Women Launch Mass Protest Demanding Parkrun Bar Men from Female Category

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Thousands of runners across the country are gearing up for a mass protest against parkrun’s policy of allowing biologically male trans women to register as female. The Mail has the story:

The campaign starts with the launch today of the Reality Rules Runners UK club, demanding that parkrun obeys the law.

Parkrun continues to allow trans women, who were born male, to compete in the female category, allowing them to post record times and push women and girls down the weekly rankings.

The Reality Rules founders say trans women have an unfair advantage over female competitors and that it amounts to gender discrimination.

Parkrun has become a much-loved fixture in British life, with more than 1,400 events around the country.

But it appears to ignore the landmark Supreme Court ruling that trans women cannot be female for legal purposes.

The new campaign is launched as a group of leading female athletes renew their legal threat to parkrun. 

Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies, yachtswoman Tracy Edwards and the recently founded Women’s Sport Union (WSU) have given it a deadline of next Friday to ban trans women from competing as female. …

The founder of the new campaign, who wishes to remain anonymous, urged runners to sign up by adding the name of the Reality Rules Runners UK club to their online parkrun profile.

He said: “This will bring together people from across the political spectrum, male and female, who agree on one very basic point: Biological sex is real and women deserve fair sport.” …

Former British marathon runner Mara Yamauchi, who monitors parkrun, has told the MoS that no fewer than 20 record times for female competitors at local parkruns are held by trans women. In two instances, they hold female course records.

One of these – at the Jubilee parkrun in Bedford – is held by Ellie Davies, who spent five years competing in the men’s category. Yamauchi says that, since moving into the female category, Davies has been recorded as the first female finisher at 100 parkruns.

‘Ellie’ Davies spent five years competing in the men’s category. It is said that since moving into the female category, Davies has been recorded as the first female finisher at 100 parkruns

In June Davies finished first in a record time for the Jubilee course while registered as female, and yesterday finished as the fastest female at the Watermeadows parkrun in Towcester, Northamptonshire. Yet Davies entered the 2025 London Marathon in the male category.

The other female course record is held by Lauren Jeska, a trans woman who completed Aberystwyth parkrun in 17 minutes 38 seconds, still listed as the female record holder.

Jeska was jailed for 18 years in 2017 for the attempted murder of athletics official Ralph Knibbs, whom Jeska stabbed after concerns were raised about Jeska’s eligibility to take part in women’s athletics. …

Visit realityrulesrunnersuk.substack.com or find them on X: @RRRunnersuk

Worth reading in full.

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26 Comments
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Epi
Epi
19 days ago

That’s the first “Ellie” I’ve seen with a moustache!

For a fist full of roubles
For a fist full of roubles
19 days ago

The women who take part are complicit in this. They should simply refuse to compete against the pseudo-women, and organise their own event.

John Bentley
John Bentley
19 days ago

This organisation has like many others been captured by the (d)elites. Run by low paid, low ambition, low accountability wanna be’s. The Woke rot started when the original top team who had been successfully running the organisation for decades were replaced and they ‘banned’ dogs under the guise of safety and I warned then that the desire to interfere with your enjoyment wouldn’t stop. And here we are. I hope they are taken to court and bankrupted.

ACW
ACW
19 days ago

Dress it up however you like, but XX isn’t the same as XY 🤔

happycake78
happycake78
20 days ago

Reality clearly does not appeal to rule.

NeilParkin
NeilParkin
20 days ago

Surely Parkrun is about the individual. Its not a team sport and as I understand no prizes for fastest time, just you against yourself. Therefore Gender and Categories are un-necessary distinctions. If I was organiser, I’d just record people names and time, and to hell with the rest.

transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
20 days ago
Reply to  NeilParkin

I think they did this for a while, but there was probably demand from some to reinstate the additional information. While tranny stuff is bollocks, it seems an odd hill to die on. It’s just meant to be a bit of fun, get people running, and yes if you want you time yourself and try to improve. If you want serious athletics, join a club and take part in competitions where they have the resources to check people are not cheating.

Katy-C
Katy-C
19 days ago
Reply to  NeilParkin

Everyone should be welcome to run, but women should still have a results category that allows them to compare their performance with other women. My mum likes to improve in her category of 50 year olds and I in the 30 year old category. That’s a bit difficult with blokes running in it. 

if the individual really is all that matters, why does parkrun publish finishing positions at all? The moment you record position 1, position 2, position 3…, you’ve created a comparative sporting result — whether or not anyone receives a trophy.

