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news
Emily Bridges on cover of DIVA magazine“Trans rights are human rights,” says Rapha – “all athletes should have the opportunity to race”
Rapha has said that “trans rights are human rights” in a reference to Emily Bridges, the transgender cyclist who is pictured on the cover of this month’s issue of Diva, the magazine for LGBTQI women and non-binary people, wearing kit from the London-based clothing and accessories brand.
> Transgender cyclist Emily Bridges insists she has no advantage over rivals
Bridges had been due to make her debut in a women’s race at the National Omnium Championships in February after her testosterone levels fell within those allowed by British Cycling under its Transgender and Non-Binary Participation Policy.
However, world cycling’s governing body, the UCI, subsequently barred the 21 year old from competing at the event and British Cycling has since suspended its policy.
In her interview with Diva, Bridges insisted that the hormone replacement therapy she has undergone means she does not have a physical advantage over riders she would be competing against in women’s races.
“I don't have any advantage over my competitors and I've got data to back that up,” maintained the cyclist, who has been undergoing testing at Loughborough University.
In response to a tweet from road.cc linking to our coverage of Bridges’ interview, Rapha said: “Trans rights are human rights. We believe that all athletes should have the opportunity to race. We don’t have all the answers to how this should be actioned but we’re standing by our athletes and supporting them.”
Transgender cyclist Emily Bridges insists she has no advantage over rivals
“We're the current punching bag in the culture war,” says 21 year old in interview with DIVA magazinehttps://t.co/hmHRBvf9OD #cycling pic.twitter.com/ejzbaiTM2u
— road.cc (@roadcc) May 26, 2022
Trans rights are human rights. We believe that all athletes should have the opportunity to race. We don’t have all the answers to how this should be actioned but we’re standing by our athletes and supporting them.
— Rapha (@rapha) May 30, 2022
There are few issues in sport right now that are as polarising of opinion as whether transgender athletes should be permitted to compete in women’s competitions, and SRS Events said in a tweet: “Can’t understand why Emily doesn’t understand that it’s unfair to cis women if she takes part in women’s cycle racing events?”
In response to that tweet, Bridges' mother Sandy Sullivan responded, saying: "Because she's spent the last nearly 18 months as part of detailed scientific research studies which includes muscular biopsy data amongst other DETAILED scientific testing. Compare [the above] to previous data held by BC (5 YRS WORTH).”
Because she's spent the last nearly 18 months as part of detailed scientific research studies which includes muscular biopsy data amongst other DETAILED scientific testing. Compare ⬆️ to previous data held by BC (5 YRS WORTH)
— Sandy 💜💙❤ 🏳️🌈 Ally She/Her (@sullivansa1) May 27, 2022
Bridges also told Diva that transgender athletes are “the current punching bag populist movements like to go for. We are, at the moment, who the culture war is against.
“There needs to be more positive voices and more education. People are constructing opinions off not the whole story.
“The more studies that are done, the more concrete evidence there will be.
“Sport acts as a microcosm to the rest of society, so with the patriarchal structure that exists in the rest of society, that's intensified in sport,” she added.
Rapha is controlled by an RZC Investments, owned by Tom and Steuart Walton, two of the heirs to the Walmart grocery fortune.
The retailer, founded by their grandfather Sam Walton, is based in Bentonville, Arkansas.
Rapha relocated its North American HQ in 2020 from Portland, Oregon to Bentonville, which in January hosted this year’s UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships, with Walmart acting as headline sponsor to the event.
In March, the Republican governor of Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson, vetoed legislation aimed at banning gender-confirming treatments or surgery for transgender youth. His veto was subsequently overturned by the state legislature.
Tom Walton said in a statement published at the time on the website of the Walton Family Foundation that he backed the governor’s position, reports Bike Industry and Retail News, although it noted that Hutchinson had previously signed into law legislation banning transgender women and girls from competing in school sports.
“We are alarmed by the string of policy targeting LGBTQ people in Arkansas,” Walton said.
“This trend is harmful and sends the wrong message to those willing to invest in or visit our state.
