News for Queer Women, Lesbian Sports

NWSL’s Elizabeth Eddy Makes Ridiculous Plea To Bar Trans Competitors

October 28, 2025

The Angel City FC defender took to social media and The New York Post to demand gender eligibility standards from the league.

Featured Image: Photo by Katharine Lotze/Getty Images

This piece was updated on October 29.

In a social media statement and a matching op-ed in the New York Post, National Women’s Soccer League defender Elizabeth Eddy called for a clear standard for gender eligibility within the league that would bar trans and intersex players from competing.

Eddy, a free agent on Angel City FC, claimed that the lack of policy in women’s sports “serves no one, as questions and controversy abound over intersex and transgender athletes.” Eddy’s transphobic and harmful proposals have garnered extreme pushback on social media.

Related: Queer Soccer Star Christen Press Is Hanging Up Her Cleats After A Trailblazing Career

Citing a need to “protect the integrity of women’s sports” and statistics about muscle mass differences in AFAB and AMAB bodies, Eddy proposed two options—one, “all players must be born with ovaries, as the FA requires,” or two, “an SRY gene test, like those World Athletics and World Boxing implemented.”

Eddy wrote that fans have used the league’s lack of “clarity about who the league is for” to “harass players.” Earlier this year, Orland Pride star Barbra Banda was the target of transphobic language after she was the subject of transphobic conspiracies due to a flawed “sex verification” test.

The NWSL—a longstanding ally to the LGBTQ+ community, which makes up a large portion of its fanbase and player pool—had an established policy on transgender athletes in 2021 but quietly did away with the policy in 2022. The previous policy stated that “athletes who transition from male to female are eligible to compete” if they declare their gender identity is female, report a testosterone level within the limits of women athletes, and comply with testing.

Related: A Gotham FC Fan Made Transphobic Comments About A Cisgender Player. Now They’re Banned From Future Matches

In November of 2024, NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman commented that the league would “continually live by [its] values and support everyone in [its] ecosystem, inclusive of [its] fans, [its] players, [its] employees, in every community where [it] operate[s].” However, without a clear policy on gender eligibility, the values of the league are uncertain, allowing for op-eds like Eddy’s to take center stage. A spokesperson for the NWSL said that the league is “committed to working directly with the NWSL Players Association on any changes to our league policies” to ensure players’ voices are “central to our processes and (this) reinforces our commitment to inclusion, trust and transparency.”

Women’s soccer players have a long history of standing up for trans rights. In 2022, players from the United States Women’s National Team (USWNT) wore tape on their wrists with “protect trans kids” written on it during a game in Texas. Beloved USWNT veteran Becky Sauerbrunn wrote an op-ed in 2023 stating, “Since I started playing soccer, I’ve faced countless challenges to gender equity in sport, from pay disparity to unsafe working conditions. I can assure you that playing with or against transgender women and girls is not a threat to women’s sports.” Just earlier this year, Manchester City star Kerstin Casparji made headlines when she kissed her trans pride flag wristband after scoring a goal.

Eddy’s own team, Angel City, celebrated Trans Day of Visibility this year, sells official merch with the phrase “protect trans lives” on it, and has a trans pride flag in the bio of its Instagram page. The team refused to comment on Eddy’s statement when asked by The Athletic.

As of October 29, Angel City released a statement reading, “In response to an op-ed published on October 27th, we want to make clear that while we respect the right for an individual to express their opinion, it does not reflect the opinion of an entire organization. Since our founding, Angel City has remained committed to equity, inclusion, and belonging. These principles will always guide how we show up for our team, fans, and community.”

Soccer podcast The Women’s Game, hosted by USWNT stars Sam Mewis, Becky Sauerbrunn and Lynn Biyendo, put out a response reading, “Sports are for everyone. Transphobia has no place here 🏳️‍⚧️🩷”

Fans of the NWSL and Angel City have taken to social media to voice their anger at Eddy’s comments, disappointment in Angel City’s silence, and overall frustration with the amount of transphobia in sports. We’ve rounded up some of the reactions below.

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