LTA Club Policy Template

[TENNIS CLUB NAME]

TRANSGENDER AND NON-BINARY INCLUSION POLICY

The LTA updated its Transgender and Non-Binary Individuals Policy for implementation on 1st January 2025.

In this policy, LTA stated “Tennis is a gender-affected sport – the average man has an advantage when playing against the average woman. This includes longer levers with which to reach and hit the ball and increased cardio-vascular capacity. The current broad consensus, including the conclusion of the review carried out by the Sports Councils Equality Group, is that this advantage is likely to be retained to a significant degree in trans women, making competition potentially unfair.”

Based on this information, the LTA introduced a policy to restrict all biological males (including transwomen and males who identify as non-binary) from playing in the women’s category in Specified, inter-venue, competitions from Grade 1 to 6.

These will be competitions ranging from National Championships through to local county and district leagues. This helps ensure there is a common national standard for all these competitions which is fair.

LTA have also stated that it is up to clubs and independent venues to decide whether to adopt the LTA model for non- specified competitions, below grade 6 but still competitive within a single club setting, including club championships.

Since this policy came into force in January 2025, the Supreme Court ruled in April 2025 “the definition of woman in the Equality Act 2010 is a biological female”.

It is a requirement that clubs comply with the law to avoid risk of litigation and of invalidating insurance. As such, clubs should adopt a lawful policy for non-specified competitions and recreational tennis that matches the LTAs own policy.

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CLUB COMPETITION POLICY

[CLUB NAME] will adopt the LTA’s Specified Competitions Policy for all non-specified competitions and recreational tennis.

Unless otherwise stated, eligibility for Club competitions will be based on the following criteria:

1. Any reference to woman, women, girl or girls refers to those female at birth.

2. Competitions for women and/or girls are restricted to those female at birth.

3. One person in a mixed doubles pairing must be female at birth.

[CLUB NAME] may designate some competitions as ‘open’ competitions, without categories, for all members to participate. Every member is welcome to participate in events designated for their sex and also in open competitions.

CHANGING ROOMS AND TOILETS

The LTA policy advises clubs and venues to comply with the Equality Act 2010

The Supreme Court clarified that changing rooms and toilets marked male or female, must be single-sex, and exclude all people of the opposite biological sex.

SUPPORT

As a club we endeavour to make every individual feel welcome in the correct sex category. If we are made aware that a child or adult self-identifies as a gender that differs from their sex at birth, where possible, we will make reasonable alternative changing arrangements.

[CLUB NAME] aims to foster a respectful environment for all and will take seriously any allegations of harassment or breaches of policy.

Any support requests or concerns should be raised to [RELEVANT CONTACT EMAIL]

This policy was approved by the Committee on [DATE]. Next Review due: [DATE]

References

LTA Transgender & Non-Binary Policy lta-trans-and-non-binary-policy.pdf