as men. If the announcement is not made public, Smith risks a $40,000 penalty.

Annexure A also declares that the court has imposed a state of censorship on them, having ordered them “not to repeat or continue the offending behavior” of “inciting hated” towards trans-identified males. The ruling appears to include referring to any trans-identified males as “men.”

Justice Belinda Rigg’s ruling demands that the statement “should remain visible for a period of three months,” and that the purpose of the public statement is “not to stigmatise or shame” Smith, contrary to its implications. Justice Rigg argued that by ordering the statement, she intends for others who are critical of the situation to see the announcement of guilt. “It being posted for a period that will expose its contents to a meaningful number of [Smith’s] followers, including those who recall the impugned posts and the responses thereto, or who responded themselves, is capable of further redressing damage.”

Legal counsel for Smith and Binary Australia may appeal the Supreme Court ruling within 28 days, after which the case would be heard by the High Court of Australia.

The initial ruling was handed down in August last year and detailed specific comments made by Smith on social media as constituting “unlawful vilification.” Proceedings were initially held in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (“NCAT”), with complaints lodged by the two men having been referred there via the Anti-Discrimination Board, before reaching the Supreme Court on appeal.

In 2023, Football New South Wales (NSW) introduced a Gender Diversity Policy. The guidance states, “FNSW remains committed to supporting the inclusion of Transgender, Non-Binary and Gender Diverse people in Football. FNSW intends that Gender Diverse Players who are registered to play Football in the gender competition which best suits the Player’s Gender Identity shall be supported to play in a safe and inclusive environment.”

In response, Smith launched a public campaign citing concerns over player safety and fairness. Between March 29 and March 31, 2023, Smith made several posts on social media naming Dennis and Blanch.

Statements by Smith found by the court to be discriminatory against Blanch, a trans-identified male who has played in a women’s football team since 2016, included quotes from a January 2023 article she wrote for Binary. In the article, Smith pointed out that Blanch was male and that he had been given a participation award for playing football against women in the Wingham Football Club.

“Men of mid coast NSW [New South Wales], can you get in touch with me please? I need your help. There is a bloke playing on the women’s team in Wingham and many are upset about it. The federation is refusing to listen,” Smith posted to X on January 19, 2023.

“Wingham Football Club on the Mid North Coast of NSW published these photos on their Facebook page in December 2022. The bloke in a frock was receiving an award for playing in the women’s division,” Smith’s article read.

“The bloke in a frock can play either in the men’s competition or a mixed competition, there is absolutely no need for him to play in a women’s division,” Smith added. “No one is saying he can’t play. It is simply a matter of fairness, safety, and dignity. He is male and does not belong in a female division. Women and girls deserve to have the option of a female-only competition.”

In addition to the “unlawful vilification” verdict found on the basis of referring to Blanch as male, an Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) filed against Smith by the “bloke in a frock” was granted on appeal – resulting in Smith being ordered to pay his court costs in that matter.

An AVO is similar to the American equivalent of a restraining order, and sets conditions against an individual for the “protection” of another.

Blanch first applied for his AVO against Smith on March 22, 2023, but his complaint 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 the following month, arguing that Smith’s “conduct” had caused him to fear for his safety, and on March 21 of last year, Magistrate Greenwood granted him permission to pursue the matter in court.

The AVO further cites several instances wherein Smith referred to Blanch simply as a “bloke in a frock,” and a “man,” between January and February 2023. The court, in its judgement, stated that Smith – and by extension Binary Australia – “sought to evoke fear in the reader regarding the fact that [Blanch], who is described as a man / male / bloke is playing in a women’s team (and transgender women playing in women’s sport generally).”

Evidence provided in the judgement to support this statement included Smith’s comments: “How can girls, women, and families feel safe when they are not even permitted to question the presence of a man in their space or on the field?” and “Why should parents be put in the terrible situation of having to deal with an adult man in their daughter’s bathroom?”

In late March 2023, police served Smith with an AVO initiated by Dennis, despite the two living over 200 miles apart and having never met in person. The police ultimately withdrew the AVO on the first day of the scheduled court hearing. Prior to the AVO service, Smith’s public Facebook page, which she had operated since 2016 and had accumulated over 47,000 followers, was removed following a request from Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant.

