Chloie Jönsson, who was born male and had sexual reassignment surgery in 2006, sought to compete in the 2014 women's CrossFit Games.  After CrossFit reportedly refused to allow her to compete in the women's division, Jönsson sued CrossFit on March 6, 2014 in the Superior Court of Santa Cruz, California.  Claiming discrimination, Jönsson reportedly seeks $2.5 million in damages.

Several months prior to the lawsuit, CrossFit's general counsel, Rhode Island attorney Dale Saran [who, ironically, has blogged in the past on a wide array of topics including "What it means to be a man"], wrote Jönsson's attorney a letter (in response to her attorney's prior letter), stating that CrossFit would allow Jönsson to participate in the men's division but claiming that she would have an unfair advantage in the women's division. "The fundamental, ineluctable fact is that a male competitor who has a sex reassignment procedure still has a genetic makeup that confers a physical and physiological advantage over women," Saran wrote.

Some would disagree with Saran's physiological deductions.  In a piece on the lawsuit for The Advocate, writer Parker Molloy cites to certain medical authorities which purportedly represent a "consensus" that "transgender women do not have a competitive advantage over cisgender (nontrans) women."

Notably, the International Olympic Committee allows those born as males who undergo gender reclassification surgery to compete as women/girls under certain specified conditions including that "[h]ormonal therapy . . . has been administered in a verifiable manner and for a sufficient length of time to minimise gender-related advantages in sport competitions" [i.e. at least two years].  According to her attorney, Jönsson has undergone such therapy for more than eight years.

The venue makes this case more intriguing than it might otherwise have been, given the disparity in laws protecting transgender persons in the fifty states.  While its applicability will certainly be contested by CrossFit (should this case not settle), California's Unruh Civil Rights Act (Cal. Civ. Code §§ 51 et. seq.) generally prohibits discrimination in "business establishments" based on "gender identity."

The case is Chloie Jonsson v. CrossFit, Inc., Case Number CISCV178788. Jönsson is represented by San Francisco attorney, Waukeen McCoy.  At the time of this blog entry, no attorney has entered an appearance on behalf of CrossFit.

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