Chloie Johnsson, a personal trainer, wants to
compete in the CrossFit
Games, an effort by the de-centralized fitness company founded
by libertarian Greg Glassman to find “the Fittest on Earth.”
Johnsson is transgender and had full sexual reassignment surgery
eight years ago. She wanted to compete as a woman. She was told by
CrossFit that she would have to compete with the men, and now she’s
filing a $2.5 million lawsuit. CNN notes:
Chloie Jonsson, a personal trainer, charges the CrossFit company
with discrimination, intentional infliction of emotional distress
and unfair competition in a lawsuit filed Thursday in Santa Cruz,
California.While her lawyer calls it a case of discrimination against
transgender people, CrossFit’s lawyer calls it protecting the
competition. …According to the lawsuit, Jonsson has identified herself as a
female since her teenage years and is legally recognized by
California as a woman. She had sexual reassignment surgery in 2006
and has been on female hormone therapy, according to her
lawsuit.The lawsuit alleges that a CrossFit teammate of Jonsson’s sent
an anonymous e-mail to the games organizers asking about
transgender athletes in the competition. CrossFit determined that
competitors in the event had to compete in the gender of their
birth.
The story went around the media with some cherry-picked comments
from the letters involved. Dale Saran, CrossFit’s general counsel,
has posted links on
CrossFit’s forums to the full letter sent to CrossFit by
Jonnson’s lawyer and his full response to put it all in context.
Her letter can be read
here and his response
here.
In short, even though freedom-friendly CrossFit supports
Jonnson’s right to identify herself as a woman and live her life as
she chooses, Saran argues, “The fundamental, ineluctable fact is
that a male competitor who has a sex reassignment procedure
still has a genetic makeup that confers a physical and
physiological advantage over women.”
Jonsson’s lawyer told CNN that advantage doesn’t exist
anymore:
“(Jonsson) doesn’t have an advantage over other women. She’s
been on estrogen for such a long time,” he said about his
client.Hormone replacement therapy for transgender women includes
anti-androgen therapy, which nullifies the effects of testosterone
to reduce the masculine features of the body. Therapies can also
consist of the hormones, estrogen and progesterone to feminize the
body.
Saran commented further about their decision on CrossFit’s
forums (while also taking a dim view about being lectured about
discrimination by her lawyer while at the same time being
threatened with legal action):
We’re faced with the Hobson’s choice of picking one “bin” (male)
and now being told that Ms. Jonnson needs 2.5 million dollars for
the “harm” of not being put into the category of her choosing – and
having that characterized as a “civil right” violation – OR
choosing “female” and having other female athlete’s complain that
they have to compete against someone who had the benefit of growing
up with a cascade of hormonal advantages well into adulthood.
Below, ReasonTV’s interview with CrossFit founder Glassman:
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