Cathy Devine is a British independent researcher, sex segregationist, and anti-transgender activist. Devine is a notable opponent of policies accommodating trans athletes in sex-segregated competitive sports.
Background
Cathy Devine was born in March 1960. Devine’s personal website says, “I have a B.Sc. Zoology from University College London and an M.Sc. Nutrition from Queen Elizabeth College London, now King’s College London.” From 1995 to 2017, Devine was a lecturer at University of Cumbria.
In a 2024 brief submitted to the US Supreme Court, Devine’s biography states:
Cathy Devine is an independent researcher and expert in sport policy, equality, and human rights for girls and women. She was formerly Senior Lecturer for 23 years at the University of Cumbria, UK and is the former Secretary of the British Philosophy of Sport Association. Ms. Devine is a frequent author of articles on human rights and sport and is the lead author of the Canadian High Performance Athlete Project for Sport Canada. She has insight into how claims regarding international human rights standards should be assessed.
Anti-transgender activism
Devine is a Director of anti-trans group Woman’s Place UK and is an independent sport policy researcher for anti-trans group Sex Matters.
In another brief submitted by the andti-trans group Intenderational Consortium on Female Sport (ICFS), Devine is listed with other anti-trans asctivists focused on sports: “ICFS members and supporters who have specifically signed off on this brief include: Save Women’s Sport Australasia (Australia & New Zealand); Fair Play for Women United Kingdom; Save Women’s Sports, Spain; La Rueda Rosa, Mexico; Canadian Women’s Sex-Based Rights, Linda Blade, PhD; Sharron Davies MBE; Cathy Devine, MSc, Fiona McAnena; and Ro Edge.” In the brief, Devine states:
“Gender identity is not explicitly protected in the UN human rights infrastructure, there is no duty under UN protocols to pass legislation on ‘selfidentification’ for gender identity and the concept of gender identity has no treaty recognition in international law.8 Individual human rights experts have differing views regarding the relative importance to be given to ‘sex’ and ‘gender identity’ and should not be considered to be experts outside their particular area of expertise. “It is important to understand that some international ‘human rights organisations’ have departed from the UN Core Human Rights Instruments and elevate emerging/contested rights based on ‘gender identity’ above established rights based on ‘sex.’9
In 2023, Devine contributed a chapter titled “Sex, Gender Identity and Sport” to the anti-trans book Sex and Gender: A Contemporary Reader. In October of that year, book contributors Shereen Benjamin, Cathy Devine, Lisa Mackenzie, Alice Sullivan, and Selina Todd spoke at a launch event at the University of Edinburgh amid protests.
Selected anti-trans writings
Devine, Cathy (2023). Sex, Gender Identity and Sport. In Sullivan, Alice; Todd, Selina [Eds.] (2023). Sex and Gender: A Contemporary Reader. Taylor & Francis, ISBN 9781032261195
Devine C (2021). Female Olympians’ voices: Female sports categories and International Olympic Committee Transgender guidelines. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 57(3), 335-361. https://doi.org/10.1177/10126902211021559
Devine, C. (2021). Female Sports Participation, Gender Identity and the British 2010 Equality Act. Sport, Ethics and Philosophy, 16(4), 503–525. https://doi.org/10.1080/17511321.2021.1993982
Devine C (2017). Sex, sport and money: voice, choice and distributive justice in England, Scotland and Wales. Sport, Education and Society, 23 (9). pp. 824-839. https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2016.1275542 PDF: https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/2540/1/Devine_SexSportAndMoney.pdf
Devine C (2015). Sex, sport and justice: reframing the ‘who’ of citizenship and the ‘what’ of justice in European and UK sport policy. Sport Education and Society, 21 (8). pp. 1193-1212. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2015.1004166
Media
FiLiA (Feb 28, 2022). #170 Cathy Devine on Human Rights of Girls & Women in Sport. https://www.filia.org.uk/latest-news/2022/2/28/cathy-devine-on-human-rights-of-girls-amp-women-in-sport
Resources
Sex Matters (ex-matters.org)
- Cathy Devine
- sex-matters.org/about-us/advisory-group/cathy-devine/
X/Twitter (x.com)
Cathy Devine (athydevine.wixsite.com/researcher)
LinkedIn (linkedin.com)