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trans-advice · 5 years

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April 28, 2019, 3:11 AM CDT By Alex Berg

The first time JayCee Cooper walked out onto the platform at a women’s powerlifting competition, everything else fell away: her years-long internal struggle over her gender identity, her decision to leave men’s sports when she began transitioning, her doubts that she would ever feel safe if she returned to competitions.

When she stepped out in front of a hundred people in the gym in Fort Collins, Colorado, last September, all she focused on was the barbell, which she hoisted off the ground. And then she heard the cheers of the crowd: “Come on JayCee!” She had found not only a sport, but also a home.

“In a world that wants to take away our power and strength,” Cooper, 31, said recently by phone from her home in Minneapolis, “powerlifting is a way to gain that strength back and feel powerful and feel ownership of our own lives. It helps us find strength within ourselves and helps us find strength within our bodies.”

Cooper signed up for more competitions, but, to her astonishment, USA Powerlifting, the sport’s biggest federation, told her that she could not compete in the women’s division because of her gender identity.

In an email, USA Powerlifting said she was denied because she had a “direct competitive advantage” over the other women who were competing.

“It took me aback,” Cooper said. “I didn’t want to put myself into a situation where I obviously wasn’t welcome.”

Cooper’s story received national attention after she posted about it on Instagram in January. She drew support from fellow powerlifters and Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., who slammed the ban on transgender women competitors as “discriminatory” and “unscientific.”

It was just the latest in a growing number of battles over the place of transgender women athletes in competitive sports.

As transgender women have become more visible and sought to participate in women’s sports, athletic organizing bodies have grappled with how to respond, and critics of their inclusion have grown increasingly vocal, as well.

In March, tennis legend Martina Navratilova apologized for calling trans women “cheats” in a Sunday Times op-ed in which she wrote that “letting men compete as women simply if they change their name and take hormones is unfair.” Weeks later, marathoner Paula Radcliffe told BBC Sport that it would be “naive” not to institute rules. In an interview with Sky News in April, Radcliffe said that if trans people were permitted to compete without regulations, it would be “the death of women’s sport.”

For transgender people watching this issue play out, the debate — often based more in bias and assumptions than in science — is dehumanizing. Those who seek to exclude transgender women from sports sometimes imply that the athletes are adopting their identity to gain an edge in competition, a suggestion many find offensive.

“They don’t understand what it means to be a trans person,” Chris Mosier, a competitive runner and cycler and the first known transgender athlete to make a men’s U.S. national team, said.

“The folks who are improperly reporting on this are making it seem like cis men are pretending to be women to dominate sports,” he added, referring to people who are assigned male at birth and identify as men. “I can say that the amount of discrimination, harassment and challenges trans people face in their everyday lives would never be offset by glory.”

‘IT’S BEEN A ROLLER-COASTER’

Before becoming a powerlifter, Cooper lifted weights as part of her training for other sports. As a teenager growing up in Clarkston, Michigan, she was on the U.S. junior national curling team, competed in track and field in high school and rowed in college.

But she never felt fully comfortable on those all-boys teams.

“It’s been a roller-coaster,” Cooper said. “One of the reasons I stepped away from curling was that I wasn’t being my authentic self, and I was super depressed, and I needed some time away to figure out what that meant for me.”

Four years ago, she began hormone replacement therapy as part of her transition. She now identifies as transfeminine, which she sees as a more expansive identity than simply female.

Cooper first came across powerlifting in high school, but didn’t decide to compete until last year while recuperating from a broken ankle, and she was struck by the sport’s simplicity and supportive atmosphere. In powerlifting, athletes are divided into categories by sex, age and weight, and they compete in three types of lifts: squat, bench press and deadlift. Each movement is a test of static strength, force and focus.

“The barbell for me has been a very empowering way to be in my body, which is politicized every waking second, connect with it, and feel like I’m achieving something,” Cooper said.

“It’s a very almost spiritual feeling in the sense that I’m carrying all of this trauma with me and I’m literally focusing all of that into the barbell. In that moment, I get to control what’s going on.”

To lower her testosterone levels, Cooper takes spironolactone, a drug that is also used to treat high blood pressure and can mask steroid use.

