Sasha Jane Lowerson simply wished to surf.
But when the Australian longboard surfer tried to enter an upcoming competition in Huntington Beach, the athlete, who was born intersex, realized that the organizer wasn’t going to permit transgender athletes.
Instead, surfers can be required to enter the class of the gender they had been assigned at beginning, the organizer stated in a video posted to Instagram final month.
The video obtained over 4,000 likes and greater than 1,000 feedback from folks each supporting and arguing towards the transfer. This week, it prompted the California Coastal Commission to intervene in what fairness advocates say is a matter of entry to the state’s shoreline and an ongoing downside of discrimination towards transgender athletes.
A crowd gathers to look at the 2023 U.S. Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
“As I walk my journey through the turmoil and the implications of people that want to spread misinformation, I’ve found myself wondering why?” Lowerson wrote in a submit on Instagram in response to the state of affairs. “Just why [do] people hate me for existing?”
The combat enjoying out in Huntington Beach is a component of a bigger dialogue over the rights of transgender people throughout the nation, significantly these in skilled sports activities.
Former President Trump has stated he plans to ban transgender athletes from collaborating in ladies’s sports activities if he once more wins the White House in November. Though town of Huntington Beach will not be a part of the combat, some LGBTQ+ activists have expressed concern after the actions of a brand new, conservative City Council — which, amongst different issues, banned Pride flags from being flown at metropolis properties.
Advocates akin to surf fairness activist Sabrina Brennan say a ban has nothing to do with athleticism or competition.
“It’s a Republican and religious agenda that’s playing out and, frankly, harming people,” Brennan stated. “The entire LGBTQ community is being negatively impacted. There’s a lot of damage happening.”
Sabrina Brennan of the group Surf Equity says the Huntington Beach occasion’s try to bar transgender contestants has nothing to do with athleticism or competition. “It’s a Republican and religious agenda that’s playing out,” she stated.
(Melina Mara / Getty Images)
Lowerson didn’t reply to Times requests for remark. However, she informed the Inertia that earlier than she entered the Huntington Beach Longboard Pro contest, scheduled for Saturday, she reached out to organizer Todd Messick to ensure a spot was out there for her. She didn’t hear again, however noticed his video submit calling for extra entrants in the ladies’s division, so she entered, she informed the outlet.
In his Instagram video on April 25, Messick addressed Lowerson’s entry, saying that his coverage was to “support biological males and biological females in their divisions, respectively.” The coverage, he stated, complied with the requirements of the game’s governing physique, the International Surfing Assn.
“You guys can live however and whatever you want to do in life. It’s not for me to decide,” he stated in the video. “But it is for me to decide what’s fair and not fair for the American Longboard Assn. That being said, we’re going to stick to our guns. I want to offer an equal playing field for all athletes.”
Messick didn’t reply to a name searching for touch upon Thursday.
The video rapidly caught Brennan’s consideration, and she or he contacted the California Coastal Commission.
Fans watch the U.S. Open of Surfing challenger collection in Huntington Beach in 2023.
(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
International Surfing Assn. coverage, which was up to date final 12 months, states {that a} transgender lady could take part in a ladies’s occasion if she offers a written declaration saying she identifies as a lady and tells the group’s medical fee that her testosterone degree has been under a sure focus in the final 12 months. Lowerson wrote on-line that she meets all necessities for her to compete in the ladies’s class.
“I think discrimination on public property, on public lands, is completely unacceptable,” Brennan stated. “To do this in a surf competition is absolutely not right. The ocean belongs to all of us.”
Brennan, who runs Surf Equity, which goals to enhance entry, fairness and justice in professional browsing, stated forcing a transgender athlete to “compete in a gender category that they don’t identify with is just really wrong.”
It’s additionally not in compliance with present coverage, she stated.
California Coastal Commission employees wrote in a letter Tuesday to Messick that if he needs to host the occasion, he must enable transgender athletes to take part. Banning these people violates the Coastal Act, a landmark regulation that declared the seashore as a public treasure to be shared by everybody, in keeping with the letter.
“Prohibiting or unfairly limiting transgender athletes from competing in this or any surf competition that takes place in the coastal waters of California does not meet the requirements of the public access policies of the Coastal Act and impedes access by discriminating against transgender surfers,” Coastal Commission Executive Director Kate Huckelbridge wrote.
The letter was written to formalize a dialog employees had with Messick in which he agreed to permit transgender members in the competition, in keeping with the doc.
Lowerson stated in an interview with the Inertia that she entered the Huntington Beach contest to have enjoyable. But now she’s determined to not take part.
This is the American Longboard Assn.’s second 12 months internet hosting the competition in Huntington Beach.
Brennan and others have lengthy fought to make browsing — historically a male-dominated sport — extra inclusive in California. And this isn’t the primary time the California Coastal Commission has stepped in.
In 2016, the fee required the Titans of Mavericks, a well-known big-wave contest close to Half Moon Bay, to have a warmth for ladies if it wished a allow. For many years, the competition had invited solely males.
In 2018, the State Lands Commission indicated it could lease the general public seashore for Mavericks provided that men and women had been awarded the identical prize cash. Historically, ladies have been paid lower than male surfers collaborating in the identical contests. Commission employees wrote in a report on the time that “the waves do not discriminate.”
Sawyer Lindblad positioned first in the finals of the U.S. Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach in 2023.
(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
Lowerson has lengthy been a public determine in the browsing world. In March 2022, she positioned ninth in the Noosa Festival of Surfing and was the primary transgender lady to compete on the skilled degree. She additionally positioned first in the Open Women’s and Women’s Logger divisions on the Western Australian State Titles that 12 months.
Despite the positive aspects made by transgender athletes, there have been persistent detractors. Sportswear firm Rip Curl confronted backlash this 12 months after it featured Lowerson in an Instagram submit as a part of the corporate’s “Meet the Local Heroes of Western Australia” marketing campaign. The feedback finally prompted the corporate to take away the submit, in keeping with revealed studies.
“I just want to be me, and I want to be included,” Lowerson informed the Australian Broadcasting Co. in 2022.
Lowerson’s title didn’t seem on a listing of people collaborating in the ladies’s division of the Huntington Beach Longboard Pro competition revealed Thursday. The roster had two spots left.