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In protest of gender self-ID, New Zealand’s ‘strongest man’ powerlifter is applying to compete in the women’s division.
Dale Shepherd, who holds multiple titles, shared his registration form for an upcoming women’s meet in which he identified as a woman for the contest.
“It is important to me that both transgender athletes and biological women both have the ability to compete in sports,” Shepherd told Reduxx. “However, regardless of hormone treatment such as giving a biological male estrogen – the hormone primarily responsible for female characteristics – it does not totally negate all the years that male has had with higher testosterone levels resulting in greater bone density, tendon and muscle strength.”
“As such biological women are at a significant disadvantage.”
“To maintain equity and preserve women’s sports, transgenders and biological women must have their own separate classes or eventually all women’s sports will be overtaken by biological men who now identify as a woman,” he added.
In particular, Shepherd is protesting the latest rule by the Global Powerlifting Committee of New Zealand that recognizes “self-declared gender identity.”
“In what appears to have been a desperate scramble to prevent Shepherd from participating, the Global Powerlifting Committee had updated their website just after Shepherd submitted his application form, as evidenced by website archives,” Reduxx reported.
Shepherd’s stance attracted support from Save Women’s Sports Australasia, a women’s group that supports the preservation of biological female sports.