USA Powerlifting, which follows rules set by the World Anti-Doping Agency, requires athletes to apply for an exemption to compete while taking the drug. The group has granted exemptions to powerlifters who have taken spironolactone to treat acne or polycystic ovary syndrome, Larry Maile, USA Powerlifting’s president, said.

As part of her medication exemption application, Cooper provided documentation that her testosterone levels have remained under the International Olympic Committee’s accepted limit for two years. (USA Powerlifting falls under the International Powerlifting Federation, which adopted the IOC’s guidelines that allow transgender women to compete in women’s divisions provided their testosterone is below 10 nmol/L for at least 12 months.)

But in December, Cooper’s exemption request was denied. She was told she could not compete in the women’s division of powerlifting because she had a “competitive advantage” as a transgender woman, according to an email exchange obtained by NBC News between Cooper and Dr. Kristopher Hunt, the chair of USA Powerlifting’s committee that reviews applications for medical exemptions.

"Male-to-female transgenders are not allowed to compete as females in our static strength sport as it is a direct competitive advantage,” Hunt said in one email to Cooper.

Pressed for clarification, he wrote a follow-up. “The fact that transgender male to female individuals having gone through male puberty confer an unfair competitive advantage over non-transgender females,” he said.

In a phone interview, Maile defended the decision and said the organization’s policy of barring transgender women — as well as transgender men who take testosterone — was not new, though it was not posted on USA Powerlifting’s website until this winter after Cooper applied for the exemption. Maile said that the IOC’s guidelines ultimately give organizations the discretion to make their own decisions about fair play. To reach the decision, he said USA Powerlifting researched the physical differences between men and women in terms of muscle density, connective tissue and frame shape.

“We’ve been referred to as bigoted and transphobic and a whole lot of less kind things, but it’s not an issue of that for us,” Maile said. “It’s an issue that we have to consider dispassionately and make our best judgment collectively about what the impact on fair play is for us, and that’s the basis on which we’ve proceeded.”

He added that powerlifting “is really unique, because we’re a high strength and low technique sport” — so the physiology of the competitors is particularly important.

Cooper doesn’t buy that argument, noting that women’s bodies come in all shapes and sizes, which may confer advantages for different sports.

“You look at a WNBA player, they’re pushing 6 feet versus someone doing gymnastics who’s 5 feet tall,” she said. “Their bodies are built completely differently. That’s what sports are about.”

‘THE SCIENCE IS IN ITS INFANCY’

The policies governing transgender athletes vary by sport.

The NCAA has policies similar to the International Olympic Committee and does not require athletes to undergo gender-confirming surgery, while USA Gymnastics does require it under some circumstances, according to research compiled by TransAthlete, a database of professional, recreational, college and K-12 sports’ policies on trans athletes.

Others aim to be more inclusive. USA Hockey, for example, offers options for nonbinary athletes who do not identify as male or female, as well as guidance for trans athletes.

While opponents of inclusion point to the “bigger, faster, stronger” argument as the basis of their fear that transgender women are taking over women’s sports, there are few examples of trans women who’ve excelled at a national or world level, according to Cyd Zeigler, co-founder of OutSports, an outlet that reports on LGBTQ athletes.

The scientific research on transgender athletes is in the early stages, and there is disagreement among experts about how to determine fair rules of competitions.

“There’s no simple or even complex biological test you can apply that tells you who’s a man and who’s a woman,” Roger Pielke Jr., director of the Sports Governance Center at the University of Colorado, said.

In the absence of such a test, testosterone levels are often used as a proxy to determine whether trans women are eligible to compete in women’s leagues. There is evidence that transgender women who are on hormone therapy have lower muscle mass and less aerobic ability than they did before, said Joanna Harper, a scientist who studies gender-diverse athletes and advises the International Olympic Committee. In a 2015 study she published on trans women who are distance runners, Harper, who is a trans woman and runner herself, found that after being on hormone therapy the women were running more than 10 percent slower.

But testosterone is an imperfect metric. Even among cisgender men and women, there is variance in the amount that is considered normal.

To deny Cooper “the right to compete based on ridiculous fear is completely unfounded,” Harper said.