So I’ve signed up.

Hound of Heaven
Hound of Heaven
20 days ago

I’m trying to think of any other kind of identity it would be OK to steal…. suggestions welcome.

Alec in France
Alec in France
19 days ago

25 year olds in the under-14s?

CrisBCTnew
CrisBCTnew
19 days ago

As I posted above, category “deluded” is the third identity. Totally valid.

GroundhogDayAgain
GroundhogDayAgain
20 days ago

“Ellie” is clearly a bloke, and a cheat. I don’t care about offending him.

There are a few of this type in my workplace. I won’t go out of my way to offend any, but won’t ever use the pronoun. Instead I will use whatever first name they wish, no matter how many times I have to use the name to maintain grammatical sense. But never, ever will I say “she” or “her”

transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
20 days ago

I doubt what Parkrun are doing is illegal and if it is I don’t think it should be. Private organisations that are not providing essential services should be free to pursue whatever stupid policies they choose. The best response would be a huge publicity campaign and a petition, with a threat to boycott, followed by an actual boycott. The men who do Parkrun should be getting behind this too. I don’t know what tranny credentials are required for men to compete as women but one approach would be for all the men to enter as women, to make clear what a nonsense this is.

EppingBlogger
EppingBlogger
20 days ago

I understand the general point about private societies but it has long been established in English law that bodies which purport to regulate or monopolise anything are to be treated as public bodies in certain respects.

Further, the decision to allow in men would not have been taken by a democratic vote of thousands. It would have been a committee anxious to show their wokeness and likely fearful of their safety if they decided otherwise.

transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
20 days ago
Reply to  EppingBlogger

Fair point in so far as Parkrun enjoys free use of public parks, despite it removes amenity from other users – a reasonable compromise IMO as the
participants are also members of the public, it’s for a limited period and I think they are a not for profit. I still don’t like this approach though.

MajorMajor
MajorMajor
20 days ago
Reply to  EppingBlogger

So, if, for example, my friends and I decide to establish a men-only badminton club, who has the right to regulate anything we do?
If we decide women are not allowed to join us, that’s that.

NeilParkin
NeilParkin
20 days ago
Reply to  MajorMajor

Oh no.! Women would hold vigils against you, smear you and try to ruin your reputations just to be permitted to join.

If you did the same to a Women’s only Badminton club, you would be viewed as toxic males and castigated by all and sundry.

transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
20 days ago
Reply to  MajorMajor

The venue you hire might object but you could buy somewhere. I don’t see any reason why you shouldn’t be able to do that legally. There are lots of men only clubs, possibly some women only ones. My local David Lloyd has a women only session in the spa retreat – I’m not overly happy about that but I have the option to withdraw my business.

John Bentley
John Bentley
19 days ago
Reply to  EppingBlogger

You can’t contract out of your statutory responsibilities just because you are a private organisation.

Jack the dog
Jack the dog
20 days ago

Yes.

Keep the state out of our lives wherever possible.

NickR
NickR
20 days ago

Ralph Knibbs, speared by Jeska, was one of the finest rugby players never to have played for England. Selected for the squad, he refused to tour South Africa.
He later worked as an athletics administrator & refused to go along with trans ideology.
He was lucky to escape with his life. A very impressive man, the complete opposite of Jeska.

Boomer Bloke
Boomer Bloke
20 days ago

Man means man. Woman means woman. It’s really not complicated. Further qualifiers like “trans” or “biological” are redundant, and only give credibility to the delusional fantasists pushing their own twisted agenda.

DickieA
DickieA
20 days ago
Reply to  Boomer Bloke

Perhaps Parkrun can add 2 new categories to give four: men, women, women who are really men and men who are really women. The latter category gives a chance of winning something to a group who previously would have stood no chance whatsoever.

The special people will have their own special category – what more do they want? Sadly, this still wouldn’t stop the deluded from banging on about trans rights and so on.

transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
20 days ago
Reply to  DickieA

The whole thing seems a bit silly. It’s an amateur show I think largely run by volunteers. It’s not a professional competition. They could offer those categories but I don’t see why they would bother enforcing them rigorously – what are they doing to do, test people?

CrisBCTnew
CrisBCTnew
19 days ago
Reply to  Boomer Bloke

Why not make a third category: deluded. then everyone fits nicely into a category.

Hound of Heaven
Hound of Heaven
19 days ago
Reply to  CrisBCTnew

Not sure. Men competing in women’s sport know exactly what they’re doing.

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