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An internal rift has emerged within a National Women’s Soccer League team as Angel City FC standout Elizabeth Eddy urged the league to implement “gender standards” to safeguard the integrity of women’s sports.
In a piece for the New York Post, Eddy questioned, “How can we uphold women’s rights and ensure competitive fairness while also embracing meaningful inclusion?”
“Fairness and inclusion are fundamental American principles. While reasonable individuals may disagree on where to set boundaries, ignoring the conversation and excluding diverse perspectives doesn’t benefit us,” Eddy expressed. “We have a responsibility to current and future female athletes to address this. The NWSL should establish a definitive standard. One possibility is requiring players to be born with ovaries, similar to the FA’s rule. Another is utilizing an SRY gene test, as seen in World Athletics and World Boxing.”
Her proposal to shield women’s sports from the participation of transgender athletes has met with disapproval from her colleagues, Sarah Gorden and Angelina Anderson, according to Fox News.
“That article does not represent our team or this locker room,” Gorden stated on Friday. “I’ve engaged in numerous discussions with my teammates recently, and they feel hurt and offended by the article. Some of the remarks made are quite appalling, and I find it crucial to address that.”
“We don’t agree with the things written for a plethora of reasons, but mostly the undertones come across as transphobic and racist as well. The article calls for genetic testing on certain players and it has a photo of an African player as a headline,” she continued. “That’s very harmful, and to me, it’s inherently racist because to single out this community based on them looking or being different is absolutely a problem. As a mixed woman, with a Black family, I’m devastated by the undertones of this article.”
Anderson talked about the team and Los Angeles being “founded upon inclusivity.”
“For me personally when I think of LA, and I think of Angel City, I think of a place that was founded upon inclusivity and love for all people – that’s what our locker room is, that what our staff is, that’s what our fan base is. Angel City is a place for everyone. It always will be. That’s how it was from the beginning, that’s how it will always be. Period,” she said.
“I think this situation, there’s an element of timing to it where this feels like another really big challenge that we have to go through as a team on top of an already really challenging year,” she continued. “And it’s definitely not the note that we as a group want to end on, and so I just want everyone to know that we’re doing our best in the locker room to preserve respect and belonging on this team and we look forward to ending the season on as positive of a note as possible.”
The NWSL told The Athletic in response to Eddy’s column that the league is “committed to working directly with the NWSL Players Association on any changes to our league policies.”
