EVERYONE: SIGN THE PETITION HERE
Originally published Thursday, January 31. Updated on Friday, February 1, 12noon to correctly explain USPA transgender athlete policies and add a link to an additional petition.
I am often asked what drew me into working with queer and trans clients. I’m an ally – a cisgender heterosexual white woman – and people ask me about it ALL THE TIME, as if fighting for equality isn’t something that I should be concerned with???
The question legitimately confuses me – uh, I help humans get stronger… ANY human who wants to work with me. If you respect me and our team rules (pretty easy – work hard and respect others), then we have a place for you. Pretty soon I realized how many other coaches and organizations are not sensitive to or even well-educated about helping athletes with the mental as well as physical challenges of strength training.
I was raised in a very conservative, misogynist town and was regularly told to “be a lady” or that I was “strong for a girl”. Pretty soon I knew I had to escape that town because I wouldn’t thrive there. So I studied my ass off and earned a partial scholarship to go away to college.
I’ve been discriminated against and disrespected by males in the gym, including my own coaches (2 different men).
Once I asked my trainer to grab a video of me squatting. “Don’t you want to make sure the girls are out there?,” he asked me as he gestured toward my chest. It was not a technique note. He encouraged me to show more cleavage for the photo.
Another time, while hanging with my old team after training, I was talking about my stomach being upset during a recent training session (I HAD GAS OKAY!).
My coach quickly asked me to change the subject because “women don’t poop or fart.”
It is unacceptable for a professional in the world of strength, where exercise science is used on a DAILY basis, to be so uncomfortable discussing basic human biology of half the population.
Yet people like this continue to make a living in this industry despite being incapable of gender agnostic teaching.
Last year I made the decision to leave USA Powerlifting. I had several frustrating experiences as an athlete, coach, volunteer and meet director with the organization. The local USAPL community just wasn’t the right place for me anymore, so I withdrew the sanction application I’d recently submitted to run another USAPL meet. My membership expired earlier this month, as did the Team Lis Smash status as a USAPL team.
I will compete for the first time with the USPA in March, in their Drug-Tested Georgia Open event.
***UPDATE*** – since original publication of this post I’ve been educated more clearly on USPA policy. They are welcoming to transgender athletes ONLY in the non-tested division, so the federation has a similar issue to the USAPL. I am contacting USPA leadership this week to open conversations with them about including trans athletes in all divisions of competition.
The fight for transgender athletes to compete is a fight for equality FOR. EVERY. HUMAN.
The USAPL…
- whose leaders speak regularly about their hope that the sport of powerlifting will be added to the Olympic Games
- whose bylaws regularly reflect those of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), so that they could easily be ready for Olympic competition if given the opportunity
- who is a member organization of the International Powerlifting Federation, whose members’ national teams would eventually become the Olympic teams
… is unwilling to adopt the IOC’s policy allowing transgender athletes to compete.
I stand with JayCee Cooper, with Davi Cohen and Athlete Ally, Women’s Strength Coalition and the OUT Foundation, in the fight for transgender athletes to be granted full access to the sport of powerlifting.
And I hope that you will stand with us. If you are associated with the USAPL and you agree, please add your name to the petition here. If you are a member of the general public & wish to show support, please add your name here: www.athleteally.org/actions.
USAPL MEMBERS, COACHES, REFEREES, VOLUNTEERS: PLEASE SIGN HERE.
GENERAL PUBLIC: SIGN THE PETITION HERE
Thank you,
