June 04, 2015 3:25 PM
Texas Woman Starts Campaign To Revoke Caitlyn Jenner's Olympic Medals
Haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate.
Change the conversation, change the world Share this
There were hopeful signs in the public reaction to the coming out of Caitlyn Jenner as transgender, particularly how she outpaced even President Obama in Twitter followers.
The initial reaction seemed much more positive than expected. But we
all suspected the negative blowback was lying in wait, mumbling and
grumbling and plotting the slinging of transphobic mud.
Timbaland and Drake Bell attacked Caitlyn on Twitter. Tom Cruise's twenty-year-old son Connor Cruise, complained she didn't deserve the Arthur Ashe Courage award. And a Fort Hood, Texas, woman named Jennifer Bradford, has started a Change.org petition
asking the International Olympic Committee to revoke the gold medal
Bruce Jenner won in the men’s decathlon at the 1976 Montreal Olympics
(photo below.) Ms. Bradford reasons that because Caitlyn Jenner says she
always felt like a woman, the competition was unfair to the other male
athletes.
Here's the entire disingenuous letter:
Dear International Olympic Committee,
It
has recently come to light that gold medalist Bruce Jenner is in fact
transgender, and therefore, identifies as a woman. We congratulate Ms.
Jenner on these new developments and wish her the best. However, this
creates somewhat of a problem as Ms. Jenner (as talented as she is)
claims that she has always believed herself to be truly female, and
therefore, was in violation of committee rules regarding women competing
in men's sports and vice versa. Therefore, it is with a heavy heart
that we must ask whether or not it is proper that Ms. Jenner should
retain her olympic records in light of this, as we must now either claim
that Bruce Jenner and Caitlyn Jenner are two entirely different people
(which we know is not true), or that Bruce Jenner was, in fact, a woman
participating in a men's event. It is only fair to all involved that
women receive their credit as champions of the Decathalon and that the
men racing Ms. Jenner are not expected to compete with a superior,
streamlined being such as herself.
We urge Ms. Jenner to support the transgender community by giving up the medals earned by competing against the wrong gender.
Thank you, and congratulations to Ms. Jenner for her courage!
#givebackthegold.
As I write this, Ms. Bradford's letter had over 10,000 signatories. As Taylor Swifts says, haters gonna hate.
4951