“We support Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s recent veto of discriminatory policy and implore government, business and community leaders to consider the impact of existing and future policy that limits basic freedoms and does not promote inclusiveness in our communities and economy.
“Our nation was built on inalienable rights and strengthened by individual differences. Arkansas has been called the land of opportunity because it is a place where anyone can think big and achieve the extraordinary.
“Any policy that limits individual opportunity also limits our state’s potential,” he added.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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169 comments
Using the same logic, shall we ban Ian Thorpe because of his feet? Argument is flawed and bias is exposed.
Are you saying women cannot be that tall? Oh, gender bias as well.
Show me a 6'4" biological female swimmer.
Ian Thorpe isn't trans is he? In which case it's not a great comparison. Show me a biological female swimmer with the same size feet as him.
Flimsy arguments at best backed up with name calling. You and Nos have done nothing to further the case of allowing trans female athletes to compete against biological females. Nothing.
I don't know whether she ever went swimming but:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Allen
(Also as you'll remember we've already gone through some examples of women - by everyone's definition as far as I recall - "winning" / achieving things men could not at certain disciplines).
There are quite wide ranges. The "average" may be an unhelpful concept given we're talking sport, where the unusual is usual. Otherwise we can all enjoy a kick-about / challenging ourselves. People cluster around certain physiologies at higher levels of sport. Stating the obvious basketball players tend to be tall (other things being equal), Sumo wrestling - partly because no weight classes - favours strength, mass and low centre of gravity etc. "Optimum" is not necessarily a single point for given discipline. There may be multiple possible optima - and each may have own tradeoffs. So extreme strength may be useful but lose you speed / add weight etc. Given *some* male / female differences (I know, we're arguing about just that...) the optimum might differ across sexes as well.
Are there absolute limits for original biological sex - which could then be "carried over" if you transition? I'm tempted to say "google it"...
Oh come come chrisonatrike. Don't fall back to posting links to outliers when trying to prove a point. We know that doesn't work.
Sandy suffered from a condition called gigantism.
We also know Missy Franklin and Kate Ledecky aren't trans so yes, they may be taller than the other biological female competitors but they won't and don't have the advantages of going through male puberty.
If you're going to rule out 'outliers', I think that's going to stop you talking about elite athletes at all.
But, we aren't talking about outliers, we are talking about trans females competing against non-trans females.
You posted a link to Sandy Allen who as far as I can tell was neither a female athlete or trans.
if you want to compare like for like then compare Phelps to Ledecky. Or Lia Thomas pre-trans to Lia Thomas post-trans. Lia was ranked somewhere between 500-600 as a man but when she transitioned that didn't equate to her being ranked 500-600 as a female. Why is that?
Apologies mdavidford, it was chrisonatrike that posted the link to Sandy Allen.
which is the point that sparrow stares in the face and still misses,every time
sport at an elite level is all about genetic outliers, by definition. Sparrow just wants to decide some genetic outliers - proven or otherwise, they'll just assume them - can be excluded just because he's a transphobe.
byt he's also an acknowledged mysogynist who stated that bearing children is the greatest thing a woman can do, so yeah.
sparrow - fortunately your fact-less opinion based off less than o level / gcse biology isn't particularly important.
which is the point that sparrow stares in the face and still misses,every time
sport at an elite level is all about genetic outliers, by definition. Sparrow just wants to decide some genetic outliers - proven or otherwise, they'll just assume them - can be excluded just because he's a transphobe.
byt he's also an acknowledged mysogynist who stated that bearing children is the greatest thing a woman can do, so yeah.
sparrow - fortunately your fact-less opinion based off less than o level / gcse biology isn't particularly important.
Maybe answer the question I posed then? Why, when Lia raced as a man she was ranked 500-600 but now she identifies as a woman she isn't ranked 500-600 in the female ranking?
I stated women bearing children as something only biological women can do.
Here you go again with the pearl cluthching and finger pointing. Maybe come to the discussion with one of your geneticist friends who can cite studies and papers about how biology is no longer useful as a divider in sports?
Ah no, actually. You stated it was the greatest thing a woman can do. You then tried to walk it back after you were loudly told,to fuck off. But you still said it.