In Dennis’ case, social media posts made by Smith between March 29 and March 31, 2023 were found to be discriminatory.

“I have cried a lot today,” Smith wrote on Facebook on March 27, 2023. “Last night I was contacted by people in Sydney. It is alleged that two female soccer players were hospitalised over the weekend after being forced to play against a male appropriating womanhood. Trying to get hold of the video. Football Australia have received more than 2000 complaints about the men in teams such as Wingham FC and some Sydney first grade teams,” she said, referencing both Blanch and Dennis.

“No one is excluding trans,” Smith continued. “We simply want female sex-based services and spaces. The trans can play according to biology or on a mixed or trans team.”

In her statements deemed as vilification by the Supreme Court, Smith had also highlighted that Dennis was the top goal-scorer in the NSW Women’s League One First Grade, criticized Football NSW for failing to safeguard female athletes, and advocated for sports categories based strictly on biological sex, stating, “Football NSW fail to safeguard women and girls for the sake of men’s feelings!”

Smith urged the public to voice their concerns, prompting Football NSW to receive thousands of complaints and submissions (estimated between 2,000 and 12,000). Following the public backlash, Football NSW removed Dennis’s name from public online rosters and match statistics, replacing it with the pseudonym “Inter Player.”

The sporting authority protected Dennis’ identity despite him having injured at least one female athlete on the field.

Despite ongoing controversy, Dennis remained active on the pitch for Inter Lions FC. On May 21, 2023, during a match against St. George FC at Majors Bay Reserve, Dennis was involved in a hard tackle along the sideline that launched a smaller female opponent toward a perimeter metal fence. The injured St. George player received treatment from the team’s physiotherapist during halftime and attempted to return for the second half, but could only play for roughly eight minutes before exiting the game due to her injuries.

After reports of the injury cause by Dennis made headlines, Dennis left the Inter Lions team. Instead, he joined women’s team The Flying Bats. The football club’s official website states it is “the biggest LGBTQIA+ women’s and non-binary football club in the world,” having been founded in 1985.

The Flying Bats, a football club for “self-identified women and non-binary people,” has drawn significant criticism due to its policies, and because there are at least five male players known to be playing on their Premier League women’s football team.

During the 2024 season of the North West Sydney Football Women’s Premier Competition, The Flying Bats won all 17 games and scored 76 goals while only a total of 8 points were scored against them. The heightened scrutiny has led officials to increase security and implement prohibitions against filming at matches.

In another measure intended to silence critics of male athletes participating in women’s sports, football club presidents have been threatened with substantial fines for speaking out about the issue. In March 2024, CEO of North West Sydney Football, Matthew Geracitano, and Football New South Wales CEO John Tsatsimas convened a meeting of all club presidents under their jurisdiction.

During the meeting, attendees were told that any team to boycott participation by forfeiting matches against football clubs with trans-identified male players would result in “disciplinary action”.

Additionally, Geracitano sent an email to all club presidents citing policies put forward by eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant in the Online Safety Act 2021. The email states that possible violations of the legislation include “publishing private or identifying information about an individual with malicious intent to cause serious harm,” and cautions that “individuals responsible for posting seriously harmful material” can be fined up to $111,000.

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The owner of a women-only pole dancing studio in Australia’s Gold Coast is facing litigation from a trans-identified male who claims he was discriminated against due to the facility’s single-sex policy. Nomes Witney, owner of Helensvale and Coomera-based business Queens of Pole, told The Australian that the man, who claims to be “female,” was denied membership in March, and subsequently lodged a complaint with the Queensland Human Rights Commission seeking $30,000 in damages.

The man, who has not been identified by Australian press, had attended a pole dancing class in February under the pretense of being a woman. In the middle of the class, Witney says, he disclosed that he “identified as a woman.” The knowledge that a man had been participating in the class, despite the studio’s promise to customers to provide a “female-only environment,” caused an immediate shift in the comfort levels of women in attendance.

“They tried to make their shorts longer than they were, that sort of thing,” Witney said. “Usually we have a really high success rate for membership conversions from trial classes, but this particular class, radio silence.”