‘TRANS LIFTERS BELONG HERE’

At the Minnesota State Championship in February — a USA Powerlifting meet where Cooper hoped to compete — almost a dozen athletes and 20 people in the audience protested her exclusion, according to Maxwell Poessnecker, a transmasculine-identified lifter from Saint Paul, Minnesota. Flanked by signs and wearing T-shirts that said, “I support trans lifters” and “trans lifters belong here,” the athletes stood on the lifting platform without competing to show their disapproval of the policy, Poessnecker said.

From little leagues to the Olympics, questions over transgender inclusion will continue to surface. Advocates who say concerns about “competitive fairness” are often rooted in gender stereotypes and scientific research is lacking believe policies should be as inclusive as possible.

“It’s hard to call anything model when it requires an individual to be tested and questioned,” said Breanna Diaz, a powerlifter and co-director of Pull for Pride, a charity deadlifting event that benefits homeless LGBTQ youth. If athletes “have a sincerely held gender identity, that should be sufficient,” she said.

Cooper, who co-directs Pull for Pride, hopes to use her experience with powerlifting as a way to drive the conversation about trans athletes.

On May 9, USA Powerlifting’s national governing body will meet to discuss its transgender inclusion policy.

“I really do love this sport,” Cooper said, “and it’s not fair to genetically eliminate an entire group of people.”

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iwasposeidon · 5 years

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He tried to keep his distance, he knew range was his best asset with the limited mobility of his leg. He kept to the aft of the ship where the advantage of higher ground was on his side while he provided cover fire for the rest of the crew. The storm that had loomed menacing in the horizon had turned and was directly above them now. The ship swayed on the waves and he stayed crouched to steady his aim. As the ambushers climbed over the rail and into the Tsunami, it became increasingly difficult to get a clear shot without the danger of hitting one of his crew.

Roza had been right at the front fending of the rival pirates. She was an exceptional fighter and he didn’t have to worry about anything else than keeping the path open for her. But in the instant he spotted the glimmer of steel at her throat his focus zeroed in on her. His lips drew back to a frustrated snarl when she kept on the path of his shot. Move, he begged her in his mind until he could wait no longer and finally took the risk and stood up for a better position. The man behind her stumbled back before finally falling down. He met her eyes for a moment and returned the nod before swiftly moving back into cover just in time to avoid the shots returned at him.

He hissed when he noticed a trail of blood dripping from his forearm but he couldn’t focus on it for long before whipping around. The guy was already close enough that Eli didn’t have time to take the shot before he had pushed the barrel of his gun aside and struck him in the face hard enough that the weapon went flying from his hands.

His bad leg almost buckled under him when he had to balance his weight on in to keep himself upright. The pirate swung a knife at him but only grazed his hip before Eli managed to secure his arm. He didn’t hesitate using the opening to deliver a quick, hard punch straight to the taller guy’s throat.

He left him choking on the ground as he staggered after the weapon that had slipped from his grasp and was sliding dangerously close to the opening under the railing with the sway of the ship. He went to grab the gun but instead his jaw connected with someone’s knee and his world blacked out for a second. There was no time for him to recover before the man’s boot struck into his abdomen and the air was forced out of his lungs.

He wasn’t able to make a sound as two more hard kicks landed to his stomach and side. The guy leaned down towards his face and lifting him up by the collar of his shirt before suddenly he was dropped back down again.

Instinctively he tried to scramble back from the threatening steps way too close to him before he even registered it was Flynn between him and the other pirate. He tried to pull himself up using the railing put recoiled from the pain it caused to his side. The gunshot near him rang through the sound of pouring rain and made him pause as the body of the rival pirate thudded onto the deck.

He watched in stunned silence as Flynn approached him, still struggling to get air properly into his lungs. He accepted the offered hand and finally with the support from Flynn and the handrail behind him, managed to right himself fully. “Thanks,” he said breathlessly even though he doubted the other could even hear him over the rain.

When Flynn’s attention was directed elsewhere, he began inching his way away from danger leaning heavily against the railing. Until-, the railing suddenly gave out from under him and the next thing he knew was the burn of saltwater in his lungs.

He trashed in the water trying to keep his head above the surface but every movement he made, every breath he tried to draw into his lungs send pain coursing through his body. He gulped water and the fit of coughs threatened to sink him for good. Waves crashed over him and panic started to set in as he noticed he had already been carried further away from the ship.

