The Darebin Women’s Sports Club was founded by women as a club for women and girls to participate in sport in a supportive environment.The explicitly feminist roots of our club’s culture and mission remain unchanged. Further, the DWSC has a proud history and culture of LGBTIQ+ inclusion and both supports and celebrates the LGBTIQ+ diversity of our players, coaches, volunteers and members, both past and present.
Our Gender Inclusion Policy aims to eliminate discrimination on the grounds of gender identity or intersex status. The DWSC club welcomes:
Everyone as members and volunteers
Women and girls (including trans women and trans girls) and any non-binary person or trans man/trans boy comfortable in a women and girl centred space where their exclusion from the club would result in their exclusion from the sport.
At the Falcs, we are committed to implement our gender inclusion action plan and now have an Implementation Group to guide the work. The Group will focus on 3 areas:
- Communication and build awareness of the Policy within the club and wider community
- Culture and people and improve awareness and knowledge of trans and gender diverse identities and experiences and build capability in TGD inclusion in sport
- Systems, processes and facilities to improve practices and processes and continue to engage with trans and gender diverse people to identify key issues and gaps.
Immediate steps we are taking right now to progress change and be even more inclusive of trans and gender diverse members of the community are to:
- explore options for facilities signs and access
- confirm registration requirements
- advocacy with peak bodies
- self-audit against inclusion checklist.
Please reach out with any enquiries, comments or interest to join the Implementation Group at our Contact Us page and click the option ‘Gender Inclusion’.
Hi,
I just wanted to say how much I support this policy & how important I feel it is. My AFAB (assigned female at birth) child uses she/her pronouns but identifies as non binary & has felt welcomed as a new player.
We needed to upload a birth certificate for my kid to play. This was not an issue for us since my child is AFAB. However, it could create a lot of anxiety about being “outed” for some trans girls or non binary people.
The certificate requirement was a requirement of the league rather than Darebin but it may be worth bearing in mind that some people are “stealth” and being outed is a cause of significant anxiety. The Darebin policy goes towards addressing this issue. In some cases, confidentiality will be very important to the person.
We know lots of kids, especially gender diverse children, who who are excluded from sport. There is just nowhere for trans children, or non binary children who don’t want to play in a team of people that is for people the same as the sex they were assigned ar birth. This usually starts around mid-upper primary school but especially once the child turns 14. I think many adults don’t play after bad experiences as children/teenagers.
For many children it is an incredibly difficult issue & I hope that the Darebin Falcons can be part of a movement that helps ensure no person feels totally excluded from sport.
Natasha