The dance studio owner added that some of the attendees, which included a mother and her young adult daughter, became “visibly uncertain”.

In early March, the trans-identified male filed an incomplete membership application stating that his sex was female.

“I sent an email saying we were unable to accommodate the trans community at this time,” Witney told the outlet. Two days later, on March 12, he filed a formal complaint against her, though Witney wasn’t notified of the claim until April 22.

The Queensland Human Rights Commission sought mediation and sent Witney a letter from the trans-identified male that demanded an undisclosed payout. However, the conciliation meeting, held on July 13, was unsuccessful, and Witney refused to accept his request for membership and access to the female-only lessons.

Witney says that granting membership to the man in question is not a political move, but a choice she made to honor her commitment to providing a women-only space to her clients.

Queens of Pole has operated as a female-only studio for 9 years and accommodates women and girls of all ages, from children of 14 to women in their 60’s.

“I’ve spoken to my staff. I myself come from a domestic violence and sexual assault background, and there are staff and clients with a similar history,” she said. “I asked, ‘What are we thinking? Do we have the resources available to accommodate this person?’, and it just came down to the fact that the standard of class we would be able to deliver wouldn’t be the same.”

“Having this women-only space to do that in isn’t saying all men are bad men,” Witney added. “It isn’t about politics or hostility against gender ideology, it’s about being able to let our hair down without the male gaze. The whole vibe shifts, even if that person identifies as female.”

As a result of the failed mediation conference, and Witney’s decision to deny membership to the male applicant, the case has been forwarded on to the Queensland Civil and ­Administrative Tribunal.

The Queensland Civil and ­Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) handles disputes and discrimination complaints involving issues of “gender identity,” in adherence with Australian law. In 2002, under the Labor government led by Premier Peter Beattie, the nation’s Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 was amended to add “gender identity” as a protected characteristic.

Section 7 of the Anti-Discrimination Act lists a series of attributes that are protected against discrimination under the law, including both sex and “gender identity,” which the Act defines as a “person’s internal and individual experience of gender, whether or not it corresponds with the sex assigned to the person at birth.”

Significantly, there are no administrative or medical requirements associated with the Anti-Discrimination Act’s definition of “gender identity,” meaning that an individual need not undergo any surgeries or hormone interventions. Neither is a person claiming discrimination on the basis of “gender identity” is required to formally alter their identifying documents.

There have been several lawsuits filed against women as a result of the amendments to the Anti-Discrimination Act. At least three women are currently involved in costly litigation to defend themselves against accusations of discrimination, and all of the complaints have been lodged by men who claim to identify as transgender women.

One high-profile case, known in the courts as Tickle v Giggle, has dragged on for several years, and is expected to be debated in Australia’s Supreme Court. Entrepreneur and founder of a women’s-only networking application, Sall Grover was ordered to pay $20,000, with an additional maximum of $100,000 in court fees, to a trans-identified male after he was denied access to the platform. Grover, CEO of Giggle for Girls Proprietary Limited, was also found to have “discriminated” against Jason “Roxy” Tickle by recognizing him as a male in a selfie he submitted for on-boarding.

The ruling, handed down in May after more than four years of litigation, was a response to an appeal lodged by Tickle in August 2024 to a decision made by Justice Bromwich stating that Grover was guilty of “indirect discrimination.” At the time, Grover was ordered to pay $10,000 in compensation to Tickle and to pay his court costs up to $50,000. Dissatisfied with the outcome, Tickle further pursued litigation seeking a verdict of direct discrimination.

In the most recent ruling, Justice Melissa Perry sided with Tickle, doubled the compensation payout from $10,000 to $20,000, found Grover guilty of direct discrimination, and ordered her to pay court costs for Tickle up to $100,000. In her decision, Justice Perry cited the Sex Discrimination Act of 1984, which was significantly amended in 2013 to include explicit protections for “gender identity.”

The May 15 ruling states that Grover discriminated against Tickle because she recognized him to be male, and in a bizarre reasoning, argued that having “male facial features” is a protected characteristic of “transgender women”.

