USA Powerlifting’s “Transgender Participation Policy” is at the heart of a long-simmering dispute between the organization and a Minnesota trans woman athlete, JayCee Cooper.
The policy bars trans women from competing with cisgender (meaning not transgender) women athletes, and only allows them to enter competitions if they compete as males, the sex they were presumed to be at birth. Transgender men are barred from competing so long as testosterone is part of their healthcare regimen.
Cooper’s quest to compete like any woman and to change USAPL policy to be more inclusive has led her to a mediator with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights. Dr. Larry Maile, president of USAPL, has asked Cooper and her lawyers at Gender Justice to see if they can settle her discrimination claim.
As that proceeds, the policy remains in place.
