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Verity “Vez” Smith is a rugby player and LGBT+ rights activist based in the United Kingdom. He has served as diversity and inclusion lead for International Gay Rugby, and previously played rugby union for Rotherham Phoenix and rugby league for Dewsbury Moor.[1]

Biography

Originally from Hull, Smith played a variety of sports in his youth, including association football, ice hockey, and Thai boxing.[2][3] He began playing rugby at the age of 11, after his grandparents took him to see a Hull Vixens match. After proving talented at the sport, he obtained permission to play for the Hull Ladies senior side as a teenager, eventually being picked to represent North East of England.[4]

Smith was diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome, went through the menopause at 19, and had a hysterectomy at 22. These medical issues prevented him from progressing to playing Premiership rugby.[4]

As a teenager, Smith identified as a “butch lesbian.”[4] In 2016, he came out as a transgender man, and continued to play rugby during his transition for Rotherham Phoenix.[5] He was crowned Rhino Prop Star 2018 in a public vote.[6][7]

Smith has spoken about facing transphobia while playing rugby, including having blood spat in his mouth by opposing team players and having match officials mock him.[8][9][10] In October 2019, he filed a complaint with the Independent Press Standards Organisation after The Sunday Times used a photo of him to illustrate an article suggesting that trans women posed a danger in rugby. The newspaper later replaced the photo and issued a statement saying that the use of the photo had been “inappropriate and misleading in terms of both his gender and his views.”[11]

In 2019, Smith suffered a severe spinal injury after being tackled by a female player. After recovering from the injury, he played wheelchair rugby league with the Leeds Rhinos in the UK Super League.[12][13][14]

In February 2020, Smith attended a forum held by World Rugby as a representative of International Gay Rugby to discuss its transgender participation guidelines. At the forum, Smith was the only transgender rugby player in attendance and was not given the opportunity to present testimony. Later that year, World Rugby announced a controversial change in its guidelines that would effectively ban trans women from playing in women’s competitions.[15][16] Smith condemned the ban, saying that it was “about policing female bodies,” and that the research presented in the forum had been performed entirely on cisgender athletes “with an assumption that trans women fall under the category of cis elite males,” meaning that there was “no research on trans women within the rugby environment.”[17][18][19]

In 2021, Smith began working for the charity Mermaids as a Trans Inclusion in Sports Youth Worker.[3][13][20] He was nominated for the Positive Role Model Award (LGBT) at Britain’s National Diversity Awards 2021.[20]

In March 2023, Smith was interviewed as a guest on Jonathan Van Ness‘ podcast Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness.[21]

In 2024, Smith featured on the cover of the book Transgender and Non-Binary People in Everyday Sport A Trans Feminist Approach to Improving Inclusion (2024) by Abby Barras.[22]

References

  1. ^ “BBC Local Radio – the LGBT Sport Podcast, the One with Verity Smith”. 29 November 2018. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
  2. ^ Beddows, David (2 December 2018). “Worth fighting for: The sporting story of trans-male rugby player Verity Smith”. Rotherham Advertiser. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
  3. ^ a b “Trans Inclusion in Sport: Verity’s Story”. Mermaids. 17 September 2020. Retrieved 16 June 2026.
  4. ^ a b c Mead, Alex (31 March 2020). “Verity ‘Vez’ Smith”. The Rugby Journal. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
  5. ^ “Transgender rugby player speaks out to encourage others to take up sport”. ITV Yorkshire. 27 November 2018. Retrieved 16 June 2026.
  6. ^ “Transgender prop hero wins Rhino Prop Star”. Rhino Direct. 10 December 2018. Retrieved 16 June 2026.
  7. ^ “Verity Smith is Prop Star of the Year”. Rotherham Advertiser. 7 December 2018. Retrieved 16 June 2026.
  8. ^ “Verity ‘Vez’ Smith”. Rugby Journal. Retrieved 16 June 2026.
  9. ^ Lewis, Aimee (6 August 2018). “Transgender rugby player: ‘I’ve had blood spat in my mouth’“. CNN. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
  10. ^ Grove, Alex (29 August 2018). “Transgender man’s horror as rival spits blood in his mouth”. Hull Live. Retrieved 16 June 2026.
  11. ^ Duffy, Nick (1 October 2019). “Trans man accuses The Sunday Times of ‘witch hunt’ after using his photo for story about trans women playing rugby”. PinkNews. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
  12. ^ Thompson, Becky (8 September 2020). “Wheelchair rugby gave Verity Smith a new lease on life”. Sports Gazette. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
  13. ^ a b Osiyemi, Feyi (2 August 2021). “In Conversation with Verity Smith”. The Equal Group Blogs. Retrieved 16 June 2026.
  14. ^ “Verity Smith”. Leeds Rhinos Foundation. Retrieved 16 June 2026.
  15. ^ Ennis, Dawn (29 December 2020). “This man was the only trans rugby player in the room where it happened: A forum to ban trans women athletes”. OutSports. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
  16. ^ Brassil, Gillian R.; Longman, Jeré (26 October 2020). “World Rugby Bars Transgender Women, Baffling Players”. The New York Times. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
  17. ^ Kelleher, Patrick (28 October 2020). “Trans rugby player Verity Smith claims World Rugby ban is about ‘policing women’s bodies’“. PinkNews. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
  18. ^ “Verity Smith: There will be a domino effect on trans exclusion”. Sky Sports. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
  19. ^ “Trans Awareness Week: Verity Smith on inclusion in sport”. 18 November 2020. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
  20. ^ a b Jackson, Kyle (11 May 2021). “Trans activist and rugby player Verity Smith nominated for National Diversity Award”. Bear World Magazine. Retrieved 16 June 2026.
  21. ^ “GETTING CURIOUS | Who Wins When Everyone Plays? with Verity Smith – Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness”. Jonathan Van Ness. 1 March 2023. Retrieved 16 June 2026.
  22. ^ “Verity Smith chats to Abby Barras about the 2025 Women’s World Rugby Cup”. Centre for Transforming Sexuality and Gender, University of Brighton. Retrieved 16 June 2026.