Congratulations to Dr. Rachel McKinnon on crushing it at Masters Worlds!
First thing’s first. Dr. Rachel McKinnon. CONGRATULATIONS!!! YOU CRUSHED IT AND I’M INCREDIBLY PROUD OF YOU!!!!
Folks are not seeking to understand, they are seeking to be cruel. This is a really big problem. I’ve dedicated my time to encouraging a more inclusive cycling community, and while my focus is people of color, specifically black women, I refuse to sit here and pretend I don’t see folks out here defaming another human, another cyclist, another woman, and another friend. Disrespect will never be tolerated.
Several members of the cycling community have shown their whole entire asses in response to Dr. Rachel McKinnon winning gold at Masters Worlds. She is the first transgender women to ever accomplish such a feat. Instead of congratulating her and reveling in the progress that is happening in the sport of cycling, people are degrading her and attempting to invalidate her accomplishments.
I know Rachel personally, and though we are not close, I’ve seen how hard she works. I’ve raced with her on a few occasions. I have seen her struggle, I have seen her succeed. Regardless of how well or poor either of us placed in a race, not once did I feel any differently about her doing better or worse than me than I felt about any other competitor. Nor did I attribute any given result to her being assigned a different gender at birth.
I’m still trying to understand how y’all think she made it this far without anyone putting a stop to it if she was in the wrong. As ruthless as folks are acting, do y’all honestly think nobody would have reported her if she was doing something outside the rules of USA Cycling and/ or the UCI? I can imagine throwing hurdles in her way would be a pastime for many. I can imagine this, because of the words I’ve seen not just these past few days since her win, but words I’ve seen about every single transgender athlete I’ve encountered during the 5 years I’ve been a part of this sport. Folks are always looking for a reason to discredit someone they don't like. As a teacher, I know kids are cruel. But the thing I often forget is that they are learning that cruelty from somewhere, from someone, or several someones.
During an audience participation portion of my keynote at the Georgia Bike Summit, a woman in the audience defined Implicit Bias as the information, generalizations, and knowledge you pick up at the dinner table. The things you learn from your parents that you take with you wherever you go and hold on to as truth regardless of their veracity.
I see folks out here completely ignorant to the facts of what it takes to be a transgender athlete, they’ll even go so far as to declare that they aren’t a scientist, right before spewing malicious words as though they know what they’re talking about. Your thoughts and commentary are not original. Stop it.
Folks are not seeking to understand, they are seeking to be cruel. If you really wanted to know if it is legal for Dr. McKinnon to compete with AFAB women, then you would use the many resources available to you and look it up. This conversation is old, even if she is the first transgender to reach such a high level of success within cycling. She is not the first to be questioned, she is not the first to be slandered, and unfortunately, she most likely will not be the last.
I know if/ when I ever achieve my goal, the legitimacy of my success will be questioned repeatedly. That’s just the way the world works. I’m bracing myself for it, and in watching how y’all are treating Dr. McKinnon right now, I need to start prepping on a doomsday level. Y’all should be ashamed.
If you are out there spewing cruelty thinly veiled as questions, or if you are simply being an asshole without bothering to pretend to be otherwise, I urge you to reconsider. Your attitude is bad for the sport, and worse for society.
As someone who’s encountered her fair share of hate for absolutely no reason. I can tell you that a lot of people do not care who they hurt, they’re looking for laughs, and support of their archaic uninformed beliefs. They are looking for the peanut gallery to confirm they are right in calling people names and coming up with “funny” anecdotes of what they’d do if they actually had a say in the matter.
This not just a critism of the perpetuators, but also the people who allow it. Don’t allow folks to be transphobic within your circles (or racist, xenophobic, sexist, etc). Call it out EVERY SINGLE TIME. Make them uncomfortable. Imagine how you would feel if you were the subject of their “criticism”.
I see you. All of you. You can do better. So do it.
There are so many resources for the lazy lot of you who didn’t bother to take the time to look up the things you claimed you wanted to know. For the record this is definitely tea with an extra helping of shade. If you’re confused and not sure if this song is about you, it is.
Perhaps next time, in the time it takes to post hate on your timeline, you could do a bit of actual research.
It’s not Dr. McKinnon’s (or any transgender person’s) job to educate us when there are so many resources available.
BTW
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Just in case you forgot.