Right-wing media outlets are stirring up more anti-trans feeling because trans women are being allowed to can run in the non-competitive part of the London Marathon – just like everyone else.
The Telegraph, GB News and the Daily Mail have all run headlines after London Marathon race director Hugh Brasher, whose father Chris helped launch the race in 1981, said runners in Sunday’s (27 April) event could continue to self-identify as male, female or non-binary.
The news follows last week’s the UK Supreme Court ruling that the legal definition of “sex” under the Equality Act was limited to biological women.
The verdict is likely to have wide-ranging implications for trans and non-binary people as well as for public bodies, organisations and services and how operate in relation to issues such as inclusion. The 88-page judgement said single-sex spaces should be defined by biology.
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday (23 April), Brasher said: “To take part in championship, elite or in any age-group prizes, they have to be birth women, women as defined by the courts. To take part in the mass event, it is a self-selection.
“Do I know the exact numbers of transgender women running? No, because it is a self-selection. How do you check?”
He said people are asked to provide a document confirming their identity but because the ID can be a passport and “your passport would say your gender and your gender can say female even if you were born male, this is complex”.
The London Marathon would not be updating any of its policies until the Equality and Human Rights Commission and Sport England issue guidance in the summer, he added.
“We will meet what the law says but there has to be that detail coming out.” It was “really difficult to predict what we would do” and Brasher has “gone through loads of different scenario-planning since the court delivered its verdict.
“We delight in being both inclusive but also protecting in competition the rights of women, which is incredibly important. The London Marathon has been very clear on protecting women’s rights, that’s women from birth, in terms of competition.”
In 2023, trans woman Glenique Frank, who ran the race to raise money for good causes, was accused of “cheating real women out of a place” after she finished the 26.2-mile event in 4hrs 11mins 28secs – in 6,160th spot.
Frank told PinkNews at the time that she did not identify with any other gender marker available on the London Marathon application form and would have preferred to take part in a transgender category.
She had previously entered marathons in New York and Tokyo as a man because her passport still had a male gender marker, leaving her with no other choice.
During the press conference, Brasher said the London Marathon had boycotted Elon Musk’s social media platform X/Twitter because of the “vitriolic” nature of the platform, which had “descend[ed] into [the] gutter”.
Nothing has been posted on the official London Marathon account since January.
“The London Marathon is about positivity. It is a force for good and we didn’t feel that channel shared those values,” Brasher said.
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