Then suddenly there was a steady press of an arm around his chest and solid body behind him helping him stay afloat. He could hear Cyd’s voice in his ear and relief washed over him as he was able to cease the frantic fight to stay on the surface and focus on getting air into his lungs.

The ship still rocked with the storm once they were finally back on board but the sounds of battle had quieted. Emerson had helped them up and stood vigilant nearby. The last of the attackers were being rounded up and stripped from weapons. He knew he belonged to the medbay but that could wait a moment longer. He laid his back against the deck to calm down and after a moment, directed a tired grin at Cyd, “This finally payback for all those cigarettes you stole from me all those years ago?”

#ambush self-para #Self-Para | Eliah #violence tw #guns tw #injury tw #death tw #blood tw

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cryptidwizard · 7 years

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Frozen

@docterpoison mmmm cyd you know I'm emo about skysolo. THIS TOOK FOREVER IM SO SORRY AJSKDKDKFJFJ I HOPE YOU LIKE IT ITS KINDA A MESS IM REALLY RUSTY

Han can’t quite pinpoint when it first started. At first, he only saw him as some kid who was in way over his head, just a farm boy who daydreamed about journeying the cosmos and leaving it all behind. Han couldn't help but notice the far off look in his eyes when he imagined it all, the way his blue gaze seemed to brighten when he thought of leaving the cluster of sand and dust that was Tatooine, how he bit his lip and the corners of his mouth curled into a small smile at the idea. The kid was a dreamer, Han could tell right away. Yet his scoffs of contempt at the boy didn't feel as sincere after noticing, almost as if he never really meant them. Maybe it was then, maybe after, maybe he always had felt this way. But he couldn’t deny he felt…. something.

The moment Luke laid eyes on him, he had a feeling he was in trouble. Everything felt like a whirlwind of emotion, the death of his Aunt and Uncle, Old Man Ben’s stunning information, the beautiful girl pleading for help displayed on the droid, the sudden mission and purpose he had, and now.... him. The pilot’s hair was dark and had a sort of bounce to it, his eyes almost gleamed like he knew something you didn't, his smirk and body language oozed confidence. Luke committed everything about him to memory, the way his shirt collar was opened and crooked, the way his eyebrow was raised slightly as if daring someone to argue with him. Luke desperately wanted to pick a fight if only to wipe that look off his face. This man had seen the stars and the edges of space. Luke felt a twinge of jealousy, or maybe just a twinge of something entirely different. He couldn't deny he felt something, whether the feeling was contempt or longing Luke still hadn't decided.

Luke and Han edged around each other uncertainly, not sure how to interact. Insincere challenges issued but never fully delivered. Then they were being pulled towards the Death Star, and placed with a mission with what felt like impossible odds. Through winding steps of the mazelike Death Star and the synchronized steps of the Stormtroopers, the two searched for who they were looking for. There she was. Suddenly the confused and repressed feelings between the two seemed pale in comparison to her. She like their adventure was a whirlwind of incredible feats and rage. With the new member in their party Leia forcing down her overwhelming grief with her uncontrollable need to fight for her cause. Luke’s confusion bubbling over into loss for whom he had only moments ago. And Han’s instincts that have kept him alive for so long screaming at him to abandon these people he barely knows but already cares deeply for, the war outside themselves seems easier.

Luke is stepping out of the cockpit in a daze, only just barely aware of what had just taken place. With the lights in the rebel warehouse overhead he looks like an angel descending to earth, descending to Han. He had never felt so much relief to see that face again, he stepped forward, he stepped back. “Let the Princess greet him”, Han decides, “I’m not the one he’s hoping to see.” Luke smiles in the arms of what feels like his new family, so soon replacing the one he’d lost, his grin falters as he sees Han turn away but returns once more when Han offers him a grin of his own and a slight nod as if to say, “good job.” It is enough.

