Transgender athlete Laurel Hubbard has been the focus of international debate following her win at the Australian International in Melbourne on Sunday.
The weightlifter won over her fellow competitors by lifting 19kg more than her closest runner up, something that has some of the other athletes have claimed is due to an unfair advantage due to her being transgender.
The claims have been made by some of the athletes that lost to Hubbard on Sunday, despite the International Olympic Committee disagreeing that she had any form of advantage due to being transgender.
Deborah Acason, one of the other competitors, has spoken out on the matter. 'We all deserve to be on an even playing field. It's difficult when you believe you are not. If it's not even, why are we doing the sport?'
Not all of Hubbard's fellow athletes have been expressing such views however. Bronze medal winner Kaitlyn Fassina stood by Hubbards win and showed her support, 'She is who she is. That's the way the politics and New Zealanders have decided. I can't say much more than that. She is seen as female and that's the way it is.'
Unfortunately, many people seem to be sharing the same opinion as Acason, claiming that Hubbard, and trans athletes in general, have an unfair advantage over fellow competitors.
This outrage over a trans woman winning against other female athletes seems to be the exact opposite of Mack Beggs who recently won a girls wrestling title despite being a trans man. With people complaining when trans people win in the gender they conform to and winning when they're made to compete in the gender they were assigned to at birth it begs the question, will trans people ever be able to win any event without it being a 'controversy'.
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