USA Powerlifting president weighing appeal after transgender athlete wins discrimination case
Kaelan Deese
USA Powerlifting President Larry Maile is weighing an appeal after a state court ruled it discriminated against transgender athlete JayCee Cooper from competing in women’s competitions.
Late last month, the federation was ordered to “cease and desist from all unfair discriminatory practices” in response to a 2021 lawsuit from Cooper, a biological male who identifies as a woman, claiming the organization violated Minnesota’s Human Rights Act after the athlete was barred from competing in the women’s division. The decision effectively requires USAPL to allow biological men to compete in the women’s lifting division.
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“Our position has been aimed at balancing the needs of cis- and transgender women, whose capacities differ significantly in purely strength sports,” Maile said in a statement following the Feb. 27 order by Judge Patrick C. Diamond. “We are considering all of our options, including appeal.”
Cooper’s dispute goes even further back, stemming from a 2019 complaint to the Minnesota Department of Human Rights.
According to the 46-page ruling, Diamond wrote, “The harm is in making a person pretend to be something different, the implicit message being that who they are is less than. That is the very essence of separation and segregation, and it is what the MHRA prohibits.”
After the decision, Cooper said the suit was inspired because “I was fed up with the way I was being treated,” adding that “enough was enough,” according to a KARE interview.
Now, a jury is slated to convene on May 1 for a damages trial to determine “the damages, if any, Cooper incurred as a result of USAPL’s public accommodation discrimination because of sexual orientation, USAPL’s business discrimination because of sex, and USAPL’s business discrimination because of sexual orientation.”
The decision against the USAPL comes in the wake of other sports organizations that have altered their rules in the wake of more transgender athletes competing in women’s sports. Last December, the International Olympic Committee decided that determinations over who can or cannot qualify to compete in the 2024 Paris Games will be left up to the governing body of each sport, encouraging “category qualifiers.”
The governing bodies of each sport are entrusted to make sure there are no unfair advantages for athletes competing in a particular sport and are tasked to consider ethical, cultural, social, and legal contexts before making eligibility decisions.
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Cooper reportedly last competed at the 2022 AMP Classic Open Nationals in Texas, finishing in third place out of three divisional competitors. However, Cooper was successful in the women’s raw 198+ open category in 2019, winning both times against a lone competitor, Rebecca Richnofsky.
The Washington Examiner contacted USAPL for a response.