Kevin Downey Jr. #transphobia pjmedia.com
In a victory for female athletes, champion male cyclist Zach Bridges, who now prefers to be called Emily, won’t be able to race against real women.
Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the world governing body for international competitive cycling, made the call that Bridges won’t be allowed to compete against real women. The decision was made after female cyclists threatened to boycott the race en masse.
“It’s not transphobic to want fair sport—it’s anti-female to not,” said Sharron Davies, a former Olympic swimmer for England
Davies believes the threat of a boycott helped UCI make its decision.
“It would not have been fair to ask Laura Kenny and the other women cyclists that Bridges would have come up against to have to race a rival with the advantages of a biological man,” she continued. “No amount of testosterone reduction can mitigate that, but we’re being told to turn a blind eye to science and biology, to keep quiet and suck it up.”