(Headline USA) USA Powerlifting will be forced to allow men to compete in women’s events after a federal court ruled this week that its policy banning “transgender” athletes from the female division was “discriminatory.”
The ruling is the result of a lawsuit filed by transgender athlete JayCee Cooper, a man who identifies as a woman. Cooper sued USA Powerlifting in 2021 after the federation banned him from competing in female events.
The court agreed this week with Cooper and mandated the federation “cease and desist from all unfair discriminatory practices” regarding athletes’ sexual orientations or gender identities.
“The harm is in making a person pretend to be something different, the implicit message being that who they are is less than,” Judge Patrick Diamond wrote. “That is the very essence of separation and segregation, and it is what the [Minnesota Human Rights Act] prohibits.”
Diamond went on to claim that depriving gender-confused men of the “right” to compete against women can lead to “increased risk of depression and suicide, lack of access to coaching and practice facilities, or other performance suppression common to transgender persons.”
Cooper said of the ruling: “I feel mostly relief. I think we needed a win here, and it feels good to get that.”
When asked why he went to court over USA Powerlifting’s rule, Cooper said, “I was fed up with the way that I was being treated; I was fed up with the way that my community was being treated, and enough was enough.”
USA Powerlifting President Larry Maile said in a statement that the organization will consider appealing the court’s ruling.
“Our position has been aimed at balancing the needs of cis- and transgender women whose capacities differ significantly in purely strength sports,” he said in a statement. “We are considering all of our options, including appeal.”
Cooper has competed against biological women in past events, including the women’s raw 198+ open category in 2019. He won both times against a lone competitor, Rebecca Richnofsky.
