JayCee Cooper, a 33-year-old trans woman from Minneapolis, is suing USA Powerlifting with the assistance of Gender Justice, a Minnesota-based organisation which advocates for equality, after she was banned from competing in state championships. According to Fox News, USA Powerlifting prohibited Cooper from competing in the Minnesota State Bench Press Championships in 2019 due to her gender identity and subsequently revoked her competition card, making her ineligible to compete in future powerlifting events.
Cooper filed a charge of discrimination against USA Powerlifting in 2019, but Gender Justice only recently filed a lawsuit against the sporting organisation on the basis it was violating the Minnesota Human Rights Act. Erin Maye-Quade, a former Minnesota lawmaker and current advocacy director for Gender Justice, said USA Powerlifting’s current policies surrounding trans athletes are “creating problems where there are none.” They continued: “Enacting transphobic policies in athletics not only harms trans athletes and moves us in the wrong direction, it hurts women’s sports as a whole by distracting us from the very real actual threats to women’s sports: racism, pay inequity, sexual abuse and the lack of athletic opportunity in schools just to name a few.”
When discussing the situation during a recent press conference, Cooper said: “I was gutted [when banned from competing]. I had been training for months. Up until that point, I had experienced so much love and community around the sport, so it was very disappointing to see that I had no more access forward.” She hopes being open about her experience and taking legal action will help other trans athletes: “I don’t want anyone to experience what I and other trans athletes have and continue to experience, having our basic human dignity questioned and opportunities denied because we are trans. We all benefit when sports are as inclusive as possible.”
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