Sex, Lies, and 'Journalism'

A guest post by Mara Yamauchi

The London Marathon is on Sunday and predictably, males participating in the Female category is in the news again. For some time now, I have been following the exploits of some of the numerous men who compete in the Female category in running in the UK, both in licensed events, breaking UK Athletics rules, and in parkrun.

In June 2024, I became aware of Sarah Stephenson-Hunter, a blind transwoman based near Oxford, showcased in this parkrun blog post. Unsurprisingly, there was nothing in this blog about how women and girls suffer unfairness in their own category when males like Sarah run in it.

Oxford is my hometown. I was born in its main hospital, and went to school and university there. The countless hours I spent training with its swimming, hockey, running and athletics clubs laid the foundations for my later elite marathon career. Therefore, when the abomination that is men in the Female category in sport comes to Oxford, I pay attention. This case illustrates several of the factors which got us here – not just the entitled men, but the weak sports bodies which allow it, the failures of journalism, male violence, and the apologists who excuse these men’s behaviour. Let me explain.

In early March, I read in this article that Sarah would be running the London Marathon for Stonewall. Parkrun allows males in the Female category so while him running in it is unfair for all females, he is not breaking parkrun’s rules. But in licensed events, things are different. UK Athletics banned all post-puberty males from the Female category in licensed events on 31 March 2023. England Athletics’ licence granted to London Marathon covers the entire race, including the Mass race. Therefore, if Sarah runs in the Female category, he will be breaking UKA rules. London Marathon defied UKA rules in 2023 and 2024 by allowing males in its Female category. It looks set to defy them again on Sunday, despite the UK Supreme Court judgment on 16 April making the definition of sex in the Equality Act 2010 crystal clear. Sarah has already broken UKA rules by running in the licensed Surrey Half Marathon on 16 March 2025. I wrote to the organisers, RunThrough, on 31 March. Today, 24 April, he is still listed as Female in their results.

Back to the Oxford Mail article. The journalist whose name was on it, Toby Oliver, omitted several important and relevant facts, such as: Sarah is male; UKA banned all males from the Female category on 31 March 2023; London Marathon is a fully-licensed event. Instead, it was all just fawning over Sarah. I emailed Oliver on 4 March pointing out these facts. He ignored me, no reply, nothing. I wrote to him again on 31 March when I knew that Sarah had broken UKA rules on 16 March at the Surrey Half. Again, no reply, nothing. This journalist put his name to an article which was essentially propaganda about Sarah, failing to mention anything about one of the biggest stories in the news these days, men in women’s sports. When these facts were pointed out to him, crickets. Now, today, I see that the words “By Toby Oliver” have been replaced by “By PA News Agency”. How interesting.

Another curious thing about this article is that it has appeared, in almost identical form, in numerous other publications, including the Independent, the Express and Star, the Argus, the West Morland Gazette, my London, and the Somerset County Gazette. So it must have come from one source, the PA News Agency. Which begs the question, why was this major global agency offering fawning propaganda about a man who has broken UKA rules with no mention of the relevant facts above? And what was PA’s source? I suspect it was Stonewall, since the article mentions that Sarah is raising money for them in the London Marathon. Stonewall has done perhaps more than any other organisation in the UK to destroy female-only single-sex spaces. There is nothing in PA’s offering, nor in the widespread regurgitation of its lies by omission by these various media outlets that could be called ‘journalism’.

The Oxford Mail has covered my running career extensively. One journalist in particular, Stuart Weir, distinguished himself in the mixed zone after the finish of the 2008 Beijing Olympics women’s marathon where I came sixth. While all his press colleagues were focused on Paula Radcliffe, he did a terrific interview with me. He was doing his job – reporting on the local girl done good for the local paper. It therefore stuck in the craw seeing the Oxford Mail publish such a fawning puff piece about Sarah while omitting important facts. So I got in touch with the sports desk to ask if they would publish a guest article by me, responding to Oliver’s article. They declined. I have therefore published the copy I submitted to them below.

While researching for this declined article, I learned more about Sarah. He calls himself a “father of 3”. So he appears to be another of the many men who decide in middle age that they are women after having long-term relationships, careers, and children. He plays/has played in the Female category in more than one sport. In goalball, he boasted, “We organised a varsity game between both universities in Nottingham and I was awarded the female player of the game shortly after going through my transition! It might seem small, but for me at that time, it was a massive boost to my confidence as I felt truly accepted for being myself.” Of course he was the ‘best’ female – because he is a man with male advantage. He worked as the Head of Equality and Diversity for the University of Oxford until Sept 2024, which may partly explain why my alma mater seems to be infested with gender identity ideology. To my horror, I discovered that he gave a talk to my old school, Oxford High School, which is part of the GDST, founded in 1872 to provide excellent but affordable education for girls. Perhaps his talk was all about making the world accessible for people with disabilities, which I fully support. But a middle-aged man pretending to be a woman talking to young girls in a girls’ school? What I find particularly sad is that he uses a young lesbian as his guide runner, who has clearly been convinced that men can be women.

