A transgender athlete has filed a $2.5 million lawsuit against CrossFit after the popular fitness company refused to let her compete in the women’s division of upcoming the CrossFit Games.
Chloie Jonnson was born with a penis but underwent sex reassignment surgery in 2006. According to TMZ, she is legally recognized as a woman by the state of California. Despite that, CrossFit maintains that Jonnson has certain physiological advantages over women since she was born as a man.
“We have simply ruled that based upon [Chloie] being born as a male, she will need to compete in the Men’s Division,” the company wrote in a letter that was obtained by TMZ. The fundamental, ineluctable fact is that a male competitor who has a sex reassignment procedure still has a genetic makeup that confers a physical and physiological advantage over women.”
Jonnson claims CrossFit is violating her civil rights by not letting her compete as a woman. The company does not seem to be feel threatened by the legal action.
“Our decision has nothing to do with ‘ignorance’ or being bigots — it has to do with a very real understanding of the human genome, of fundamental biology, that you are either intentionally ignoring or missed in high school,” CrossFit wrote.
CrossFit added that transgender athletes are welcomed into their gyms with open arms but that they will always remain committed to ensuring fairness when it comes to competition.
I’m no legal expert on this kind of stuff, so I really can’t say who is right or wrong here. Chloie is 5-foot-4 and weighs 151 pounds, so it’s not like she’d tower over the female competition. It will be interesting to see how the lawsuit is settled.
