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NOS Nieuws•gisteren, 07:09
A Dutch trans woman was unable to play football for months after coming out as transgender at a Scottish football club. The Dutch Lauren was also sidelined for some time because of threats to her club.
Lauren (full name known to the editors) tells her story in a new episode of the NOS podcast The Shadow Spire, which can be listened to from today. It is about the experiences of football players with an LGBTI background.
Three years after the first series is podcast The Shadow Spire back. The central question is why it is so difficult to come out in the football world. The first episode of NOS colleagues and LGBTI people Winfried Baijens, Rivkah op het Veld and Jeroen Gortworst can be heard here.
Goalkeeper Lauren played at United Glasgow from 2020, a club that was then active in the third level in Scotland. Initially, she left her sex change undiscussed there so as not to receive any other treatment. “That changed when the club received online threats from a group of anti-trans activists,” says the player. He accused the club of, among other things, foul play.
Although no names were mentioned, it was clear to club management that Lauren was being referred to. There were also threats of violence online. “Then the club said to me: ‘Don’t come to the match, don’t play, because we cannot guarantee your safety.’ To me, that felt like giving in to those who threaten you.”
Testosterone examined again
Even once she had come out, in the months following the threats, the player was sidelined for a long time. She then had to be ‘approved’ for the women’s competition, even though she had undergone gender reassignment surgery through the transgender clinic of the VUmc in Amsterdam and was able to prove with a certificate that she no longer produces testosterone.
Testosterone is a male sex hormone that, among other things, promotes muscle building; Excessive testosterone levels in women are therefore seen in sports as possible distortion of competition.
This was not the case with Lauren, but the certificate did not get her any further with the Scottish association. “Because the association did not have the expertise, the answer was: ‘take a test anyway’.” It confirmed that she had no testosterone in her body at all. “So that took an unnecessarily long time.”
“Then what else do you have to say?”
She is still angry about the threats, she says in the podcast. “It’s very annoying that I can’t do anything about that. You can say: ‘there is evidence that trans women have almost no advantages in sports’ and ‘there is evidence that trans women are not a problem in locker rooms’. But at the moment if they don’t listen to that, what else should you say?”
This season Lauren played for a university team. At that club she immediately opened up and no one ever made a point of her background.
The Scottish Women’s Football Association has tried to learn from the course of events, says Lauren. “The problem of acceptance here usually does not lie with the players or teams, but with the association that lacks expertise.” Last fall, Lauren was asked for advice “to reform the system.”
In the new episode of The Shadow Spire it also zooms in on the causes of hostility towards LGBTI people in football. Researcher Hanneke Felten points to a broad anti-gender movement, which is now being heard in many places in society, including in the House of Representatives. “The obvious thing about being for LGBTIQa+ seems a bit off,” says Felten.
Furthermore, presenter Jeroen Gortworst asks supporters what they think of LGBTI expressions in stadiums and talks with German former professional Marcus Urban. In 2007, he was one of the first professional football players worldwide to openly admit his homosexuality. Urban now heads an organization that fights for acceptance of gays and lesbians in football. In the podcast he says that the names of Dutch football players who are homosexual and do not come out about it are known there.
