Jennifer Wagner — a female cyclist who lost a women’s world cycling championship to a transgender woman last weekend — said it was “definitely NOT fair” that she had to compete in a race against Rachel McKinnon, a biological male who identifies as a transgender woman.
“I was the 3rd place rider. It’s definitely NOT fair,” Wagner wrote on Twitter in response to a post about the race.
As the Inquisitr previously reported, transgender female Rachel McKinnon won the 2018 UCI Masters Track Cycling World Championships for the women’s 35-39 age bracket in Los Angeles on October 14.
McKinnon — who represents Canada — beat out biological females Carolien Van Herrikhuyzen of the Netherlands and Jennifer Wagner of the United States.
McKinnon: It Doesn’t Matter If We Have Unfair Advantage
The subject of allowing biological males to compete against biological females in women’s sporting events is a hotly-contested topic.
Some biological female athletes say trans females have an unfair competitive advantage — both because of sex hormones and due to inherent strength differences.
Rachel McKinnon said it doesn’t matter if transgender women have an unfair competitive advantage, because the most important thing is to make sure that trans individuals don’t feel oppressed.
I was the 3rd place rider. It’s definitely NOT fair.
— jen wagner-assali (@jkwagnermd) October 15, 2018
“Focusing on performance advantage is largely irrelevant because this is a [trans] rights issue,” McKinnon told USA Today. “We shouldn’t be worried about trans people taking over the Olympics. We should be worried about their fairness and human rights instead.”
Jennifer Wagner said she and other female cyclists are working to change the rules regarding trans female bikers.
For those of you who think I have "folded" I have not. There's a group of us working on getting the rules changed but we are going to fight it offline, not in the name-calling angry world of social media. I'm choosing to move on in a positive way.
— jen wagner-assali (@jkwagnermd) October 18, 2018
Meanwhile, Jillian Bearden — another transgender female cyclist — said trans women do have an unfair advantage over biological women when it comes to athletic competitions.
Accordingly, Bearden believes transgender female athletes are nothing more than cheaters and dopers.
“I’ve proven how powerful testosterone is from when I competed [as a man],” Bearden told USA Today.
“That doesn’t mean specifically that the more testosterone you have, the stronger you are, but the hormone provides a certain stamina that continues to charge you. It gives you that edge of pushing power.”
Trans Cyclist Bearden: Trans Women Have Unfair Advantage
In the spring of 2017, Jillian Bearden said she kicked Rachel McKinnon off of her cycling team because of their heated disagreements on the subject of transgender athletes.
McKinnon went on to launch her own team, and has been competing ever since. McKinnon said it’s time for transgender individuals to assert themselves and to fight back against the cisgender majority.
“This is bigger than sports,” Rachel McKinnon said. “It’s about human rights. By catering to cisgender people’s views, that furthers transgender people’s oppression. When it comes to extending rights to a minority population, why would we ask the majority?”