In a similar case, a woman who criticized the inclusion of trans-identified men in female sports was ordered to pay out a combined total of $95,000 AUD to two male athletes participating in women’s soccer teams. Last December, Kirralie Smith was found guilty by a New South Wales court of “unlawfully vilifying” the two men for simply having referred to them as being males.

Smith was ordered to hand over $55,000 to Nicholas “Stephanie” Blanch, and another $40,000 to Justin “Riley” Dennis. Magistrate Freund also directed Smith to “refrain publishing anything that identifies the plaintiff or their football team,” and to “publish a public statement of apology.”

Somewhat confusingly, as Smith has pointed out, the public apology she has been ordered to issue is to be in the form of “a pinned post that must go on all my social media pages… [Yet] the pinned post I have been ordered to make names both of them… Make it make sense.”

Smith has filed an appeal, which is set to be heard tomorrow, July 24.

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A young woman who previously played soccer in Australia’s Premier League has come forward to reveal that she was retaliated against for having expressed opposition to playing against a women’s team that includes five trans-identified males. During an interview with radio host Ben Fordham of 2GB in Sydney, Sophia explained that after she had refused to play in a match against the Flying Bats, she was “iced out” and benched by her own team.

The Flying Bats describe themselves on their website as “the biggest LGBTQIA+ women’s and non-binary football club in the world.” Originally founded in 1985 as a football club for lesbians, they now welcome “everybody from across the rainbow family… [and] especially encourage trans and gender-diverse folks to join us, with research showing that access to safe community sport can help improve the mental and physical well-being of minority and oppressed groups.”

In March 2024, Reduxx reported that five male players, who identified as transgender or non-binary, joined the team for the winter 2024 Premier League of the North West Sydney Football Association (NWSFA) that was to take place over the coming months.

The team dominated the pre-season Beryl Ackroyd Cup, netting a $1,000 prize. With the news that the men had joined, racking up victory after victory, 24 women dropped out of playing in the league in protest. The decision was influenced by reports that the men had repeatedly injured some of the female players to the point of no longer being able to play football.

By August, the Flying Bats had won the NWSFA Premier League, having gone the season completely undefeated. They hadn’t lost a single game among the 17 they had played, although six of those were because the opposition had forfeited the game in silent protest.

Sophia, now 20, was 18 at the time when her football club decided they would not be among the six teams to forfeit the match against the Flying Bats. However, Sophia, who told Fordham she was “scared” to compete against the men, told her teammates she would refuse to play against them.

“So my local club decided not to forfeit, although a lot of other clubs did,” Sophia said. “We were expected to play against [the Flying Bats] on a Sunday, and I flat out refused. I said, ‘No, thank you, I just don’t feel comfortable.'”

“Put aside ethics and beliefs, let’s just look here at the main issue,” Sophia continued. “I was 18 at the time, a young girl, and I was expected to go against a team that had five biological males on the team. Males’ muscle mass, bone density, the effects of testosterone after puberty – they are physically stronger, it’s a known fact whether we want to believe it or not.”

Fordham and Sophia then discussed their impressions after seeing videos of the male athletes on the Flying Bats team during matches.

“When I was seeing the videos of them playing against other clubs, I was scared,” she told Fordham. “My dad, my whole family were backing my decision to not play.”

Sophia went on to explain that she told her teammates directly that she refused to play against the “inclusive” women’s team, and expressed her reasons for doing so. “This actually led me to being a little bit iced out. Then, following the Flying Bats games, I was starting on the bench. My whole years of playing soccer, I never was a player who had to start on the bench… With that local club, I had got a Golden Boot, for scoring the most goals in one season.”

Despite attempts by sporting authorities to restrict spectators from filming during matches – even going so far to have allegedly been performing bag searches prior to admission – videos have been leaked and circulated showing the male athletes competing against women.

In particular, one clip depicts trans activist Riley Dennis – who stands over 6 feet tall – tripping and injuring a female player during a competition. At the time, Dennis was playing for the Inter Lions FC, but later moved to the Flying Bats.

On May 21, 2023, during a game between Inter Lions and the St. George football clubs at the Majors Bay Reserve, Dennis launched his smaller female opponent towards a metal fence using an aggressive tackle as the two chased down the ball.

