This week English rugby's governing body backflipped on their previous stance and recommended transgender women should not be allowed to play in the country, in line with World Rugby's 2020 ban, citing safety and fairness as key concerns.

In response, Rugby Australia have defended their policy allowing transgender women to play in community competitions. But as world sporting bodies continue to navigate the complex debate, it appears the issue is far from over.

Williams is openly gay, a vocal advocate of the LGBTQ+ community, and is an AIS Thrive With Pride ambassador.

She said it was at the Olympics that she realised how important it was for her to have a louder voice for her "rainbow people", and in the final countdown to the Commonwealth Games, she is speaking up for transgender women.

The 34-year-old believes it is impossible for rugby's governing bodies around the world to accurately address the transgender subject within the sport unless those threatened to be excluded are a larger part of the discussion.

"We need to get our trans people in to help make those decisions, because we're not living that life," she said. "How can we make those calls?

"Yes science says a female and male - we get that. But there's also the mental side of it - what about suicide? We lose so many people to suicide, and how many people out there that are trans actually want to play at an international level? Let's be honest, they might only want to play community sport.

"I'm hopeful that we can collaborate together and get some transgender people out here being the voice.

"It's obviously really hard for them, but to be able to create policies that they feel included in, not just policies that are putting a stamp on it and saying you have to be this way... like, where's the human rights there? Where is the freedom of speech?

"At least consult them and find out what they need, rather than just excluding them from the whole policy and going, 'This is how it's going to be'."

Williams hopes that with time the controversy around transgender women in rugby will fade in the same way negative stereotypes about lesbians in sport have become a thing of the past.

"We're not affecting people, we're not hurting people - all we're doing is going out there living our life to the fullest as who we are. I want that for everybody," Williams said.

"I want people to be anyone they want to be, and realise that society and stereotypes don't have to determine that for you. As a society we have a responsibility to showcase that it's okay and it's normal. I want to normalise it.

"When lesbians started playing in sport, everyone was like, 'Oh, don't play that sport, because you'll turn into a lesbian'.

"Let's have allies, straight people, let's see your advocacy for our people.

"Whatever that looks like, we need visibility to be able to move forward, because there's always going to be a choice. You can choose to be positive, or choose to be negative about it."

Throughout her career Williams has seen the evolution and growth of women's sport, and knows better than most how long its taken to get to where they are now - even though in some areas it is still not a level playing field compared to men's sport.

However the former Brumby and Canberra Royals star is also sensitive to the experiences of transgender women in sport.

"I'm not educated around the trans space enough and I feel like we all need to be better educated," she said.

"Yes, we need to protect community sport, and I've advocated for women to play rugby for so long, and work so hard for women to be up there getting paid professionally.

"So I understand the threat felt from some other women that, 'They're going to come in and take all the money when they were a guy', and this and that. That's the education piece that we're not across.

"They don't see themselves as a guy, they see themselves as a woman. We need to be accepting of it.

"I can stand there for my rainbow people and say, 'Yeah, I've got your back'. But I need you to come in and speak about it because that's your story, that's how you're feeling and you need to get that across to other people."

At the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham the Australian women's sevens team are out to better their silver medal finish behind rivals New Zealand on the Gold Coast, and Williams plans to have a greater role after she suffered an injury early in their last campaign.

"It's my second time making a Commonwealth Games team, but this time hopefully the plan goes better than last time receiving an injury in the second game," she said. "We're really ready to go out onto the world stage and show what we're about."

As a senior member in a team full of fresh faces with nine Commonwealth Games debutants, Williams said the competition within the squad is the best its ever been, but she isn't falling behind her younger counterparts. In fact, she's in the best shape of her career.

"We've just done some national testing and I've tested really well with four PBs [personal bests] and 18 on the yo-yo [beep test], which was a pretty amazing effort," Williams said.

"It's somewhere I've never been before. We talk about my age that it's getting up there, but my fitness is going up as well. It's crazy to think people put limits on themselves, and they say after 30 you should think about hanging the boots up, because at the moment I'm putting my best foot forward to be picked in these teams."

The squad also had the opportunity to fine-tune their training preparation for the Commonwealth Games with sessions alongside Wallabies based in Sydney.

"In June we joined a couple of the Wallabies boys in training before they went into camp," Williams said. "We had Andrew Kellaway, James O'Connor, and even Michael Hooper come out and we went through some of their drills and then they did some sevens drills.

"It's pretty cool when you've got a Wallaby next to you going, 'I don't know how you do it, it's so much running'."

With retirement far from consideration at this point in her career, Williams said she will also put her hand up for the Rugby Sevens World Cup in September and Women's Rugby World Cup in October too.

The women's sevens team begin their quest for Commonwealth Games gold on July 29 in Coventry, with the final on July 31.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: