The reason? Representing transgender and non-binary politics a very cohesive vision of inclusionsaid Florent Gravel, who was President of Ringuette Quebec for 20 years and serves as spokesman for the organization.

There should be people with disabilities, people of color, religions. We’re not here to promote trans people, we’re here to develop a sport called Ringette.continues the person who sits on the board of the sports federation.

” It is believed that Ringette Canada was not visionary in developing its policy. »

According to him, inclusion policies should not only target a marginalized group of people who are at risk of discriminating against others. However, Ringuette Québec has not developed its own document on the subject, which Martine Corbeil deeply regrets.

It’s not logical. Then involve more of the world! Make it a guideline! They don’t even do it. It’s window dressingthinks this Montreal-area mom, who fought a legal battle to keep her trans son allowed to play ringette after he was banned from it in 2019.

Back then, Ringuette Quebec wanted his teenager to play in a mixed team, which only theoretically exists in the provinces.

It was very, very difficult. It was a really total rejection. He himself learned to live with himself. It was his sport and it was sort of an antidepressantsays Ms. Corbeil.

From case to case

Jonathan Pitre was given permission to continue playing on a women’s team and was able to resume his place on the net in 2021, but Ringuette Quebec says it is handling situations on a case-by-case basis to ensure athlete safety. .

When the local associations have the request for a boy, they know it’s a transgender because the person goes back to the same team they were on before, so everyone knows that girl is now a boy. They know his lineage, his playing experience, they can position him wellexplains Mr. Kies when asked about the aids that the provincial association makes available to the municipalities.

In Ringette Canada’s Trans Inclusion Policy, we read that athletes are not required to disclose their gender identity or history.

The national organization turned down interview requests from Radio-Canada. A spokeswoman said via email that the policy, which was developed in 2018 and then updated in 2021, allows transgender players to compete with a team that matches their gender identity or their birth-assigned gender and gives non-binary players the explicit option participate with the team of their choice (male, female or mixed).

This rule allows people to want to stay, continue or even try a new sportbelieves Asher Broom, a community worker at Jeunesse idem Outaouais, an organization for LGBTQ+ youth.

Ringette Canada used “iels” and “celleux”. The rest of us are not here to change French grammar. We’re talking a few people out of 6000 players. Are we going to change everything in our regulations and our franking for people who say they’ve reached another level? asks Mr. Gravel, who believes his organization’s role is to provide the infrastructure and regulations for athletes to thrive in the sport.

” It sends a transphobic message. »

Asher Broom played ringette for ten years before leaving the sport when he began to question his own gender identity. The fact that the discipline is typically female convinced him to drop it.

At 23, after a four-year break, it would be a dream to return to this sport that brought him so much in his childhood and youth. The fact that Quebec doesn’t want to introduce the Inclusion Ordinance completely put me offadds the Gatineau resident.

It’s once again about categorizing and choosing people who we accept and who we don’t acceptexplains the speaker, pointing out that ringette is a sport in which many people from the LGBTQ+ community find themselves.

For her part, to avoid this situation, Martine Corbeil dreams of ringette officially becoming a mixed sport in Quebec, as is the case elsewhere in Canada. for anyone who wants to play to play, be it cisgender, transgender, non-binary, fat, short, tall, skinny, black, muslim, hindu.