The German Football Association (DFB) is receiving policy consultation from a trans-identified male on how to eliminate single-sex categories in the sport. Julia Monro, formerly known as Ronny Pries, is a vocal trans activist who had previously sued a woman’s rights group for referring to him as “a man.”
At the beginning of August, a DFB workshop took place in Frankfurt to address how “transgender, intersex and non-binary people can be liberated” in the sport in accordance with Germany’s new self-identification laws, which are set to come into force in November.
According to a description of the law on the Bundestag’s official website, the Self-Determination Act was designed “to implement a core idea of the Basic Law, the protection of gender identity, by giving people the opportunity to change their legal sex and first name without discrimination.” The Act is among the most lenient gender identity laws in the world, and even allows parents to change the sex marker on their children’s documents from birth. The law also creates the potential for citizens to be fined up to €10,000 (approx. $10,800 USD) for revealing a person’s given name and birth sex without their permission – an action that trans activists staunchly oppose and refer to as “deadnaming.”
During the DFB workshop, Monro was consulted and advocated for DFB’s official rules to be changed in accordance with the Act. At the present time, male players are allowed to receive “play passes” to join female teams after completing a change of legal documentation, but following the enactment of the law, male players will be able to change more freely between any team they choose.
People who identify as “gender diverse,” or those with a non-binary legal sex marking, will also be allowed to decide whether they want to play football on male or female teams. In an interview with SkySport from 2023, Monro described this regulation as a “milestone” because it enabled trans people to decide for themselves which team they want to play on.
Monro is a radical trans activist and has claimed that toddlers as young as 3 are capable of identifying as transgender. In 2018, he founded the Transkids project, which describes itself as “providing trans* children and young people with both advice and leisure activities to balance their multiple stress situations.”
He has also produced a video documentary titled “Transkids – different but normal” in which he takes four girls who identify as boys to a horse farm to “support them in their transition process.” The documentary has been used as teaching material in schools.
Monro has stated that his goal is for a so-called “sexual identity” to be included in the German constitution, although legal scholars have long warned that this could also result in pedophilia eventually being classified as a protected identity.
Disturbingly, Monro continues to be consulted on matters related to gender self-identification and “trans youth” despite having previously been accused on “preying” on minors by his ex-girlfriend. In 2022, the woman accused him of being mentally ill and targeting her children, resulting in Monro seeking legal action against her.
The woman was ultimately told to sign a contract in which she was prohibited from ever describing him as “mentally ill” again, or rehashing her accusations that he had preyed on her children. If she violates the terms of that contract, she will face a fine of €2,500.
Monro also sued German women’s rights organization RadFemBerlin, after the group’s official X account replied to Monro on social media using the hashtag #DubisteinMann (#YouareaMan).
Monro sued for an urgent injunction demanding RadFemBerlin delete the post because it violated his personal rights. The representative of RadFemBerlin, Ana Julia Di Lisio, then started a GoFundMe campaign to raise the necessary funds for her legal defense.
In July of 2023, the Frankfurt Regional Court rejected Monro’s lawsuit on the grounds that the hashtag did not refer to him directly but was “rather used as a keyword in particular in the course of the political discourse about the draft of the Self-Determination Act on the platform X, formerly Twitter.” Monro appealed, but ultimately withdrew his suit.
Monro has also released his own media guide for journalists writing about him, instructing them that they use “more sensitive language with correct phrasing.” He has also barred journalists from mentioning his birth name of Ronny Pries.
Monro’s efforts to make German football “more inclusive” is raising concerns, especially following the recent case of Nicolas “Laura” Holstein, a man who identifies as a woman and is playing in a ladies football club in Bavaria.
A balding trans-identified will be allowed to play in a women's football league in Germany, months before he is set to change his legal sex to "female."
— REDUXX (@ReduxxMag) April 6, 2024
Players have been warned that they may be punished for "transphobic" remarks about Laura Holstein.https://t.co/eReYRlKBJA
Because Holstein is fully intact, a shower schedule was created for him so that he would not shower with the minor girls who also played on his team. But after the second training session, the players complained that they didn’t want to share the changing room with him and he was not abiding by the shower schedule.
Holstein recently made a legal complaint against a women’s gymnasium after he was refused access to the women’s locker rooms, with the facility ultimately being fined over €1,000 for “discriminating” against him.