In 2019, we entered Yindoors as a fun, indoor women’s team, something we’ve done, along with a lot of SMOG men, for several years. This team had no affiliation at all with SMOG, however, we are fortunate enough to have the backing of our club and the ability to use its platform to get our message out there. We’re writing this on behalf of all those women who don’t have that luxury.

During our time at the tournament, we were disappointed to find that, of the 40 games streamed, 38 were men’s games. We brought this up to the TDs to only be told there was nothing they could do. Moving some women’s games onto the streamed pitches would “disappoint” the men originally due to play on them.

Unsatisfied with this outcome, we, along with a lot of male players also at the tournament, commented on the stream asking for more women’s games to be shown. Once the request went public, the TDs were suddenly able to change things. Near the end of the tournament they came to tell us they were unhappy that we had ‘taken the conversation online’, expecting an apology which we did not offer. After our face to face requests were ignored, we felt we had no other option in order to be heard and were frustrated that their stance changed only after more voices got involved. None of the men involved in the online conversations were confronted or penalised in any way.

After the tournament, the TDs reached out to tell us that we “ruined their weekend” and categorised our behaviour as “aggressive”. We are not claiming to have acted perfectly. Our passion for gender equality and the frustration caused by our points being consistently overlooked led us to speak confidently and assertively, but we don’t believe we ever crossed into aggression. We maintain our opinion that if a man had spoken as we had, it would have been seen as a normal part of competitive sport, and if they would have taken our concerns on board earlier, we wouldn't have been driven to take further action. We responded to their email with a lot of clarifying points and questions and were keen to discuss a resolution, however, we never received a reply.

Fast forward to now and we entered Yindoors as reigning champions only to find we weren’t offered a spot. Upon asking why, we were told that there had been an “investigation into our behaviour” and that we weren’t welcome back. When we asked to hear more about the “investigation” and to add our side of the story, they informed us that it was “inappropriate to discuss it with us”.

Regardless of the issues we faced in 2019, our main problem with the situation is barring women from opportunities to play Ultimate because they stood up against gender inequality. Penalising women for passionately standing up for themselves and then refusing to enter into a transparent discussion about it is something that should not be seen as acceptable in Ultimate. We cannot allow this precedent to be set by punishing those who try to make our sport a more inclusive space.

SMOG players have attended this tournament for many years in some iteration, usually sending a women’s team, a few men’s teams and some hybrids with other clubs. Those men that supported us on this issue both online and at the tournament were still given spaces to attend this year.

Since then, we’ve had conversations with the UKU on how to move forward, as well as with the ShowGame on how to best share our story. The latter also tried to reach out to find out more about the investigation and their decision to bar us from playing, but they were still unwilling to engage.

We’re not sure exactly what we want to come from sharing our story and in all honesty, we’ve put a lot of thought into whether or not we would make these experiences public. Yindoors is a fun tournament run by volunteers and we really appreciate everything that TDs do to provide us with opportunities to play, however, we did strongly feel like we couldn’t let this be swept under the rug. We’re lucky enough to have a platform in this community and plenty of chances to play, but we want to make sure other women feel comfortable enough to stand up for themselves in the face of inequality without fear of it resulting in them losing out on further playing opportunities.

In sharing this, we hope that all TDs will look closer at the gender equity of their tournaments and that male players look out for opportunities to support their female peers. We’re also offering our support for women in Ultimate who experience something similar. You are not in this alone. While we have not found a resolution and we’re sad to not be attending the tournament with our male friends this year, we are more than happy to speak to young female players who may be worried about standing up to any inequality they’re facing.

We can do better. Let’s keep pushing.