Reduxx was provided footage of the match, which showed the female player laying on her side, unmoving, as the trans-identified male player casually walked away. The month prior, Dennis was said to have injured another female player, who reportedly had to seek hospital attention as a result of her injury.

Dennis is one of two trans-identified male football players who has been engaged in a lawsuit against women’s rights advocate Kirralie Smith. In December, Smith was found guilty by a New South Wales court of “unlawfully vilifying” Dennis for referring to him with male pronouns and raising public awareness of his inclusion in women’s sports after learning of injuries sustained by female players.

In a similar circumstance, another, though as-yet-unnamed male player for the Flying Bats, is said to have broken a female player’s leg in two places.

Reduxx spoke with Frank Parisi, president of St. Patrick’s Football Club, who confirmed that after “a clumsy tackle from behind,” a woman playing for his team “had her leg broken in two places, and she’s no longer playing football.”

“One of our players rushed over to try to help her, she was screaming in so much pain. At that time, she made a derogatory remark to the Bats player, which we apologized for. [She was] suspended. The Bats player, nothing happened to [him].” Parisi clarified that following this incident, the player was suspended from matches for a total of eight weeks.

Knowledge of injuries sustained by female players during matches with the Flying Bats, Parisi said, had at the time resulted in at least 20 women self-excluding from his own football club alone.

In response to growing opposition, heads of Football New South Wales (FNSW) and North West Sydney Football (NWSF), John Tsatsimas and Matthew Geracitano, convened a meeting in March 2024 and required the attendance of all football club presidents under their jurisdiction. During the March 20 meeting attendees were told that a decision to boycott participation by forfeiting matches against The Flying Bats would result in “disciplinary action” being issued.

Additionally, Geracitano sent an email to all club presidents citing policies put forward by eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant in the Online Safety Act 2021. The email states that possible violations of the legislation include “publishing private or identifying information about an individual with malicious intent to cause serious harm,” and cautions that “individuals responsible for posting seriously harmful material” can be fined up to $111,000.

More recently, the women of the Northern Suburbs Football Association were reportedly forced to sign an agreement that explicitly barred them from forfeiting matches against the Flying Bats LGBTQIA+ football club. The Northern Suburbs Football Association (NSFA) is a newly-created group which includes the NWSFA, and is intended to host the Women’s Super League – intended to replace the Premier League as the top division. In a press release at the time, the associations said that the leagues would be made up of 14 teams total, taken from both associations.

A whistleblower who contacted Ben Fordham in April stated that the NSFA had forced all players in the Super League to sign a disturbing agreement.

“The agreements state that teams will not forfeit playing the Flying Bats, who have the male-born players. This does not sit well with me,” they said in a statement read out on the station. The whistleblower noted that the NSFA had a newly appointed president, and wished to retain anonymity out of fear of repercussions.

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Content Notice: This article contains descriptions of child sexual abuse as described in court documents which may be disturbing to some readers. Reader discretion is advised.

Disturbing new details have emerged in the horrific case of a trans-identified male babysitter accused of sexually assaulting a baby in Tacoma, Washington. Additional charges have been filed against William Kelso Flournoy IV, who uses the name “Isabelle,” after it was reveled that he may have also sexually abused the infant’s siblings, who appear to have been taught to refer to Flournoy as a “woman.”

As previously reported by Reduxx, Flournoy was first charged with first-degree rape of a child and sexual exploitation of a minor in March after Tacoma police received a “priority 1” level CyberTip from Google. The tip had flagged a photo uploaded through one of Google’s services described as depicting an “adult man, on his knees with a small infant in front of him.” The man, whose face was not visible in the photo, was penetrating the infant girl vaginally using his penis.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Isabelle Flournoy (@izzydahooman420)

Detectives identified Flournoy as the male in the photo using both an IP address associated with the CyberTip, and by comparing identifying physical features noted from the child sexual abuse image. A detective confirmed that Flournoy had “two distinct moles” on his hands which had been clearly visible in the photo.