Next, male violence. Last weekend, cities all over the UK were filled with trans rights activists revolting against the Supreme Court judgment, using placards covered in death threats and abuse. They urinated in the streets to show their opposition to the judgment. Predictably enough, Sarah was there, and proudly posted on Instagram a photo of himself holding a placard saying “Fuck JK Rowling”. We are led to believe that Sarah is some poor, marginalised transwoman but in fact he calls for violence against one of our most-loved authors and women’s rights advocates, on top of destroying fairness for thousands of women and girls in sport by competing in their, the Female category.

Now the apologists. Thinking about this case, I suspected that if I wrote anything, I would be met with a torrent of abuse along the lines of “you are harassing a blind woman, STFU you witch!” Sure enough, first off the blocks denouncing me with “Going after blind marathon runners now? A new low?” was Neil on X, who is one of a group of men who routinely abuse and denounce me forspeaking up for fairness. My question for Neil is: why does having a disability mean males should be allowed to compete in the Female category? This brings back memories of 50-something visually-impaired father of two ‘Valentina’ Petrillo’, proudly displaying his male genitals through his skin-tight shorts, walking out for the women’s sprints at last summer’s Paralympics. Or Glen Frank, another 50-something male who suddenly discovered his inner woman in middle age and has repeatedly broken UKA rules, answering challenges about his behaviour with ‘I raise a lot of money for charity’. Indeed, London Marathon took the same line, issuing press releases in 2023 and 2024 justifying male participation in the Female category with boasts about how much charity money is raised in London. Why the excuses for these men? If I volunteer at my local homeless shelter, can I therefore run in the under-12s races?

So here we are, just days away from the London Marathon. Will Sarah run in the Female category? If he does, will London Marathon let him, or will it finally uphold UKA rules and the law? Will ‘journalists’ fawn over Sarah destroying fairness for females again? Will the world ever fully wake up to this insanity? We live in hope.

My article for the Oxford Mail, which they declined to publish:

When I stepped off the track after finishing sixth in the 2008 Beijing Olympics Women’s Marathon, most of the press were focused on my team-mate, then world-record holder, Paula Radcliffe. But one journalist, Stuart Weir, writing for the Oxford Mail, wanted to speak to me, the Oxford girl. I was thrilled, because Oxford is where I did most of the hard graft which eventually led to fulfilling my childhood dream of competing in the Olympics. I was born in the John Radcliffe, went to school and university in Oxford, and ran for Headington Road Runners and Radley Ladies. I absolutely love Oxford to my bones.

Fast forward to 2025, and it breaks my heart that women’s and girls’ sports everywhere have been infiltrated by males who claim to be women. People are free to identify however they wish and call themselves whatever they want. But humans cannot change sex. In sport, the Female category exists for very good reason. That is, males as a sex class have massive physical advantages compared to females as a sex class. In 2009, when I came 2 nd in the London Marathon with 2:23:12, I was ranked 2nd in the world in women’s road running, yet 1,300 men ran faster than me. This was because of their sex, not because they had superior training, coaching or shoes than me. The entire point of the Female category is that it excludes all males and male advantage. If you allow males into it, however fast, slow, strong or weak, it ceases to be the Female category, and instead becomes a mixed-sex category.

The Oxford Mail recently published this article about Oxford’s Sarah Stephenson-Hunter running the London Marathon on 27 April for Stonewall. Journalist Toby Oliver missed out several important, relevant facts, so let me explain them here. Sarah identifies as a woman, but is biologically male. UK Athletics banned all post-puberty males from the Female category in all licensed events, more than two years ago. London Marathon, including its Mass race, is fully licensed. I do not know which category Sarah has entered, but if it is the Female category, this will be breaking UKA rules. Sarah has already raced in the Female category in a licensed event, breaking UKA rules, at the Surrey Half-Marathon on 16 March 2025. Sarah also runs parkrun in the Female category, despite there being two extra categories on offer, in addition to the Male category.

Why do I care about this? Because women and girls deserve fair and safe sport, without having to compete against males in their own, the Female category. The UK Supreme Court ruled unanimously on 16 April that sex in the Equality Act means biological sex. The Court made clear that the Female category in sport must exclude all males. In response, on 21 April, trans rights protesters in London vandalised numerous statues including that of women’s rights campaigner, Millicent Fawcett. Stephenson-Hunter proudly posted on Instagram about being at this protest, with a placard that said “Fuck JK Rowling”. Right side of history? No, this is a misogynistic, men’s rights movement.