Fashion magazine Vogue is under fire for including a transgender cyclist as the only athlete on its 2023 top 25 “powerhouse women” list.
The list, published on Aug. 22, claims to honor “the women defining – and redefining – Britain in 2023.” It includes musicians, politicians, actors, filmmakers, fashion designers, and more. But only one athlete is on this list of powerful women, and he isn’t even a woman.
The list includes professional Welsh cyclist Emily Bridges, who became a left-wing hero after the British Cycling Federation banned male-born athletes from competing in the women’s category.
Vogue quotes Bridges as saying that the ban is “very scary” and that Bridges plans to fight the ban in the courts.
Emily Bridges and guest attend The Attitude Pride Awards 2022 at The Langham Hotel on July 28, 2022, in London, England. (David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images)
The inclusion of Bridges on the list, though, was blasted as “ludicrous” by Cathy Devine, an independent researcher in feminist philosophy at the University of Cumbria, according to the Express.
“Ludicrously Vogue chooses male cyclist Emily Bridges as one of its top 25 women,” Devine said. “Emily Bridges is fighting for males to be included in female sport. And losing.”
Further, TalkTV presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer pointed out that the claim that Bridges was “banned” is factually incorrect.
“Emily Bridges isn’t banned from competitive cycling,” Hartley-Brewer said, adding that Bridges was still welcome to compete in the “correct category.”
Bridges has lashed out at the ban and called it the start of a “genocide” against transgender people.
Trans cyclist Emily Bridges (Huw Fairclough/Getty Images)
“When the government is expressing admiration towards Ron Desenantis’ [sic] fascist state which kidnaps children, and is itching to pass legislation to ban us from public life, this is a violent act,” Bridges wrote in an Instagram post on May 26.
“British Cycling are supporting this, they are furthering a genocide against us,” the cyclist continued. “Bans from sport is how it starts, look at what is going on in America. It starts with sports bans, then youth and general healthcare and then bans from public life through bathroom bans.”
Oddly, Bridges felt being prevented from competing in a bicycle race was “literally a fight for survival for me and my family at the moment.”
Despite Bridges’ hysterics, the British cycling authority didn’t ban transgender athletes altogether. Instead, the group has created an “open” category for trans athletes who don’t want to compete under their birth gender.
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