USA Powerlifting will now be forced to allow transgender athletes to compete in the women’s division after losing a multi-year discrimination lawsuit brought by a trans lifter.
JayCee Cooper, a transgender woman, first filed a complaint with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights in 2019, saying the organization banned her from attending as a woman.
In 2021, Cooper filed an official lawsuit against USA Powerlifting in state court, accusing the organization of discrimination.
This week the organization was asked to do so “Rescue and desist from all unfair discriminatory practices” related to sexual orientation and gender identity, according to a court ruling. USA Powerlifting now has two weeks to reverse its previous policy.
“The harm is in pretending a person is something else, with the implied message being that they are less than they are. That is the very essence of separation and segregation, and that is what the MHRA prohibits,” the ruling government said.
This is JayCee Cooper, the transgender athlete who recently won her discrimination case against USA Powerlifting
USA Powerlifting President Larry Maile said in a statement the organization is evaluating its legal options, including an appeal
USA Powerlifting has already expressed an interest in appealing Monday’s decision.
President Larry Maile told KARE in Minneapolis his organization disagreed with the court’s decision and would review its options.
“We have received a summary decision from the court finding that we are liable for discrimination. We respectfully disagree with the Court’s conclusions. We are considering all our options, including an appeal,” Maile said.
“Our position aims to balance the needs of cis and transgender women, whose abilities differ significantly in pure strength training,” Maile continued.
Cooper’s lawsuit was filed alongside Gender Justice – a Minnesota-based advocacy group – in January 2021 after she said she was sick of how she and other trans athletes were being treated.
“I was fed up with the way I was treated; I was sick of how my community was being treated and enough was enough,” Cooper told KARE-TV.
She described her relief to the Minnesota TV station after a court ruled in her favour.
“I’m mostly feeling relieved,” Cooper said after Monday’s decision. “I think we needed a win here and it feels good to get that.”
“I was fed up with the way I was treated; I was sick of how my community was being treated and enough was enough,” Cooper told KARE-TV
“We have received a summary decision from the court finding that we are liable for discrimination. We respectfully disagree with the Court’s conclusions. We are considering all our options, including an appeal,” Maile (centre) said.
“I’m mostly feeling relieved,” Cooper said after Monday’s decision. “I think we needed a win here and it feels good to get it”
“Our position aims to balance the needs of cis and transgender women, whose abilities differ significantly in pure strength training,” Maile continued
Despite her win, Cooper says she has “complex feelings” about the sport after years of fighting.
“After years of discrimination by US powerlifting and the resulting backlash, I naturally have complex feelings about the sport,” Cooper said.
“But I think that this win – [it] is a representation of where we can move forward,” she continued in her interview with KARE-TV.
In the United States, the conversation of transgender athletes in women’s sports has become a hotly debated topic.
Just last month, an appeals court reintroduced a challenge to Connecticut’s transgender athlete policy, which allows trans girls to compete in women’s high school sports.
This verdict contradicted a decision by a three-person panel.
In the US, 18 states have passed laws banning transgender women or girls from playing sports.
Proponents of the bans argue that transgender women — people who are biologically born male and then become women — have an unfair advantage.
Cooper says she has “complex feelings” about the sport after years of fighting
“After years of discrimination by US powerlifting and the resulting backlash, I naturally have complex feelings about the sport,” Cooper said
In 2022, Louisiana became the eighteenth state to enact a ban on transgender athletes.
The law was signed into law after Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards failed to veto or sign the law.
The law requires schools to ‘Designation of intercollegiate and interscholastic sports teams according to the biological sex of the team members.’
Those opposed to bans on transgender athletes argue that the bans are a way to humiliate and ostracize transgender athletes who “do not fit into culturally accepted notions of femininity.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11823135/USA-Powerlifting-allow-trans-athletes-womens-division-losing-discrimination-case.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490 USA Powerlifting WILL allow trans athletes in women’s division after losing discrimination case
