A transgender woman prohibited from competing in a strength
competition as a female is suing the fitness company sponsoring the
competition, seeking $2.5 million in damages.
Chloie Jonnson, 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.
Last year, Jonnson sought to compete in the CrossFit Games, a contest aimed at determining the fittest man and woman.
According to the lawsuit,
Jonnson 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 Jonnson'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.
Jonnson disagreed with its decision and the dispute has escalated to a lawsuit.
CrossFit maintains that
Jonnson was born as a male, so she should compete in the men's division,
according to a letter from the company's lawyer to Jonnson's attorney.
It also stated that the company had an "obligation to protect the
'rights' of all competitors and the competition itself."
"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," according to the letter from
CrossFit's lawyer sent in October.
"(Jonnson) 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.
Transgender men receive
the opposite types of hormones -- mainly testosterone to masculinze
their bodies with features such as increased muscle and hair growth.
McCoy said that CrossFit
should change its rules to be more like the International Olympic
Committee, which allows transgender athletes to compete in their
identified gender after undergoing sexual reassignment surgery.
"She's female," McCoy
said about Jonnson. "She's legally female. A corporation like CrossFit,
they're doing business in California. The law precludes from
discrimination on gender identity."
He said Jonnson seeks a reversal in the competition's policy.
The lawsuit also alleges
that CrossFit's policy of having to compete in a person's original
birth gender, would require that transgender athletes would have to
reveal their personal histories. In essence, that they'd have to "out"
themselves, even if they sought privacy, the lawsuit alleges.
After her sexual
reassignment surgery, Jonnson changed all her records to reflect her sex
change to female, including her birth certificate, according to her
lawsuit. Jonnson kept her background a secret and did not identify
herself as transgender, according to the complaint.
In a press release
statement, Jonnson said: "If I am going to be forced to out myself, I
want it to be for the good for all transgendered people and athletes --
not because of a company's discriminatory policies."
-CNN
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