Harriet Haynes: Banned transgender pool player granted right to appeal despite landmark Supreme Court ruling
A transgender pool player has secured permission to challenge a landmark lawsuit after being banned from women’s events.
Harriet Haynes lost a case against the English Blackball Pool Federation last year, but has since been granted the appeal application.
The EBPF introduced a policy barring male-born players from competing in women’s events, prompting Haynes to bring legal action in April.
A Canterbury County Court judge dismissed the claim in August, determining that excluding transgender women was the sole “reasonable” method of guaranteeing “fair competition”.
Haynes sought leave to appeal the following month, which has now been approved.
The ruling represents a setback for the EBPF, which relied on crowdfunding to finance its legal defence.
Judge Timothy Parker’s ruling drew heavily on the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in the For Women Scotland case from April, which established that only those born female qualify as women under the 2010 Equality Act.
In his judgment, Parker said that the higher court’s findings had “removed any possible doubt” regarding sport, citing its position that competition organisers could lawfully refuse entry to transgender women.
A transgender pool player has secured permission to challenge a landmark lawsuit after being banned from women’s events
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INSTAGRAM/HARRIET.HAYNES
The judge concluded that pool constituted a “gender-affected activity” across all competitive levels, not merely at elite standard.
Parker wrote: “It therefore appears to me that there is no reasonable alternative way of achieving fair competition short of exclusion.”
The Supreme Court’s April ruling emboldened governing bodies to implement transgender bans with legal confidence.
Haynes’s case is now one of two active legal challenges against sports organisations over such policies.
Protesters displayed placards reading “Save women’s sport” and “He’s a man”
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X/JeanHatchet
Last month, an anonymous transgender cricketer filed a lawsuit against the England & Wales Cricket Board at Cardiff County Court.
The Good Law Project is representing the cricketer and has simultaneously been attempting to overturn the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Equality Act.
Jolyon Maugham KC of the Good Law Project indicated in November that victory against the ECB would see the Football Association targeted next over its comparable ban.
The county court proceedings commenced just one day after Haynes claimed victory in a professional women’s tournament.
Demonstrators at Robin Park Leisure Centre protested the match
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X/JeanHatchet
She defeated fellow transgender competitor Lucy Smith at the Ultimate Pool Women’s Pro Series Event 2 in Wigan.
Demonstrators at Robin Park Leisure Centre protested the match.
They displayed placards reading “Save women’s sport” and shouting support for Lynne Pinches, who had forfeited a 2023 final rather than face Haynes.
Fiona McAnena, campaigns director at Sex Matters, told the Telegraph: “It’s hard to see any good reason why a male player can possibly think he should be allowed to play in women’s pool tournaments.”
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