Your post terms a trans woman’s body as a controversy, while misrepresenting her gender.

Mainstream ‘science’ behind the gender binary is constructed to repress all women, whether they’re transgender or not.

And Laurel Hubbard isn’t competing “as a woman” — Hubbard is a woman, competing as herself, like the women athletes.

The focus on testosterone levels by mainstream media suggests a narrow understanding of what transitioning means. These tests have been used in anti-Black racism — they discriminate against Black, non-trans women like Caster Semenya. In contrast, genetic differences that give cisgender white men like Micheal Phelps an advantage in his sport, are celebrated.

Your story cites the NY Post, which has an ongoing history of transphobic stories. And it doesn’t mention that Hubbard is making a comeback after a significant sports injury from 2018: “When I broke my arm at the Commonwealth Games three years ago, I was advised that my sporting career had likely reached its end,” Hubbard said in a statement, expressing gratitude to supporters. “But your support, your encouragement, and your aroha carried me through the darkness.”

Your piece adds to the age old false and harmful trope that trans people are portraying themselves as someone else to get some sort of benefit.

It pits trans people against non-trans people through the cisgender, heteronormative concept of flawed ‘objectivity’.

The historical media misrepresentation and the narratives that try to invalidate a trans person’s gender identity through inaccurate comparisons with a non-trans person’s, perpetuate the ongoing violence and record-breaking US legislative attacks, disproportionately affecting trans youth, women and trans femme people of color.

This year is expected to be the worst on record for the number of trans people killed. Our existence and access to human rights isn’t up for debate.

Please stop adding to these narratives, my siblings are dying.