A person has the protected characteristic of gender reassignment if the person is proposing to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone a process (or part of a process) for the purpose of reassigning the person’s sex by changing physiological or other attributes of sex
Equality Act 2010
Context
The Scottish Public Health Network estimates that 0.5% of the Scottish population is transgender (approximately 24,000 adults). The 2022 Scottish Census will provide more accurate data when published in 2024.
Physical activity and sport
There is very limited data on non-binary and transgender people’s inclusion in sport in Scotland. Those that do not identify as male or female are often grouped in data as ‘other’. The term ‘other’ causes issue in two ways: (1) it can cause further exclusion or marginalisation, and (2) we lose our understanding of the diversity of the group.
Wider UK analysis of transgender and non-binary people’s sport participation shows that 60% of trans people do less physical than the recommended level; this rises to 64% for non-binary people. The often gendered nature of sports spaces (e.g. use of gendered sports kit, changing facilities, gendered division of teams) can mean that trans and non-binary people experience greater exclusion.
Recommendations to increase participation include:
- Mixed sports teams
- Gender-neutral single occupancy changing facilities and showers
- Inclusive dress codes and sports kits
- Regulating bodies should include the following in policy/guidance: a non-binary definition, differentiation between those taking hormones and those not taking hormones, use of language (pronouns).
See the equality and sport research for more details on transgender inclusion in sport and physical activity in Scotland.
Participation in our key programmes
Almost no participants reported they had ever identified as transgender
A very small but non-zero number of participants reported they had ever identified as transgender.
