Smith is a spokeswoman with Binary Australia, a campaign group dedicated to advocating for single-sex sports in Australia. Smith has argued against the inclusion of male athletes in women’s sports as a result of gender identity policies. In 2024, she launched a letter-writing campaign encouraging concerned individuals to contact Football New South Wales after it was reported that a trans-identified male on a women’s football team had caused injuries to multiple female players.
The male player, Riley Dennis, lodged an AVO against Smith, and is one of five trans-identified male athletes participating on the “inclusive” Premier League women’s team, The Flying Bats Football Club. The Flying Bats, a football club for “self-identified women and non-binary people,” has drawn significant criticism, leading to increased security and prohibitions against filming at matches. During the 2024 season of the North West Sydney Football Women’s Premier Competition, The Flying Bats won all 17 games and scored 76 goals while only a total of 8 points were scored against them.
During court proceedings on Monday, Smith was asked if she would refer to Dennis with feminine pronouns, according to women’s rights activist Sall Grover, who attended the hearing. When Smith responded that she would not refer to Dennis as a woman, she was asked if she felt that her position was “mean,” to which Smith replied that she was making a fact-based statement in calling Dennis a man.
Dennis, for his part, claimed that he believed that Smith had “outed” him as being male. However, Dennis has been known as a trans activist for nearly a decade, as noted by Grover, and had additionally declared to The Flying Bats team that he identified as transgender.
Last year, Reduxx learned that Dennis had injured female athletes on opposing teams on more than one occasion. Before transferring to The Flying Bats FC, Dennis was previously accused of severely injuring women while participating in matches for the New South Wales Inter Lions.
On May 21, 2023, during a game between the Inter Lions and the St. George football clubs at the Majors Bay Reserve, Dennis launched his smaller female opponent towards a metal fence using an aggressive tackle as the two chased down the ball.
Reduxx was provided footage of the match, which showed the female player laying on her side, unmoving, as the transgender player casually walked away.
The month prior, Dennis was said to have injured another female player, who reportedly had to seek hospital attention as a result of her injury.
