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?????????????????????????????????????????????????Friday, May 17, 2019
Stripped of women’s records, transgender powerlifter asks, ‘Where do we draw the line?’

Mary Gregory rests and checks her digital timer between sets during a workout. (Parker Michels-Boyce for The Washington Post)
RICHMOND — When Mary Gregory filled out the registration form to compete
in a local weightlifting event, she checked the box that read “female”
without hesitation.
“I mean, that’s my gender,” she said “I didn’t even think about it. That’s who I am.”
If any eyebrows were raised, Gregory didn’t notice, and on April 27,
after months of training, she strode onto the platform at the Best
Western hotel just east of Charlottesville and wowed the spectators and
fellow powerlifters in attendance. That night she posted a picture on Instagram of herself holding a trophy,
telling her 120 followers about the records she set for her age and
weight class in the 100% Raw Powerlifting Federation, which organized
the day’s competition.
“What a day, 9 for 9!” she posted. “Masters world squat record, open
world bench record, masters world dl record, and masters world total
record! Still processing …”
She continued: “As a transgender lifter I was unsure what to expect
going into this meet and everyone — all the spotters, loaders, referees,
staff, meet director, all made me welcome and treated me as just
another female lifter- thank you!”
The positive feelings would be short-lived. News of the transgender
lifter who broke female records began circulating, and just a couple of
days later, Gregory was stripped of her titles and barred from competing
as a woman.
“She put down female. Clearly, she’s not a female,” said Paul Bossi,
100% Raw Powerlifting Federation’s president. “Not biologically anyways.
“In our rules, we go by biological,” he said. “According to the rules,
she can only lift in the men’s division. … I’m not trying to hurt
anyone’s feelings but I have to follow the rules.”
He said Gregory never volunteered that she was transgender and event
organizers didn’t confirm she’d competed in the wrong category until a
post-match drug test was administered.
“We could’ve rectified a lot of this prior had we known,” Bossi said. “In a way, we felt like we were duped.”
Gregory, 44, says she never misled anyone. Two weeks later, she is still
hurt and angry, as the larger sports world continues to wrestle with
defining and imposing gender classifications, finding a balance for
competition that’s both fair and inclusive.
“I felt like they were invalidating my gender and my identity,” said
Gregory, who began hormone replacement treatment a year ago and feels
she should be allowed to compete alongside any other female.
Gregory’s impressive performance followed by the organization’s swift
reversal created an immediate stir in both the LGBTQ and weightlifting
communities, prompting heated debates about fairness, physiology and
gender traits.
Sharron Davies, a retired Olympic swimmer from England, said that “woman
with female biology cannot compete” against a “male body with male
physiology.”
“Socially I’m for everyone living the way they wish, safely, not harming others but sport is ALL about biology not ideology,” she tweeted.
Retired middle-distance runner Kelly Holmes, a two-time Olympic champion
from England, called the affair “a bloody joke” and said transgender
athletes should perhaps have separate competitions. “Otherwise i’m
starting to worry about the backlash and abuse that the trans community
will get from spectators,” she wrote on Twitter. “It will happen!”
Gregory’s shoulders dropped slightly this week, when she talked about
the criticism she’s faced. It’s mostly rooted in ignorance, she said,
people who assume because she was born a man that she’s naturally
stronger and holds an unfair advantage over female competitors.
“There’s this sense out there that I put on a dress and just stepped on
the platform,” she said. “That’s the furthest thing from the truth. I
mean, I’ve had to work my ass off.”

Powerlifting is 'just about what you can do and what you might be capable of,' Gregory says. 'That’s such an empowering thing.' (Parker Michels-Boyce for The Washington Post)
'Reality is not that simple’
Sports organizations and governing bodies increasingly are grappling
with gender issues, evolving definitions and identifications. At the
high school level, transgender athletes have won track races and wrestling matches.
Transgender athletes have made headlines in cycling and high-level
rugby, where they’ve at times collectively drawn the ire and
condemnation from other competitors and event organizers.
Tennis legend Martina Navratilova has offended many in the LGBTQ community with some of her comments on the subject. She wrote a piece in The Sunday Times this
year, saying, “It’s insane and it’s cheating” and once tweeted (and
deleted), “You can’t just proclaim yourself a female and be able to
compete against women. There must be some standards, and having a penis
and competing as a woman would not fit that standard.” She later apologized for
saying transgender athletes are cheating, noting that “all I am trying
to do is to make sure girls and women who were born female are competing
on as level a playing field as possible within their sport."
For many, the issue revolves around biological advantages, testosterone
and equality. The International Association of Athletics Federations
(IAAF) has struggled in recent years to settle on a fair playing field
and has overcome legal challenges to institute a rule that puts a limit on testosterone levels for female competitors in some events.
“In sports, it’s traditionally been viewed very simply. There are two
categories: male and female. The complication is that biology and
reality is not that simple,” said Roger Pielke Jr., director of the
Sports Governance Center at the University of Colorado, a critic of the
IAAF’s controversial rule and the organization’s research on the
subject. “ … I think the first thing to understand is it’s complicated
and there are legitimate perspectives on all sides of these issues.
Society is obviously changing and evolving, and sport has to
accommodate.”
The International Olympic Committee updated its rules in 2016 to allow
transgender female athletes to compete against women as long as they can
maintain a certain testosterone level. But USA Powerlifting has opted
to follow its own more rigid guidelines, barring those competitors from
the female classification.
In explaining its decision earlier this year, the organization said,
“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
[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.”

