Transgender women banned from female pool events following Supreme Court ruling

Irish Examiner

24-04-2025

Transgender women have been banned from the female category of Ultimate Pool Group (UPG) events following last week's UK Supreme Court ruling.
The sport has been mired in controversy over its transgender inclusion policies.
Trans woman Harriet Haynes is suing the English Blackball Pool Federation (EBPF) after it changed its rules to ban trans women from its female category, while a group of female players had challenged the UPG and World Eightball Pool Federation (WEPF) rules which allowed trans women to compete.
The UPG has now changed course however, and becomes the first sports body to update its policies since the Supreme Court declared last week that the words "woman" and "sex" in the Equality Act 2010 referred to a biological woman and biological sex.
The UPG also said the change in policy was prompted by receipt of a report which confirmed pool was a gender-affected sport under the Equality Act, which therefore permits the lawful exclusion of athletes based on sex.
"Since its inception UPG has been caught in a vacuum of uncertainty surrounding the issue of eligibility to participate in its women's series," the announcement from UPG read.
"The clear conclusion of the biological and cue sports expert who jointly authored the report was that eightball pool was a gender-affected sport and that in cue sports female players have unique disadvantages compared to male players and that transgender women retain male advantages.
"The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) chairwoman Baroness Kishwer Falkner has confirmed that the ruling has brought clarity and that trans women cannot take part in women's sport and that the EHRC would pursue organisations which do not update their policies.
"UPG welcomes the clarity which this judgment brings."
UPG confirmed the open category remained "open to all regardless of sex", and said the rule changes had been endorsed by the international eightball federation.
Haynes and another trans woman, Lucy Smith, contested the final of a UPG event earlier this month.
London Marathon organisers said on Wednesday they would wait to receive updated information from the EHRC and Sport England before considering whether to update eligibility policies for its mass participation race.
Currently transgender athletes can self-select their gender on the ballot for the mass race, but the elite, championship and 'good for age' female race categories are only open to biological women.