AP Photo/Luca Bruno
A trans athlete who goes by the name Laurel Hubbard (formerly Gavin Hubbard) failed to earn a medal in women’s Olympic weightlifting on Monday morning after missing three consecutive snatches in the super-heavyweight competition. “Laurel,” who was born a male and lived as a male for 35 years, underwent treatments to make him more like a female seven years ago. In other words, Hubbard had male levels of testosterone coursing through his veins for three and a half decades, giving him lifelong physical advantages over his female competitors.
(Aside: I don’t play semantic games with gender pronouns. When using masculine pronouns, I am referring to an individual born male, with male DNA.)