Monique Murphy loves playing roller derby. It’s a full contact sport which she describes as “bullrush on skates” and it’s helped a really diverse community of women with their mental health and wellbeing.
Monique became one of the premier players in the women’s game, winning selection to Team New Zealand’s training squad in 2022. But over recent years, Monique noticed that biological males were being allowed to compete in women’s games solely because they self-identified as trans or “gender-expansive”. She became increasingly concerned that this put women’s physical safety at risk and unfairly excluded them.
These are sensitive issues, but Monique felt it would be wrong to stay silent when women’s wellbeing is at stake. She shared her concerns in a respectful Facebook post, and immediately faced a harsh backlash.
Monique received a lot of online abuse, which was distressing. Separately to this, she was contacted by Pirate City Rollers (PCR) about one of the teams she played for. They suspended her from training and playing because of her views, saying her post was “inaccurate, problematic, and offensive”, which was even more hurtful. Monique tried to have an open dialogue with PCR, but they just repeated their position. That’s when Monique came to Ethos for help.
We went to PCR and offered them an opportunity to resolve this in good faith, but they wouldn’t budge. This left Monique with no option but to take more formal action. We’ve filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission on her behalf, where we’ll be arguing that PCR unlawfully discriminated against Monique because of her beliefs.
Monique says, “I completely respect people with different views and PCR’s entitled to their opinion, I just think my views deserve the same respect. Women should be safe playing women’s sports, and we shouldn’t be excluded and silenced for saying so. Roller derby’s an amazing sport and I just want to be able to play in a safe and fair environment. That doesn’t seem like a lot to ask, especially in a full contact sport.”
She says, “I completely understand that Pirate City Rollers is doing what they think is best, so please don’t attack them online if you want to support me. I’m still hopeful that we can find common ground and work this out together. If PCR change their mind, I’d love to talk with them. I hope we can agree about respecting all perspectives while keeping women’s sports safe.”
We’re sharing this update because we think the issues are important and people should know about them. Monique is still open to working things out directly with PCR and we’re ready to engage constructively with them whenever they like—but if not, we’re committed to standing alongside Monique and against this discrimination before the Human Rights Commission.
We’re glad to support Monique, but cases like this cost money.
Stand with Monique by donating to Ethos’ fighting fund—click here.
(Just put “Monique” in the reference so we know who it’s for.)
The fighting fund is a general fund that is designated to protect people facing a challenge to living out their most important beliefs. Any surplus funds would be allocated to helping other clients with that need.