While in custody, detectives were able to locate the infant victim’s family by monitoring Flournoy’s jail phone calls. At one point, Flournoy called who would later be identified as the mother of the victim to admit he had been arrested for “sending something that I shouldn’t have.” Investigators later connected the number Flournoy called to an active CPS investigation, and located the victim’s family using Flournoy’s social media.

Once the victim’s parents were contacted, police were able to confirm it was their 4-month-old baby daughter in the photo by showing them a series of censored child abuse images taken from Flournoy’s devices.

The victim’s father told investigators that both he and the child’s mother had been working two jobs to make ends meet in 2023, when the incident is said to have occurred. He claimed that the struggling family, which was living in a motel at the time, had known Flournoy well, and had invited him and his partner to move in and help babysit the children while they worked.

A transgender pedophile in Tacoma, Washington, has been arrested on charges of raping a 6-month-old baby girl.

William "Isabelle" Kelso Flournoy IV was previously a volunteer with a local youth homelessness charity.https://t.co/KQjHmVyHb5

— REDUXX (@reduxx) March 17, 2026

At the time of the initial arrest, Flournoy was already under investigation after being accused in a separate case of possessing and dealing child sexual abuse material. Documents related to that case state that files found on Flournoy’s Google account included what investigators described as ‘voyeuristic-style’ photos of clothed females ages 12–18, and video of Flournoy masturbating on the steps of a homeless shelter for youth in Tacoma. In total, there were 6 other CyberTip reports associated with his digital accounts.

Earlier this year, police stated that they intended to conduct interviews with the other children that had been present in the residence when Flournoy had been tasked with babysitting, both of whom are the infant victim’s siblings.

Those interviews are now complete, and Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Ivy-Rose Kramer has updated the charges against Flournoy to include child molestation in the first degree.

According to a supplemental declaration for determination of probable cause filed on June 16, Kramer noted that a sexually abusive photo had been found in Flournoy’s possession depicting the infant victim’s sibling. The girl, who would have been just 3 years old at the time the image was taken, was photographed “with her shirt pulled up and her bottom-half naked.”

During her forensic interview, the girl, now 6 years old, disclosed multiple instances of sexual abuse by Flournoy.

The child revealed that Flournoy had “peed” in her mouth while at a playground, and that the bodily fluid had made her ill, sending Flournoy into an apparent rage.

“[Victim] referred to Flournoy’s private parts as his ‘long thing’ and ‘yaya.’ [Victim] also mentioned a time where Flournoy urinated on her ‘tummy.’ [Victim] described Flournoy urinating out of his ‘long thing’ and mentioned it being yellow. I noticed that [Victim] went from being very hyper and jumping around to much more reserved while telling this story,” reads the forensic interviewer’s report.

When asked about her feelings towards Flournoy, the child described him as “kind, beautiful, I love her so much, will be on her side forever,” using feminine pronouns for him and referring to him as her “aunt.”

During the girl’s interview, she also disclosed that she had seen Flournoy physically assault her brother, something that was confirmed by the boy during a separate forensic interview. The boy, who would have been approximately 5 years old at the time of the incidents, disclosed that Flournoy had aggressively “kicked” him and had touched his genitals with his mouth.

As previously reported by Reduxx, Flournoy claimed to be a “youth advocate” on his Facebook profile, and he operated multiple social media accounts under the name Isabelle. On X, Flournoy followed multiple transgender pornography accounts, as well as engaged with racialized pornography that fetishized themes of white inferiority and the “black new world order.”

When the Tacoma Police Department searched Flournoy’s place of residence, officers found that he was in possession of a “baby’s binky,” a stuffed animal, and a child’s character plastic drinking cup. The investigator noted in his report that it “appears [Flournoy] is interested in infantilism.”

Flournoy previously volunteered with the Youth Action Board, a youth-led group connected to the REACH Center in Tacoma that provides input on issues affecting young people experiencing homelessness and housing instability.

Local media reports covering Flournoy’s arrest referred to him using “she/her” pronouns.

Flournoy is currently booked as a “male” inmate in the Pierce County Jail, but police reports included his alias as a “white female.”

If convicted, Flournoy would likely benefit from Washington state’s extremely lenient prison gender self-identification policies, which have seen multiple men convicted of sexual violence against women or children moved into the state’s only female prison.

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