“Hannah” Mouncey, who was formerly known as Callum Mouncey, recently wrote an essay complaining about being left behind when the women’s team to which he belongs went to the IHF Handball World Championships in Japan without him.
“I can confirm that, yes, I was left out of the team for the World Championships because there was a group of players within the team, supported by the team manager, who did not want me showering or using the change rooms before or after the game,” Mouncey wrote in Australia’s Star Observer LGBT newspaper.
“This was in turn the sole reason given to me by our coach for my non-selection.”
The 6-foot-2, 220 pounder made it clear that he believes he has the right to change and shower with his female teammates and that this has led to discord in the group.
“I later had it confirmed by someone else within Handball Australia who had done some digging that: ‘From everything I’ve been told, you’ve basically not been picked because you’re not liked,’” he wrote.
“And the reason I’m not liked is because I told our manager, and by extension those players, exactly where he and they could go in trying to tell me where I could change and shower.”
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Mouncey actually played on the Australian national men’s handball teams from 2012 to 2016, but noted in her essay that he felt his inclusion in the women’s championships would have been a victory for people who identify as “transgender.”
“I cannot lie — it would have been terrific to have been able to provide the trans community with a visible symbol of the fact that progress is being made towards greater acceptance, but if society is not at that stage then so be it,” he wrote.
“That time will come, and it is only because we shine a light on these situations and use our own negative experiences to give others strength, that we will eventually make the progress we as a community wish would happen today.”
“Yes, I would be playing in a World Championship right now if I had given in and accepted the quite frankly ludicrous requests made by the team manager both on his own behalf and those players he represented,” Mouncey wrote.
“Yes, I could stay quiet about this and not speak, so no one knew what happened — and I would probably be much more liked by those in the team as a result,” he continued.
“In fact, in doing this, I expect I will absolutely not be welcome back within the national team at all. But really, given what’s just happened, do you really think I would want to be? No. Of course not.”
Kerralie Smith, a spokeswoman for Binary Australia, stood firmly on the side of the female athletes who have objected to Mouncey sharing their private space.
“What a great example the women in this team, supported by their manager, have been,” Smith said via Binary’s webpage.
“These women have every right to expect female-only areas to shower and change. They are brave, and they are right, to exclude males from their private spaces,” she continued.
“These women should be upheld as role models for female athletes everywhere.”
