Transgender
Trans Cyclist Slams 'Bigots' After Winning Female World Championship
Rachel McKinnon's message to transphobes: My victory is legitimate.
October 16 2018 10:06 PM EST
October 17 2018 1:25 AM EST
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Rachel McKinnon made history last weekend in Los Angeles when she became the first trans woman to win the 2018 UCI Masters Track Cycling World Championships.
But instead of being toasted for her victory, the South Carolina gender studies professor -- who hails from Canada and competed as a Canadian -- has been inundated with hate and transphobia on Twitter.
In addition to her victory, McKinnon set a new world record Sunday during the women's 34-39 sprint qualifying flying 200m, with a time of 0:00:11.92, according to Cycling News (which noted that McKinnon's record was later broken by another cyclist that weekend).
But after tweeting about her record and victory on Saturday, McKinnon was soon met with an avalanche of hate. The Advocate is not sharing the cruel tweets, many of which accused McKinnon of "being a man" and cheating. The UCI cycling championship adheres to the same rules on trans athletes as the International Olympic Committee, which requires trans women maintain low levels of testosterone for at least a year prior to competing.
For the past five days, McKinnon has been forced to defend herself.
\u201cLots of transphobic bigots are responding to my world championship win saying that 'Next up, the paralympics.' Hey women, you realize that ALL of these people (many of them women) are comparing you to disabled people...right? Women = 'disabled men' they think. Wow. Offensive.\u201d— Dr. Veronica Ivy (@Dr. Veronica Ivy) 1539523243
\u201cThe offensive part is not 'being compared to disabled people' because disabled people are contemptible. No, that's super ableist. But effectively saying that women are 'disabled men' is both deeply misogynistic *and* ableist. Double-whammy. Bigots are horrible people.\u201d— Dr. Veronica Ivy (@Dr. Veronica Ivy) 1539523243
\u201cFunny how all these people are speaking for my competitors. 2nd place is a FRIEND and is extremely supportive of me. So you transphobic bigots are objectifying real humans who aren't bigoted like you.\u201d— Dr. Veronica Ivy (@Dr. Veronica Ivy) 1539525697
\u201cI train 15-20hrs/week, twice/day 5-6 days/week. Yeah...I just jumped off the couch and won. Transphobic bigots, y'all.\u201d— Dr. Veronica Ivy (@Dr. Veronica Ivy) 1539529561
\u201cWell, no, I'm still forced to have an unhealthily low endogenous testosterone value...it's virtually undetectable it's so low...way below the average for women.\u201d— Dr. Veronica Ivy (@Dr. Veronica Ivy) 1539555599
\u201c3rd place (Jennifer Wagner) claims it's unfair for me to compete. At Masters Worlds, she beat me in the 500m TT. She beat me in 6 of 7 races at the 2017 Intelligentsia Cup. In 2016 she beat me in all 3 Speed Week crits. She's won 11 of our 13 races\n\n...and it's unfair? Excuse me?\u201d— Dr. Veronica Ivy (@Dr. Veronica Ivy) 1539689805
\u201cThis is what the double-bind for trans women athletes looks like: when we win, it's because we're transgender and it's unfair; when we lose, no one notices (and it's because we're just not that good anyway). Even when it's the SAME racer. That's what transphobia looks like.\u201d— Dr. Veronica Ivy (@Dr. Veronica Ivy) 1539689805
\u201cUmm, I trained 15 months *straight* to be able to go 100% and barely make this pass in the final 50m of a race. I train 15-20hrs per week, week in and week out, usually training twice/day. There was nothing easy about this. I barely won.\u201d— Dr. Veronica Ivy (@Dr. Veronica Ivy) 1539808308
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Neal Broverman
Neal Broverman is the Editorial Director, Print of Pride Media, publishers of The Advocate, Out, Out Traveler, and Plus, spending more than 20 years in journalism. He indulges his interest in transportation and urban planning with regular contributions to Los Angeles magazine, and his work has also appeared in the Los Angeles Times and USA Today. He lives in the City of Angels with his husband, children, and their chiweenie.
Neal Broverman is the Editorial Director, Print of Pride Media, publishers of The Advocate, Out, Out Traveler, and Plus, spending more than 20 years in journalism. He indulges his interest in transportation and urban planning with regular contributions to Los Angeles magazine, and his work has also appeared in the Los Angeles Times and USA Today. He lives in the City of Angels with his husband, children, and their chiweenie.