Irish dancing groups in hot seat after trans dancer qualifies for multiple female world championships
A women’s public policy group is calling on governing bodies in the Irish dancing world to amend their participation policies after a male dancer qualified for the world championships for a third year in a row after previously competing as a male. “I just happened to be at the competition where this boy won in the girls’ category for the very first time back in 2023,” Maggie McKneely, Director of Government Relations at Concerned Women for America, told Fox News Digital.“He has been Irish-dancing for a long time and had gone to the World Championships as a boy years before, but then in 2023, he suddenly started identifying as a girl and dancing in the girls’ category.”McKneely said that in 2023, while competing in the girls’ division, the male competitor won a regional title for the first time, and he has since gone on to win two more times, including this past December in Florida.Concerned Women for America (CWA) sent a letter to two major governing bodies for Irish dancing, An Coimisiún Le Rincí Gaelacha and the Irish Dance Teachers’ Association of North America, calling on them to remedy their participation policies allowing dancers to compete based on gender identity.The letter pointed to other major sports governing bodies, such as the International Olympic Committee and World Athletics, the governing body for track and field sports, which CWA said have announced or adopted plans to institute strictly sex-based eligibility requirements.
Speaking to Fox News Digital, McKneely lamented what she described as a “ripple-effect” caused by the male dancer being allowed to continue competing in the girls’ division.“Not only did a boy win the girl’s title for his age category, placing the girl who got in second who should have been in first, but that also means that the girl who got in 11th did not qualify for Worlds because the top 10 dancers qualify for worlds.It means the girl who got 26th did not qualify for nationals because the...