Earlier this year, Austin Killips became the first openly transgender female to win an official Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) stage race. But after a recent rule change prohibiting transgender women from competing against women, she’ll be unable to race in the women’s circuit again. And she’s not happy about it.
In a post on her Substack, Austin Killips blasted the “cabal of right wingers” who she blames for the rule change.
“I guess what complicates all of this is the sense that it is fallout from something I did,” Killips wrote according to Fox News. “Surely if it wasn’t me someone else would have become the scapegoat but the unfortunate matter is that I’m one of the figures that pushed the limits of inclusion for this particular moment and a cabal of right wingers who want nothing but the worst for the world were able to successfully weaponize it.
“Ten years earlier or ten years down the road who’s to say what happens. But circumstance is such that I am close to the center of a fight that is much bigger than me or any of my previous aspirations. I hope to right the injustice that has been incurred in response to my success in the sport. Other people fought tirelessly to make the last several years of my life possible, it would be unconscionable to not agitate for the next person who wants to give their all to racing bikes.
“We have to fight for what is right knowing that it’s for the good of others and not our own lots in life. I do not need to line up at a World Cup again but I won’t be able to sleep at night if I’m not fighting for the next woman who deserves a shot at everything this sport has given me.”
Transgender athletes have certainly become a strong source of debate recently. We’ll have to see whether or not other sports make similar moves like the UCI.
[Fox News]
