In late winter of 2026, Women’s Elite Rugby drafted their cohort of ~200 players for the 2026 season. Drafted players planned their years around their team’s schedule - oftentimes moving cities, leaving or changing jobs, and passing up opportunities with their prior team.
In mid-March, just a few days before drafted players were set to sign their contracts, two drafted transgender women received emails stating that they would no longer be allowed to participate in play. Shortly thereafter, these players were informed that they also would not be permitted to attend practices. They were subsequently removed from all team-related group chats, in one case including a local neighborhood carpool chat. Players were also offered large sums of money, with the implication that they would stay silent about the ban. Publicly, the WER did nothing to acknowledge the ban, and the news was broken by members of the rugby community with personal connections to banned players.
Performative Messaging, No Substance:
After word of the ban spread, WER released a noncommittal statement via Instagram that failed to address the impact of their actions:
“WER recognizes the impact of the US Executive Order 14201 on USA Rugby and, as a sanctioned women’s league, is subject to the policy. We do not agree with the policy change and remain committed to supporting all of our players and the broader rugby family.
Rugby must be accessible to everyone, and we believe in creating pathways to help players stay within the sport. We have established a set of actions to reinforce our commitment to inclusion, and we encourage our athletes, fans and the community to review them and hold us accountable. We will actively work to ensure inclusion on and off the pitch”
The “actioned” references were entirely performative, and made no movement to include trans women in either practice or play. Additional performative actions have included:
- Creating a “league resource group” composed of WER players, none of whom are trans women, and all of whom are significantly limited in the actions they’re able to take due to language in their player contracts.
- An auxiliary participation waiver belatedly offered to banned players (explained further below)
- Using trans flag colors in pride-themed social media posts and avatars.
- Posting on social media about “Pride games”, again using trans flag colors.
- Fundraising for queer and trans advocacy organizations, 10% of tickets sold 24 hours before kickoff, which is typically an incredibly small amount of money.
The WER has consistently failed to provide any documentation of their actual policy. As communications progressed between banned players and WER leadership, multiple contradictions arose. In some communications (including the public statement posted on Instagram), the WER attributed their decision wholly to USA Rugby’s eligibility policies. In others, they described the ban as their own internal league policy. This contradiction is especially relevant when considering that USAR’s policy relies on a presumption of eligibility, and requires that any eligibility complaints be submitted to USAR, rather than handled directly by a sanctioned entity. Banned WER players are also currently competing in other sanctioned forms of play (club rugby), and their ability to do so has thus far not been impacted by USAR’s policy.
At time of writing, nearing the end of the 2026 season, WER has still failed to provide organizers or impacted players with any form of internally consistent written documentation of their policies.
Auxiliary Training Partner Waiver - An Ineffective Half-Solution:
WER leadership offered a half-solution to banned players, starting 4-6 weeks into the season. In the 2025 and 2026 seasons, several of the WER teams would scrimmage against local men’s teams under an “auxiliary training partner” (ATP) waiver. This waiver was updated to have neutral pronouns, and sent to the banned players. The reasoning why changing pronouns in an already drafted document took over a month and a half to reach the banned players has yet to be made apparent by WER leadership.
In one case, the waiver was sent to a player after she’d made the difficult decision to move back home, away from the WER team to which she’d been drafted. She therefore declined to sign. In a second case, a banned player was told that she could be included in team activities as soon as the following day. She signed the waiver, expecting to immediately return to practice, and rapidly received an email informing her that she would NOT, in fact, be allowed to join practices or other team activities for the foreseeable future.
Despite being a completely ineffective solution (at time of writing), WER has still used the ATP agreements to deflect responsibility for the impacts of the ban in conversations with sponsors.
Mishandling of the Community’s Response:
In addition to their mistreatment of trans players, and gross mishandling of the situation as a whole, WER has dramatically mishandled the community’s response.
- WER partnered with a Catholic university for their Chicago games, leading to an inability to host pride-themed events (one of their “actions” committed to in public statements). University security subsequently threatened to kick a fan out of a game if they did not stop holding a trans flag, specifically stating “we’re a Catholic institution”.
- Creating a league resource group, nominally to support trans inclusion, but communicating non-transparently and unclearly in conversations with player representatives, and including language in their player contracts stating that players could be removed from their team for participating in any behaviors or actions that hinder the league’s activities. This substantially limits the forms of resistance available to the player cohort.
- Posting “Pride Month” social media content, changing their social media avatars to include trans pride colors, and making performative statements - all while ignoring the actual impacts of their actions on the trans and gender-expansive community.
- Using footage of banned players to advertise games (without permission), after the ban had taken effect.
- Kicked a peacefully/silently protesting fan off of pitch sidelines (with help from venue security), and threatened to call the police on her. The fan was holding a sign stating “WER excludes trans women” in clear view of broadcast cameras. While threatening the fan with arrest, the WER representative also gestured for a security guard to move his body between the sign and the view of the cameras. While the WER representative’s reasoning for the fan’s removal was “security”, this action suggests her concern was actually the sign’s message.
WER leadership has deeply betrayed the women’s rugby, trans, and queer community that they claim to represent. Their communications have been wrought with hypocrisy and contradictions, all while maintaining a cold and corporate tone that further alienates players and other good-faith actors. They’ve shown zero sign of any intent to reverse their decision, and have refused to address the situation publicly or tackle accountability for the impacts of their actions, despite continuously claiming to represent, support, and speak for the LGBTQ+ community.
As fans, players, coaches, and affiliates, we cannot continue to support the growth of women's rugby, so long as that growth occurs in a direction that violates our most basic ethical principles.
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