Time passes, the rebels cling to life so barely. In the frozen stronghold in the dead of night, cold lips meet and numb hands hold, and they grasp onto each other and grasp onto warmth. Small smiles are shared and teasing is not unkind. It is cold, it is frozen, and it is temporary. But it is bliss, and it is theirs. All too soon it will go wrong, and they know it will, so they make use of their time. The rebellion can only hold so long. Eventually they leave pursued by the Death Star. It feels painful but it wasn’t meant to last. Luke pursues the teachings of Yoda, Han pursues the help of Lando. They should’ve known it couldn’t last. Han and Leia gaze at each other before he goes under. He loves them both. He says, “I know” instead. He feels cold again, but not the way he felt before. He wishes he could’ve seen then both before he froze. Luke feels pain, not unlike the pain of leaving Hoth. But it is tripled. His father was supposed to be a hero, his father is a monster. He feels the loss of his hand, he feels the loss of Han. Luke and Leia embrace each other, both grieving. Luke pretends the reason he cries is the pain of his hand.

Luke feels hardened. He feels frozen again. When Han unfreezes, a part of Luke does too. But not all, not enough. Han still has the questions he froze with, he still loves the two of them. Luke is different, he is lost and cold. Leia is different, she is strong and warm. The war still calls to them, no matter how hard they try to ignore it. They have a duty to the galaxy that Han doesn’t remember accepting. There is no rest, no time to feel things. They have to stop the Empire, they have to stop Luke’s father. Luke faces impossible choices, he feels deranged, his moral compass has failed him and now he is hopelessly lost in a forest of misguided decisions and darkness. His father recognizes that forest. His father has been lost there for a long time, he refuses to leave his son drown in darkness alone as he did. As his father fades away, Luke believes he’s finally unfrozen. He tells Leia she’s his twin. Han regretfully thinks to himself that polyamory is out of the question now. Leia links hands with Han and looks up at him, he feels himself smile. Han looks to Luke and his lips curl into the small smile Han loves as if to say, “Its okay.” Han gives Luke the slight nod that always drew him in. Luke decides its okay.

More time passes, so much time. They are old and they were happy. Leia and Han were happy. Luke resigned himself to happiness. Then came Ben, Leia and Han were overjoyed. Luke was ecstatic. Then came Kylo Ren, Leia and Han were devastated. Luke was ashamed. He leaves, he can’t look at Leia and Han anymore, he can’t face them. He tries to find peace in nature but he can’t ignore what he knows. The Force tells him everything, he is too closely linked to Han and Leia. Perhaps he never fully unfroze. Luke feels it when it happens. Feels it like it pierces his own heart instead of Han’s, wishes it had. He knows Leia felt it too. He hears her cry out in anguish though he’s millions of miles away. He unfreezes. Finally and completely. Luke allows himself to finally cry and finally grieve. Eventually a girl stands before him, she felt Han die too, Luke can tell. She holds out his old lightsaber defiantly, almost daring him to reject her, to say no. Luke does not say no. He feels he finally left Hoth.

#shut up Dirk #skysolo #Luke Skywalker #Han Solo #leia organa #Darth Vader #sw #star wars #sw fic #fic #AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA #thank u cyd #i finally finished it!!!!!!!!!!!

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leitch · 6 years

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As you may have seen, today is the last day of publishing for Sports On Earth. I wrote many, many words for Sports On Earth, but I also hosted more than 500 The Will Leitch Experience podcasts. For the first two years, the show was in fact a daily podcast, which seems insane now. I do not know if the podcast itself is going to continue – obviously Grierson & Leitch and WSLS are continuing – but if it does, it won’t be under the Sports On Earth name.

So at the very least, this seems like a good time to reflect on the podcast itself. I don’t know if I’m the best interviewer, but my philosophy on podcasts has always been that if you get two smart people and just tape them talking to one another, you can’t help but capture something worthwhile, even accidentally. I loved doing the show because I loved talking to smart people about things they cared about. That’s what podcasts are for, I think: To dig deep into things with people who don’t usually get to dig deep on things. That was always the goal.

And we had a rather insane assortment of guests, from Patrick Stewart to Peter Billingsley to Red Panda Acrobat. Below is a list of every guest every to appear on The Will Leitch Experience podcast. This seems about as thorough a cross-section of sports media over the last five years that I can come up with.