'Too much emphasis is put on testosterone,' says Gregory, here leaving an early-morning workout at Richmond Balance gym. 'There are so many other factors that determine how much you lift.' (Parker Michels-Boyce for The Washington Post)
‘Where do we draw the line?’
A carpenter by trade and male by birth, Gergory was still living as a
man then and was looking to lose weight when she started lifting four
years ago. When she made the decision to transition to female last year,
she began hormone therapy and legally changed her name. Lifting also
had become a core part of her identity, a stabilizing force during a
period of change and uncertainty. Shehad found a community that both
accepted and celebrated her.
“In lifting, you see people of all different shapes and sizes under the
bar, and it doesn’t matter what you look like or how big you are, how
small you are, how pretty you are,” she said. “It’s just about what you
can do and what you might be capable of. That’s such an empowering
thing, and it really gave me the strength to handle everything.”
She had no designs on breaking records at the time, and in fact, her
lifting suffered. Gregory has been taking hormone treatments for nearly a
year — estrogen along with pills that suppress testosterone — and her
strength was diminished. “It was like a switch flipped,” she said. She
estimates she lost about 100 pounds on her squat and more than 60 pounds
on the bench-press in just a few days.
“But I was inspired by other women and thought, ‘Well, they don’t have
testosterone and they still lift a lot of weight, so why can’t I?’” she
said.
She started focusing on her technique, improving her leverage, tweaking
her grip and stance. She visits the gym at least five days a week,
lifting for 90 or so minutes before dawn. Gregory said she now has “to
work so much harder to lift less,” and feels her strength can’t be
attributed simply to testosterone levels or physique.
“Too much emphasis is put on testosterone,” she said. “There are so many
other factors that determine how much you lift: biomechanics, better
leverages, joints, lengths of bones — where do we stop and draw the
line? — socioeconomics and access to nutrition and coaching and gyms.”
Her strength was increasing, and Gregory was looking forward to the
April competition, a “masters” event for older lifters that was located
less than an hour from her Richmond home. She double-checked the 100%
Raw Powerlifting Federation’s rule book and saw no mention of
gender-based restrictions. The organization is a 20-year-old outfit that
prides itself on drug-free competition. Gregory had a doctor’s note for
her hormone treatment and because her driver's license and medical
paperwork all identify her as female, she hoped there would be no issue.
Bossi, the president of the 100% Raw organization, said he was alerted
to Gregory’s application the day before the event by the meet director.
Gregory said the meet director knew her from a previous competition,
though Bossi said organizers weren’t certain Gregory was the same person
they recognized from previous event. Bossi said he told the meet
director, “Let the lifter lift, don’t embarrass or insult the lifter.
We’ll figure it out afterward.”

Gregory talks with fellow gym member Mel Jones during an early morning workout. (Parker Michels-Boyce for The Washington Post)
Unwelcome attention
Gregory was the only female competing in her age group, and on the
platform, Gregory performed nine legal lifts. She squatted 314 pounds,
benched 233 and dead-lifted 424. Women have lifted more, but not in
Gregory’s age and weight class at an event organized by the 100% Raw
organization.
She said fellow lifters, officials and spectators were congratulating
her. She shook hands with organizers and thanked them for their
kindness. Because of her winning lifts, Gregory automatically was placed
into the drug-testing protocol. After an initial test, she said she was
approached again.
“They said there was a problem with the sample. ‘We need another one,
but this time we need to watch you,’” Gregory recalled. “It was a female
referee. I told her, ‘This is kind of awkward. My anatomy doesn’t match
who I am. But if that’s what you need to do, fine.'”
According to Bossi, the tests revealed Gregory had male anatomy and had improperly competed in the female division.
The organization didn’t make its ruling until May 1, three days later.
Trophies and medals had been passed out, competitors had gone home and
news of Gregory’s accomplishments had circulated widely on social
media. “
After her initial Instagram post, Gregory started comments from
strangers, some skeptical, some vile. “They’d tell me to go kill myself,
just all these nasty things,” she said. “I honestly think that the only
reason they decided to take the actions they took was because of all
the negative attention that it got — I mean, because there were so many
people that just don’t understand.”
Bossi said the organization would be creating a category for transgender
competitors, perhaps as early as this month, and Gregory would be
reclassified there. But that’s not what she wants.
“Because it segregates us,” she said. “I think it’s discrimination. It’s
not that different than having a category for tall people or for
African Americans or for Hispanics.”
Gregory still has her trophy and said her sense of accomplishment
doesn’t stem from any number or record. She said she’ll continue
competing and will find events that allow her to check the “female” box
on the registration form.
“I can’t quit,” she said. “Lifting is too important to me.”

