The “hateful language” directed at Orlando Pride’s Barbra Banda during their 2-0 defeat of Gotham FC last Sunday, understood to be transphobic and racist in nature, is part of an alarming trend, with several non-white athletes targeted for not fitting westernised standards of femininity.
The language directed at Banda from the stands was “directly addressed” by stadium security, said the hosts, Gotham FC, in a statement, and the situation was “monitored for the remainder of the match”.
A statement from the NWSL said: “The National Women’s Soccer League is aware of an incident involving hateful language directed at Barbra Banda during this weekend’s match between Gotham FC and Orlando Pride. We are united in our message: this behaviour is unacceptable and has no place in our league or in our stadiums.”
Banda has faced similar before. In November, the Zambia forward was the focus of a wave of abuse after she was named the BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year for 2024. The unveiling of Banda as the BBC’s winner should have been a moment of celebration and it was, for herself, her teammates, fans, opposition players and the world of women’s football. But some – including JK Rowling and the former British Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies – used it as an opportunity to perpetuate a narrative about the involvement of trans and DSD (differences in sex development) athletes in women’s sport.
It was also an opportunity to crucify the BBC, the public service broadcaster, despite the award being won on the basis of a public vote. But just the most cursory bits of research would have exposed the contradictions in information around Banda’s case.
In 2018 and 2022 Banda was not selected by the Football Association of Zambia (Faz) for either of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations tournaments, organised by the Confederation of African Football (Caf). The Faz president, Andrew Kamanga, told BBC Sport Africa in 2022: “All the players had to undergo gender verification, a Caf requirement, and unfortunately she did not meet the criteria set by Caf.”
However, Caf said that it did not conduct testing on the player and that she had been withdrawn by Faz. BBC Sport has since reported that two sources told them that Banda did not take a gender eligibility test before the 2022 tournament.
At the time, her agent, Anton Maksimov, said she had not been banned or suspended by any governing body and said she had taken no tests. “She has not undergone and consequently has not failed any ‘gender verification’ or ‘gender eligibility tests’ administered prior to the tournament. Barbra is also perfectly healthy and fit.”
Multiple sources in a position to know have said the same to this reporter. Somewhere, someone was being economical with the truth and the evidence suggests that Banda, who was born and raised as a woman, is the victim of this misrepresentation of the facts.
Orlando Pride’s sporting director, Haley Carter, brutally and concisely exposed the contradictions at play in those who condemned the BBC’s award for Banda. “For anyone worried about the safety of women athletes, especially in Zambia, here’s a cause to take up,” she said on social media, linking to articles about the grievance she filed with Fifa against Faz over a lack of care around the midfielder Grace Chanda during the 2024 Olympics, allegations of sexual misconduct made against the Zambia head coach, Bruce Mwape, who denied the accusations, and the death of Norin Betani while in camp before the Olympics.
There have been inconsistencies and inadequacies in reporting on Banda, but there has also been inconsistencies and inadequacies in the reporting on gender testing and research around it too. As in many areas of women’s health, the science on testosterone levels in women of different ethnicities, and in female athletes of different ethnicities, is limited. Most studies into testosterone levels are carried out on men and some have shown higher levels in African-American men when compared with white American men.
Those most publicly affected by restrictions on testosterone levels in elite women’s sports have been non-Caucasian. The history of gender testing, which is gone into in depth in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation podcast Testing, is fraught with scientific holes and has contributed to a dehumanisation of those investigated.
It was somewhat inevitable that other players would find themselves targeted in a similarly dehumanising way. Last month, it was the Chelsea and Colombia forward Mayra Ramírez who was the subject of a mountain of online abuse and querying of her gender. The evidence? Ramírez doesn’t look “feminine” enough.
The reality is that the chances of a trans woman being able to compete as a top women’s football player, while not zero, are extremely slim. They would have had to transition at a very young age, gone through the development pathways and worked their way up to be at the requisite level, or would have to have been a relatively good athlete competing in men’s football before transitioning mid-career and then attempting to play in the women’s game.
What the hysteria over an almost impossible hypothetical situation does is open the door for transphobic and racist targeting of female football players and creates an environment that makes trans people, young trans people, or those questioning their gender identity at grassroots level feel as if they don’t belong in football or sport.
For decades women have had to fight for the right to play sport and reap all the benefits – physical, social, mental, emotional – from it. Why on earth would we want to exclude trans people, some of the most marginalised in our society, from those experiences and benefits? The starting point in this discussion should be: how do we help everyone benefit from and enjoy sport? And how do we achieve that in a way that is safe and fair for all?
Women’s football can be a safe and inclusive place because female footballers are vocal advocates for the positive impact sport can have on everyone. Let’s discuss that.
