FACING FACTS

Science Says Trans Women Have No Competitive Advantage Over Other Female Athletes, Why Won’t CrossFit?

carmen-carrera-crossfitFormer RuPaul’s Drag Race star and current fashion model Carmen Carrera has heard about the transgender CrossFit enthusiast suing over discrimination, and she is not having any of it.

We reported yesterday that Chloie Jonsson, a trans woman, is suing fitness company CrossFit for $2.5 million for “violating her civil rights.” The company is not allowing her to compete in the women’s division at the upcoming CrossFit Games because “she was born with a penis.”

Carrera has ironically enough told the media previously that trans people’s private parts are none of your business, but she talked about it anyway with TMZ this afternoon:

“When you remove your testicles … that is it. You are no longer a male and you don’t produce testosterone,” Carrera says.

“You get weaker … your whole body switches and it starts to reshape.”

Carrera adds, “Put [Chloie] under the test and I bet her [testosterone] levels are the same as the rest of the competitors. Run some tests to make it fair.”

The jury is surprisingly split on the issue — many Queerty commenters believe Chloie has the right to compete as the gender with which she identifies, while a few believe CrossFit is within their rights because Chloie’s genetic makeup has been argued to be “inherently different” than other women.

As Queerty commenter Thedrdonna pointed out yesterday, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) clearly states in their handbook for the Inclusion of Transgender Student Athletes that this assumption is “not supported by evidence”:

It is also important to know that any strength and endurance advantages a transgender woman arguably may have as a result of her prior testosterone levels dissipate after about one year of estrogen or testosterone-suppression therapy. According to medical experts on this issue, the assumption that a transgender woman competing on a women’s team would have a competitive advantage outside the range of performance and competitive advantage or disadvantage that already exists among female athletes is not supported by evidence.

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