Will The CPU Give Into Pressure To Change Their Transgender Policy?
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By Ava Tremblay
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Summary
- Canadian PM Justin Trudeau and Canadian Powerlifting Union criticized
- Criticism started after transgender Anne Andres won gold at the Western Canadian Powerlifting championship
- Top female athletes from other sports protest against transgender participation in women’s sports
Anne Andres entered the recently held Western Canadian Powerlifting & Bench Press Championship full of confidence that ‘she’ would win the Females Master Unequipped category.
Andres who is a man participating in women’s powerlifting as a transgender would go on to boast about ‘her‘ performance on Instagram as ‘she‘ created a new national record in Canada. Her Instagram post cause a backlash on social media.
Canadian Powerlifting Union Criticized
Many female powerlifters have either dropped out of competitions where transgender athletes like Anne Andres are competing or compete and feel completely demoralized as they feel they are being discriminated for competing alongside a man who is identifying as a woman on the basis of being trance.
The Canadian Powerlifting Union (CPU) allowed men who believe they are transgenders to compete in women’s powerlifting events. The CPU policy does not require transgender athletes to produce any evidence of hormone replacement surgery or surgery. The CPU policy makes it clear that transgenders have the freedom to participate in whichever gender they choose to identify without having to feel the pressure to subject themselves to hormone therapy.
The CPU’s policy is very similar to the policy guidelines outlined by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, which is an organization that receives the majority of its funding from the Canadian federal government.
Canadian PM Justin Trudeau Draws Flak
April Hutchinson, a Canadian powerlifter has bashed Andres and the CPU for taking advantage of women powerlifters and making it unfair for women powerlifters to compete against transgenders who have an unfair advantage over Canadian women.
Male powerlifter Avi Silverberg, a long-time coach of Team Canada showcased earlier this year how unfair it was to allow transgenders to participate in women’s sports as he identified as a woman just for a short time to demolish a women’s bench press record and prove a point!
Hutchinson received support from other top female athletes including tennis great Martina Navratilova and Riley Gaines who is a top swimmer in the United States. Both of them have campaigned against allowing transgenders to participate in any women’s sports.
Gaines went after Canadian PM Justin Trudeau and said it was clear that the PM has a radical disdain for women by not doing anything to stop transgenders from competing against women.