Would this be another question that you have spun up to deflect from the fact you dint like some genetic outliers, proven or otherwise, because at heart you go "ick". It's ok - stop denying. First step to growing and overcoming.
anyway. As ever you're quite, quite dull. It's not even entertaining anymore. You really are this deficient in your understanding of biology, and wish to foist that on everyone else. Sadly, it's just sad.
Oh dear Nos. looks like those transphobes at the BBC are allowing yet more bigoted opinions based on outdated "science"...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/61346517
Get on to them! Tell them you know geneticists and true up-to-date scientists that can categorically prove them wrong!
I'll expect the page to be taken down and replaced with a full apology after you've put them straight.
You merely asked for a tall female swimmer so I suggested one. I'm sure there are plenty more. You're correct, she suffered from gigantism. As did Andre the Giant. On the other hand Peter Dinklage is quite short.
What was your point again...?
I was just trying to help out on the "it's more complicated" front as different abilities / sizes / power-to-weight-ratios etc. are available across humanity. Those abilities have different utility in different sports, no? That points to any binary decision being a flawed one. You can of course sidestep that with "the most important thing is that people compete on declared gender lines and everything else has to follow from that".
Anyway I think the nitty gritty of different particular advantages in different sports are the only place where the "science" may be informative. Rather than just saying "no change, because sex (and science)", "all change, because gender (and science)" or even "no-one gets to comment because 'science' and I'm the referee". Probably "no comments" is where we're headed anyway, at the current rate bring it on.
Of course that's all begging the question of what we mean by "fair" in sports or what we want to achieve in sports at all. Sounds like a problem firmly in the domain of human interactions and decisions to me, that.
My point is you negated any point you had when you posted that link.
Aaand now you go back to the nuance.
Never been anywhere but. Anyway, it's past mine but there's still light to ride by, so I'll let you and nosferatu1001 and our (new?) cycling-positive friend here have at it.
Weirdly it is only you who ever quote her height as 6ft 4. I picked this up on other discussion you have had on this. Where do you get that from? All searches seem to be anywhere from 5ft 8 to 6ft 1 (wiki the last one) and even that might have been a guess from a WP article where they point out Missy Franklin was taller and Kate Ledecky was 1inch or so smaller.
You know, I may be wrong about Lia's height. It's listed in most places as 1.85m which is 6'1".
I stand corrected.
Never mind dear. Maybe next time, learn how the text editor works so you do not deliberately misquote someone.
Whoosh
* You're
1. OMG I am so over this story. This person seems like a desperate attention seeker now...
2. Rapha is cliquey way overpriced tat and whenever I see cyclists wearing it they are often the most unaware, inconsiderate, narcissistic, and half-witted goobers in the cycle lane...
3. I spend a bit of time in Arkansas and I can tell you it is really quite backward. Like developing nation backward. A barbaric place compared to most EU countries.
Or, she's trying to compete in the sport she loves, as the gender she is.
But sports aren't based on ideology such as gender, they are based on biology and physiology.
That would be your idea of biology, which is sub-o level, yes?
What is that line from Shake it Off? Oh, yes, "And the haters gonna hate...".
If Emily Bridges was my accountant, I'd be more than happy for her to do my taxes. If she was an airline pilot I'd take my seat without an iota of doubt in her abilities. If she were my GP I'd be perfectly OK dropping my pants for a prostate exam. In pretty much no walk of life does her gender identity "matter" to anyone other than herself and those close to her.
However, a lot of elite competitive sports are based not only on hard work, training and commitment. You need to start with an unfair advantage over others, usually physical traits that you are lucky enough to inherit. For a transgender athlete such as Emily, the only way that she is going to prove that being born and developing with a male body before transitioning has conferred no unfair advantage over, shall we say, traditional female athletes is to lose.
Like many of us, she has choices to make about her priorities in life and sometimes that means being mindful about being fair to others who are also chasing their ambitions.
Fairness. Based on your own opinion or scientific evidence?
Science, in general, only informs opinion. Very few scientific theories make it to becoming incontrovertible laws of nature. This is the great strength of the scientific method.
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