World Rugby, the global governing body for the sport, said last year that after months of research, it had "concluded that safety and fairness cannot presently be assured for women competing against trans women in contact rugby".
It did, however, authorize national federations to implement their own grassroot policies.
The governing body for French rugby, the FFR, has stipulated nonetheless that transgender women "must certify that they have been on hormonal treatment for at least 12 months" and "must not exceed the testosterone threshold of 5 nanomole/litre".
Transgender women still transitioning will therefore be allowed to play women's rugby.
Unanimous decision
The board voted "unanimously" in favour of the authorisations, making the FFR the first of France's national sports federations to allow transgender women to take part in elite sport.
"Rugby is an inclusive, sharing sport, without distinction of sex, gender, origin or religion," FFR vice president Serge Simon said.
Comment: Ideological newspeak.
"The FFR is against all forms of discrimination and works daily to ensure that everyone can exercise their free will in rugby without constraint."
The president of the CADET (Commission for anti-discrimination and equal treatment), Jean-Bernard Moles said the inclusion was "a big step forward".
The move coincides with France's participation in the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia 2021.
"The fight to bring the LGBT+ community out of secrecy is essential, and we must win it. We will pursue this objective in the future with new campaigns called "no sshhh" and "coming in" to reinforce that no-one should have to hide their homosexuality in the sport," he told the FFR.
Reader Comments
Water is dry, fire is cold, and grass is pink.... or whatever. Who am I to be such a reality Nazi?
Just be thankful there are no transgender All Black's. Or Samoans for that matter. There would be death everywhere on a rugby field.
There's plenty of transgender Maoris too... there are some very small towns in NZ where there's unhealth family relations. And then there's the prisons which are breeding grounds for arse bandits - which are all getting bigger as entry into them is becoming easier.
Don't know if they play rugby, but I suspect some of them probably do.
I'm not really sure if there's a female Samoan either, but for some reason I really want there to be. I imagine they would instill fear into the manliest of teams haha.
Thanks Tiu