Riley Dennis has spoken about her experience of being vilified by anti-trans organisation Binary and lead campaigner Kirralie Smith.
Dennis took the organisation to court and last week it found that both Smith and the organisation has vilified two players of Sydney’s community level LGBTIQA+ soccer team The Flying Bats.
Denis and club President Sam Lewis shared their experiences with the ABC’s 7:30 provinding insight into the long running campaign agains them.
Denis joined the sporting team after moving to Australia because she knew sport was a great way to make new friends and become part of the local community.
As part of a campaign against transgender participation in sport Smith claimed that Denis had seriously injured a player from a rival team and they’d required hospitalisation. There was no truth to the claim.
They outlined that after Binary began drawing attention to the team, and it was amplified by the media, people began turning up to their games and live streaming the games and commenting on which players they believed were transgender. For Sam Lewis she was wrongly identified as being transgender, and began to have fears for her safety.
“All of a sudden, I just felt like there were a thousand eyes on me,” Dennis said.
“And that every move that I made was going to be so scrutinised.”
“Every time I’m running with the ball, every time I’m making a tackle or having a shot or something, there’s going to be a thousand people who hate me.” she shared.
In court Smith admitted there was no evidence the Dennis has injured other players, but she defined her comments as projected political speech.
The judge disagreed and found both Smith and the organisation had vilified the players.
In a statement to the ABC Smith said her advocacy had always been directed at Football associations based on their policies that create “unsafe, unfair and undignified playing fields for female athletes”
“I have never tried to prevent anyone from playing sport” Smith said.
The vilification decision follows Smith being denied an application to appeal against an Apprehended Violence Order that she’s been ordered to adhere to for the next two years in relation to another campaign she launched against a transgender community sport player.
