UK’s PM rejects transgender women in female sports events

Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during the Munich Security Conference in Munich, southern Germany, on February 19, 2022. – During the 58th Munich Security Conference running from February 18-20, 2022, international diplomats and experts meet to discuss topics such as global order, human and transnational security, defense or sustainability. (Photo by Matt Dunham / POOL / AFP)

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Wednesday that people born male should not compete in female sporting events after a transgender cyclist was barred from a women’s race.

Debate in Britain about transgender rights has become ever more acrimonious, and others in Johnson’s government have said it should be left to sporting bodies to decide on who gets to compete.

But with splits emerging in both the Conservative and opposition Labour parties, ahead of local elections on May 5, Johnson went further in wading into the gender front of Britain’s so-called “culture wars”.

“I don’t think that biological males should be competing in female sporting events. And maybe that’s a controversial thing to say, but it just seems to me to be sensible,” he told reporters.

“And I also happen to think that women should have spaces which are — whether it’s in hospitals or prisons or changing rooms or wherever — which are dedicated to women,” Johnson added.

His intervention came after the government last week was forced into an embarrassing U-turn, hours after a report said it planned to scrap legislation to ban “gay conversion therapy”.

Following protests from Conservative MPs who back a ban, Johnson’s government said it would persevere with the legislation — but would exclude “transgender therapy”, to allow counselling for teens seeking gender