Piers Morgan leads conservative outrage as two trans pool players reach final
Piers Morgan has waded in after two trans pool players faced off in a final. (Jason Mendez/Getty Images)
Piers Morgan has waded in after two trans pool players faced off in a final. (Jason Mendez/Getty Images)
Piers Morgan has predictably led outrage as two trans women, Harriet Haynes and Lucy Smith, went head-to-head in the final of a professional women’s pool tournament.
Trans pool players Haynes and Smith faced off in the Ultimate Pool Women’s Pro Series Event 2 in Wigan on Sunday (6 April), with Haynes ultimately winning the competition.
The two faced cruel criticism from right-wingers online for reaching the final, including from broadcaster Piers Morgan and former Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies, who has become known in recent years for her opposition to trans athletes.
Morgan labelled the pool final “preposterous” in a post on Twitter/X, writing: “Why anyone supports this cheating bulls**t is utterly beyond me.”
Davies accused the sport of “hating their female players” in a post on X, adding that the two players competing in the final was “grossly wrong in every way”.
Despite this, Haynes was cheered on by supportive fans, with one describing her as an “inspiration to us all”.
Pool champion Harriet Haynes previously brought a discrimination case against the English Blackball Pool Federation (EBPF) after she was barred from competing in women’s tournaments in 2023.
She claimed that the organisation’s policy – which allowed only people assigned female at birth to compete in the female category – discriminated against her on the basis of her gender reassignment, a protected characteristic under the 2010 Equality Act.
“I am a woman and I have no advantage, so why should I have to play in a category that is going to cast a spotlight on to me and the fact that I have transitioned?” Haynes said.
A 2023 study found that trans women have “no advantage” over cis women when it comes to competing in elite sport, with the study finding there is little evidence to show that factors relating to male puberty produce an advantage for trans female athletes.
The report added that there was “strong evidence” that “elite sport policy is made within transmisogynist, misogynoir, racist, geopolitical cultural norms.”
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