GENDER, INCLUSION & SPORT: Plain-Language Resources
This page offers accessible, research-derived tools for supporting practitioners, educators, and the general public in thinking through issues around trans and intersex inclusion in sport. These include:
- Dialogue Prompts: Supporting issues-based, harm-reduction approaches in classrooms, sport organizations, media, and dinner tables. Moving away from zero-sum conversations, towards open-minded dialogues about how to increase safety and inclusion in sport for all participants.
- Trans Inclusion in Sport: Accessible research-based summaries about key issues often debated around gender and sport participation.
- 10 Impacts of Anti-Trans Legislation on Girls' & Women's Sport: a plain-language research-based summary for those invested in protecting women's and girls sports inclusion and safety.
- 2SLGBTQIA+ Safe Sport Report: The most recent research around safe sport and 2SLGBTQIA+ participants.
- Current Open Access Research & Tools: A collection of the most current and robust open-access resources around these issues, to support others to make their own informed approaches to gender and sports participation.
1. Dialogue Prompts: Issues-based, harm-reduction approaches to discussion
The current debate around trans and intersex inclusion is girls' and women's sport largely frames inclusion and safety as a zero-sum system: someone must win at the expense of the other. The research, however, does not suggest this must be the case. The following dialogue prompts are designed to support issues-based, harm-reductive, collaborative approaches to discussing these issues whether in classrooms, sport organizations, (social) media, or around dinner tables. These prompts are designed to support open-minded dialogues with dignity about how to increase safety and inclusion in sport for all participants:
- In what ways might this policy (inadvertently) harm or discriminate against many of the people it was proposed to protect? Who, in particular, is most likely to be harmed? [see out document in #3 for some examples]
- If we could prioritize one thing to make women's sport more inclusive, supported, or safe, what would that intervention be? Does this legislation address the biggest concerns in girls and women's sport?
- Research shows that gender challenges have significant social and psychological impacts, and regardless of the findings, tend to reduce girl's interest in sport. How can we best support those facing such challenges to reduce the harms they experience?
- The International Olympic Committee has done two years of broad engagement and research to come up with the following framework for making decisions around trans and intersex participation in sport. Does this framework address everyone's concerns? What might we learn about the issue if we applied a framework like this to our own specific sport or recreation contexts?
2. Trans Inclusion in Sport: Countering Misinformation with Research
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3. Impacts of Anti-Trans Legislation on Girls' & Women's Sport:
Laws and policies that exclude transwomen and intersex1 athletes are often done in the name of fairness and safety in women’s sport. But do they help protect women and girls and their sports? The following are ten reasons why these policies may actually harm girls’ and women’s sport, and all of our athletes.
4. 2SLGBTQIA+ Safe Sport Report
In December 2023, the federal government announced the creation of the Future of Sport in Canada Commission. Chaired by Former Chief Justice Lise T. Maisonneuve, the Commission was established to investigate the sport system in Canada with a particular focus on safe sport and overall improvements to the system itself including policy, governance, funding, cultural considerations, and other aspects impacting sport delivery in the country. Individuals and groups were invited to participate in the process in different ways, including the submission of research reports. Led by Drs. William Bridel and Danielle Peers with other scholars and advocates signing in support, a report highlighting research and advocacy work on 2SLGBTQIA+ people’s inclusion in Canadian sport was submitted to the Commission in April 2025. The report is shared here for information.
5. Current Open Access Research & Tools
The following resources are all accessible online at no cost. They represent the most up-to-date, research-informed resources we could find around safety and inclusion in sport for participants of all genders. We will endeavour to update this list as new information is made available (or made aware to us).
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Transgender Women Athletes and Elite Sport: A Scientific Review - Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport
International Olympic Committee
Canadian Women & Sport
2SLGBTQIA+ Resources - Coaching Association of Canada
2SLGBTQI Sport Resources - Egale Canada Examples of Trans Inclusion Policies Websites Supporting Trans-Affirming Sport Instagram Accounts Supporting Trans-Affirming Sport
Videos and Podcasts
Organizations and Resources for Supporting 2SLGBTQIA+ Youth
Position Statements
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