PODCAST GUESTS

Red Panda Acrobat

Rick Ankiel

Jorge Arangure

Nicole Auerbach

Katie Baker

Chris Ballard

Steve Bardo

Howard Beck

Andy Behrens

Michael Beller

Alex Belth

Ted Berg

Jonathan Bernhardt

Neil Best

Carl Bialik

Peter Billingsley

Sigmund Bloom

Jon Bois

Mike Breen

Will Brinson

Chris Brown

Matt Brown

Jay Busbee

Mary Byrne

Craig Calcaterra

Peter Robert Casey

Anthony Castrovince

Rick Chandler

Jim Cooke

Cliff Corcoran

Dom Cosentino

Noah Coslov

Tommy Craggs

Chuck Culpepper

Ed Cunningham

Chris Cwik

Kavitha Davidson

Noah Davis

Josh Dean

Joe DeLessio

Jack Dickey

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Ezra Edelman

Rich Eisen

Leigh Ellis

Ryan Fagan

Doug Farrar

Paul Finebaum

Chad Finn

Roy Firestone

Steve Fishman

Alyson Footer

Reid Forgrave

James Freedman

James Frey

Fred Frommer

Jason Fry

Shawn Fury

John Gasaway

Jason Gay

Willie Geist

Matt Giles

Aaron Gleeman

Andy Glockner

Derrick Goold

Aaron Gordon

Rick Grayshock

Jon Greenberg

Karl Taro Greenfeld

Tim Grierson

Andrea Hangst

Spencer Hall

Dirk Hayhurst

John Heilemann

Chris Herring

Jon Heyman

Ty Hildenbrandt

Jason B. Hirschhorn

David Hirshey

Greg Howard

Patrick Hruby

Ed Hula

Vinnie Iyer

Jay Jaffe

Nate Jackson

Rany Jazayerli

Sally Jenkins

Lindsay Jones

Richard Justice

Jim Kaat

Kevin Kaduk

Danny Kanell

Brian Kenny

Trey Kerby

Jonah Keri

Dave Kindred

Paul Klee

Dan Klores

Sarah Kogod

Rafi Kohan

Gwen Knapp

Molly Knight

John Koblin

Matthew Kory

Trenni Kusnierek

Jenifer Langosch

Keith Law

Matthew Leach

Joe Lemire

Josh Levin

Kevin Lincoln

Ben Lindbergh

Mark Lisanti

Zach Lowe

Jerry Lucas

Jeb Lund

Steven Madden

Drew Magary

Erik Malinowski

Chris Mannix

Beckley Mason

Ben Mathis-Lilley

Jack McCallum

Randy McClure

Ben McGrath

Howard Megdal

The Mighty MJD

Bernie Miklasz

James Andrew Miller

Sam Miller

Earl Monroe

Leigh Montville

Jack Moore

Jamie Moyer

Paul Myerberg

Amy K. Nelson

Joe Nocera

Matt Norlander

Chris O’Leary

Paul Pabst

Sridhar Pappu

Gary Parrish

Jeff Passan

Kevin Pearce

John Perrotto

Mike Pesca

Mike Petriello

Michael Pina

Dan Pompei

Joe Posnanski

Shaun Powell

George Quraishi

Scott Raab

Ray Ratto

Josh Reed

Tomas Rios

Daniel Roberts

Selena Roberts

C. Trent Rosecrans

Seth Rosenthal

Michael Ruhlman

Shane Ryan

Gar Ryness

Richard Sandomir

Bill Scheft

Jonathan Schuppe

Michael Schur

Frank Schwab

Cory Schwartz

Peter Scolari

Dan Shanoff

Joe Sheehan

Drew Silva

J.E. Skeets

Michael David Smith

Emma Span

Harrison Stark

Jayson Stark

Brandon Steiner

Adam Sternbergh

Patrick Stewart

Chris Strauss

Dan Szymborski

Mike Tanier

Pete Thamel

Chase Thomas

Wendy Thurm

Mike Tollin

Marc Tracy

Michael Tunison

Matt Ufford

Bobby Valentine

Matt Vasgersian

Grant Wahl

Ron Wechsler

Michael Weinreb

Jon Weisman

J.R. Wilco

George Will

Jason Wojciechowski

Dan Wolken

Alex Wong

Cyd Zeigler

Jeff Zillgitt

Tom Ziller

Dave Zirin

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