Female martial artists quit a major competition last weekend, saying they felt “scared” and “unsafe” after being forced to fight against transgender women at previous tournaments.
The backlash forced the world’s largest wrestling association, the North American Grappling Association, to change its transgender policy on October 28.
It comes as female athletes have spoken out in recent months about being “genuinely scared” of competing against transgender women.
Professional martial artist Jayden Alexander said she was “devastated” after fighting a transgender woman in July and had ruled herself out of future matches to avoid fighting again.
“The experience was horrible and frightening,” Alexander said in a recent social media post about the experience. “I was definitely in fight or flight mode and as a seasoned competitor I can honestly say I’ve never been there mentally before in a competition.
Two transgender athletes took home medals at the Oct. 21 event, which was boycotted by several women
“In the coming months, when I started competing again, I had to exclude myself from a Jiu Jitsu world series and from an absolute women’s division at a NAGA to avoid competing with not one but two trans male athletes,” Alexander said. explained.
Over the summer, videos of female competitors competing against transgender challengers went viral, sparking protests over fairness and safety. Some noted that the transgender participants were much heavier than the female opponents.
Since then, the national association has changed its stance on transgender competitors.
The policy had stated that women would not be forced to compete against transgender fighters, but several women said that was not the case and boycotted a late October tournament in Georgia.
At that event, one of the transgender women, Corissa Griffith, took home four gold medals. Another transgender competitor, Cordelia Gregory, came second in a tournament.
Initially, Alexander said she wasn’t sure if she should speak out because she feared being labeled “transphobic.”
‘The simple fact is that it is absolutely unacceptable for men to take part in any martial art to fight against women. “We don’t deserve to exclude ourselves from competitions to avoid fighting men,” she added.
“We deserve to have rules and regulations put in place that will keep us safe and protect us from these situations.”
Jayden Alexander (in the red shirt) says she wasn’t told she would be fighting a transgender woman before the July 8 match
Co-founder of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, Marshi Smith, said Reduxx: ‘I have now spoken to four women who have all fought against male fighters in the martial art Jiu Jitsu. They are extremely upset.
‘They exclude themselves. They email the federation leadership and get fired.”
Another professional fighter, Ansleigh Wilk, said she was not told she would be fighting a transgender woman before the July 8 match and remained in “panic mode.”
She said that before the competitions it was “completely secret that she was a transgender competitor.”
‘They felt so strong, I thought ‘oh my god’. At first I was in total panic, I thought I couldn’t take them out,” Wilk said.
Wilk won her competition, but decided to speak out. She said: “This was always about the other girls who were traumatized by this event and the future of women’s wrestling. I can’t believe people think this is okay.’
Taelor Moore defeated her 200-pound transgender opponent at 135 pounds, but a viral video of the fight caused a huge backlash
The issue was thrust into the spotlight in September when a video of a 135-pound woman fighting — and punching — a 200-pound transgender athlete went viral.
Taelor Moore shared a video of her fighting 200-pound transgender athlete Alice McPike on social media with the caption “my biggest opponent yet.”
Although Moore won her fight and didn’t seem to mind fighting a transgender woman, there was a strong public backlash.
NAGA was forced to release a statement explaining that its policy gave women a choice as to whether they wanted to combat transgender women.
But when Wilk and Alexander came forward and said they had not been briefed or consulted during their previous fights, NAGA was forced to go further and change their policy.
NAGA shared their update last week: ‘As an organization, we strive for fairness, inclusivity and respect for all participants during our events.
“We will have wards for biological females only. Transgender women are not included in these divisions.
“Transgender women should compete in the men’s division. We hope that the simplicity of this revised policy will help prevent future occurrences of transgender women ending up in the women’s section.
“If NAGA personnel are told that a transgender woman is in a women’s division, they will be given the choice to move to the men’s division or get a refund.”
DailyMail.com contacted the association about the policy, but officials did not respond to this report in a timely manner.