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Fans heavily criticized the supporters who are demanding rights for transgender women to participate in women's categories. On August 13, the 2023 UCI World Cycling Championships saw many protesting for trans athletes along with holding the ‘Let Trans Women Win’ sign.
On coming across the picture, social media users immediately expressed their reactions.
It all started in May 2023 when trans athlete, Austin Killips, became the first transgender athlete to win the UCI women’s stage race. The 27-year-old's victory sparked a massive debate in the cycling world, raising concerns among women cyclists about unfair competition rules.
As a result, the World’s cycling authorities reviewed the rule of allowing transgender women to participate in women athletes.
Finally, weeks before the 2023 UCI World Cycling Championships, the authorities announced that transgender women would be allowed to compete in the men/open categories and not in the women category.
Reacting to it, many trans supporters took to the streets of Glasgow during the championship to condemn the decision taken by the World’s cycling authorities. However, when a glimpse of the protest was shared by the official Twitter page of For Women Scotland, netizens took a stand for women athletes.
A Twitter page named For Women Scotland shared the picture and captioned it:
"The sign (from UCI in Glasgow today) says "Let Trans Women Win". Not enough that they are "included", they are openly confirming what we all already knew, they want to take women's prizes."
Reacting to the picture, Twitter users expressed that it would be unfair to woman athletes if transgender women were allowed to participate in their events,
"Misogyny in plain sight. A men's demands movement. At least their planned mass protest looks like a damp squib & I doubt that sign would win them any friends. #SaveWomensSports," a fan wrote.
Another user marked the issue as 'misogynistic.'
"Horrible misogynists," another fan wrote.
Here are a few more reactions from netizens.
Male transgender swimmer takes a stand for transphobic rules
The Freedom For All Americans organization announced that 25 American states proposed a bill last year, prohibiting trans kids from competing in swimming championships. The idea behind the proposed bill was to "promote fairness in women's sports." However, the topic raised the thought of building a culture of transphobia.
As a result, trans male athlete swimmer Iszac Henig, the recipient of the Outsports Transgender Athlete of the Year for 2022, found it necessary to protest against the transphobic attitude of people and authorities. Therefore, NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships held in March 2022, he competed with "Let trans kids play" written on his arms.
He also expressed his intention behind his gesture in an interview with Allure. Heing stated:
"It was about getting that message out there as a trans athlete in solidarity for other trans athletes at all levels."
