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Apparently Chloie Jonsson is suing CrossFit over discrimination for not letting her compete as a woman. Chloie was reportedly born male and apparently underwent transgender surgery in 2006 to be a phenotypic female (look like a woman). By report, she asserted she has been ‘legally’ recognized as a female in the state of California and is suing CF for $2.5 million in the discrimination lawsuit. At 5’4 151 lbs she has apparently been an accomplished ‘female’ crossfitter. I don’t know all the details of Chloie’s life, genetics, struggles, goals or aspirations, and even if I did, I’m no one to judge ‘her.’
CrossFit welcomes transgender participants but has opined that contestants need to compete in the gender they were born as, regardless of what they’ve done to their bodies since. Facebook has recently changed it’s gender classifications from male/female to also include transgender male and transgender female. We’ll likely see more about transgender competitors in the years to come.
What do I think? (no one cares, really, but since you asked): Changing the cover of a book doesn’t change the content of the book. Transgender transformation involves more than just surgery, obviously, and includes hormonal changes, drugs, psychology, socialization and adaptive behaviors. That said, the physiology is not entirely transformed, so I agree with CrossFit’s position, as I understand it. If you’re born one gender, that’s your genetic makeup: male is XY chromosome (more or less) and woman is XX (give or take)…and unless you change that, your biology is driven by what you are genetically.
This is not about sexuality or morality, but about biology. Our identity is not just our DNA, our name, our appearance or our clothes. We are complex, identified by our character, behavior, spirit, energy, ideas, achievements, etc. That said, when it comes to physical competitions which are separated by gender, as CrossFIt is…it doesn’t seem fair to the competitors to allow transgender men and women compete against their ‘new’ gender.
As transgender transformation gets more sophisticated, look for DNA testing to be added to drug testing in the future...
See CNN: Transgender athlete sues CrossFit for banning her from competing as female
UPDATE:
Some have made the argument that a transgender woman to man individual is at a physical disadvantage when it comes to competing as a woman. I wonder whether or not it is allowed for a woman (who has reassignment surgery to become a man) to compete as a man while taking testosterone supplements. Testosterone supplements are clearly banned as a performance-enhancing substance. Maybe there are versions or derivatives which are ok. Would it be legal for a transgender woman to man to compete while using testosterone?
The other issue that comes up is appearance. Chloie happens to look most like a woman. What about a transgender man to woman who doesn't have such a "good" result from reassignment surgery and still looks quite masculine? Despite 1-2 yrs of hormone therapy, some transgenders still look I fair bit like their original gender of birth. I wonder how sympathetic people would be to her or to another transgender male to female if the competitor still looked quite "male or masculine"…?
By California law, she's legally a woman. Interesting.
ABC NEWS video update:
ABC Entertainment News | ABC Business News
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Dr. Hyman is a Board Certified Orthopaedic Surgeon and Sports Medicine Expert who concentrates on helping his patients understand their problem and get the results they want. Understanding the problem from the patient's perspective, how it impacts their life, their family, their sports/jobs and goals is his primary concern.
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