Men are almost always stronger than women and can out-lift them any day of the week. But it’s Women’s History Month, and a judge has just decided that a transgender male-to-female must be allowed to compete in women’s powerlifting competitions.
JayCee Cooper, a transgender weightlifter, won a discrimination lawsuit last month against Alaska-based USA Powerlifting, after being banned from competing in the women’s powerlifting division in Minnesota due to the fact he is a biological male.
USA Powerlifting, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is headquartered in Anchorage and offers over 400 events nationwide each year through independent directors. It was established in 1981 as the American Drug Free Powerlifting Association and is the leading drug-tested powerlifting organization in the country.
Cooper was born male and up until 2015 he participated in competitive sports as a male. He had been a member of the U.S. Junior National curling team and competed in the the World Junior Curling Championships in 2007. Cooper then changed his name from Joel to JayCee and started presenting as a female. In 2016, in his mid-20s, Cooper started competing in women’s roller derby, and in 2017 or 2018, he started powerlifting.
Cooper, now a 35-year-old Minneapolis transgender, filed a discrimination lawsuit in 2021 against USA Powerlifting, after the organization said Cooper could not compete in the women’s division.
On Feb. 27, a District Judge Patrick Diamond in Minneapolis ordered USA Powerlifting to cease its “unfair discriminatory practice” and to revise its policies. USA Powerlifting officials contended that male-to-female transgenders have an advantage. But Judge Diamond said that is not a reason to discriminate.
Diamond wrote that Cooper has a “protected status as a transgender woman.” Diamond said, “USAPL did not find Cooper too big, too small, or too just right. The only consideration in USAPL’s policy was Cooper’s protected status as a transgender woman.”
Already, the International Olympic Committee, the NCAA and the Minnesota State High School League adopted policies that allow men to compete in women’s sports, so long as they say they identify as women.
USA Powerlifting has an anti-doping policy on its website, which can be viewed here.
“USA Powerlifting has not banned transgender athletes. There are rules surrounding requirements for membership as with any organization. Policy is set for the most fundamental of all of the rules, drug testing and secondly fairness in competition,” the organization writes in a published question-and-answer section on its website.
“Take sports such as curling, equestrian, shooting and archery, these sports are more sport of skill, whereas powerlifting is a sport of strength. Men naturally have a larger bone structure, higher bone density, stronger connective tissue and higher muscle density than women. These traits, even with reduced levels of testosterone do not go away. While MTF [male to female] may be weaker and less muscle than they once were, the biological benefits given them at birth still remain over than of a female,” the organization contends.
A second phase of this trial, relating to damages that USA Powerlifting will be required to pay to Cooper, starts on May 1.
Cooper is represented by an advocacy group known as Gender Justice, which filed the lawsuit in June of 2021, saying that USA Powerlifting had violated Minnesota’s Human Rights Act. You can listen to the Gender Justice podcast with Cooper at this link.
The attorneys for USA Powerlifting may appeal the ruling.
