Still not fair
Transgender cyclists are still competing in women’s races despite British Cycling suspending the policy last month that had allowed them to race in the female category.
Suspensions are for cis people.
However, trans female cyclists are continuing to compete in the women’s category. On May 8, Maxine Yates, a transgender downhill mountain bike racer, won the women’s 19+ category in the second round of BC’s DH National Series event at Fort William, Scotland, a competition in which ranking points were available. Yates is ranked first in the senior female category on the BC website.
Despite being a man.
The rider who finished second in the race at Fort William, Jane Page, has complained to BC that it is not applying its own rules and has called for Yates to be disqualified. Page said that it had proved difficult even to make contact with the appropriate officials at BC but she has now been informed that the matter has been passed to the governing body’s compliance team. A BC spokesman said that the compliance team was investigating the matter.
And it should take them no more than oh let’s say 20 years or so to come to a conclusion.
Yates claims that she contacted BC after the suspension of the transgender rules to see if she could still race and that a member of the events team at BC told her that the “policy was only going to affect new licence applicants”.
“As I already had a licence and was not competing at an elite level, I was allowed to compete, that is what BC informed me,” Yates said. “I’ve taken their advice at every turn and am disappointed BC have let this go on as far as it has. I have followed their rules.”
Aw diddums. Of course he could have simply not asked if he could still race, because it’s obviously unfair and a cheat, but nooooooo.
“BC are not enforcing their own rules,” Page said. “Like a lot of women I feel let down. There were only a dozen or so women competing at Fort William, among more than 300 riders, but situations like this are hardly going to encourage more women to participate.”
Encourage them to walk away in disgust, more likely.
The use of the word “transwoman” should have been nipped in the bud before it spread. “Trans identified male” makes it very clear what is happening and might have prevented shit like this from happening. The reporting of stories like this would have been more honest than it is.