The Olympic rings floating on a platform near Odaiba, in Tokyo Bay, in anticipation of the Olympic Games – Photo: Real Estate Japan, via Wikimedia.
New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard is slated to become the first transgender athlete to compete at the Olympics after qualifying for the upcoming Tokyo Games, which were postponed a year due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Hubbard qualified for the games in the women’s super heavyweight division, due to a rule change passed regarding the qualification system, which originally required athletes to participate in six events across three six-month-long phases, with the best result from each phase, plus the best remaining result, being used to qualify. By competing, athletes also offered themselves up for testing for performance-enhancing drugs.
However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the rule was changed so athletes only needed to post one event from phase one (back in 2018), one from phase two, and any two other performances during the qualification window, according to Inside the Games. The deadline for qualification is July 5.
Under current International Olympic Committee rules, a transgender athlete may compete as a woman, provided their testosterone levels are below 10 nanomoles per liter for at least 12 months before their first competition. Hubbard already met that particular eligibility criteria, but there was still uncertainty over whether she’d have the requisite number of qualifying performances due to the cancellation of many different competitions.
Now, having qualified, the 43-year-old Hubbard will be the oldest weightlifter at the Tokyo Games later this year. Just about two years ago, she sustained an injury at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia that could have potentially ended her career.
But she rebounded, winning gold medals at the 2019 Pacific Games in Samoa — although her victory over Feagaiga Stowers, Samoa’s Commonwealth Games champion, sparked outrage among Samoans and among opponents of transgender participation in female-designated sports. She also placed sixth at the last IWF World Championships that year.
Hubbard’s best total in qualifying is 285 kilograms, which could place her among a small group of athletes who might potentially win a medal. She is currently ranked 16th overall, but six athletes ranked above her — four from China and two from South Korea — will be absent, due to a rule limiting each nation to one athlete per category.
Additionally, a North Korean athlete ranked above her will not compete due to North Korea refusing to participate in the Olympic Games, and a Russian athlete ranked above her is currently suspended.
In a 2017 interview, Hubbard noted that the rules enabling her to compete as a transgender woman first went into effect in 2003.
“They are known as the Stockholm consensus with the IOC but I think even 10 years ago the world perhaps wasn’t ready for an athlete like myself — and perhaps it is not ready now,” she said at the time. “But I got the sense at least that people were willing to consider me for these competitions and it seemed like the right time to put the boots on and hit the platform.”
Former Disney star Geno Segers has left the new Broadway cast of Hadestown, following backlash over social media videos in which he mocked transgender people and dismissed claims that their rights are under attack.
Segers, who previously starred in the Disney XD sitcom Pair of Kings, was set to play Hades, god of the underworld, in the hit musical. According to the Broadway and community theater publication OnStage Blog, Segers had posted several videos to his social media channels with titles including "TRANS FAIRNESS?", "NO MORE TRANS?" and "HE...I MEAN SHE BROKE THE RECORD."
Point of Pride, a trans-led nonprofit that provides financial aid and direct health services to transgender youth and adults, has opened applications for its Thrive Fund, which helps trans people with expenses not covered by the organization's other programs.
Established in 2024, the Thrive Fund helps cover expenses beyond the nonprofit's existing services, which range from free chest binders and femme shapewear to financial assistance for transition-related surgery, hormone therapy, and electrolysis.
Thrive Fund grants can cover non-medical transition-related expenses, including legal fees for name and gender marker changes, fertility preservation, vocal therapy, and medical tattooing used to restore skin pigmentation or conceal scars from gender-affirming surgery. Applicants may request up to $2,500 at a time.
A transgender couple faces criminal charges after being beaten by a mob over their use of a women's restroom at Cypress Black Bayou Park in Benton, Louisiana.
Aurora Rush and Shae Sanders went to Cypress Black Bayou Park on May 31 for a lakeside cookout. Rush, a trans woman, used the women's restroom and returned to the lake without incident. Later, as the couple headed back to their car, Sanders, who is nonbinary and was assigned female at birth, stopped to use the same restroom, according to journalist S. Baum, reporting for Erin Reed's Erin in the Morning Substack.
As Rush waited outside, she says a man began harassing her. He followed her to her car, threatening to harm her if she entered the women's restroom, calling her slurs, and trying to provoke a fight. After leaving some belongings in the car, Rush returned to a pavilion outside the restroom to wait for Sanders.
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