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Veronica Ivy

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Rachel McKinnon (born 1982) is a Canadian philosophy professor, competitive cyclist, and transgender rights activist.[1] In 2018, became the first transgender world track cycling champion by placing first at the UCI Women’s (Because shes a dude) Masters Track World Championship for the 35–44 age bracket.

Early life and education

McKinnon is from Victoria, British Columbia. She earned a Bachelors of Arts degree in Philosophy from the University of Victoria (2005). She completed her PhD from University of Waterloo in Philosophy in 2012,[2][3] with a thesis entitled "Reasonable Assertions: On Norms of Assertion and Why You Don't Need to Know What You're Talking About".[4]

McKinnon has said she first began thinking she might be transgender when she was 13 but took another 16 years to "come to terms with it," starting her transition at around the time she was finishing her doctorate, and came out to the world "two days after I defended my dissertation."[5] She wrote to her students to tell them that she was transgender on 2 May 2012.[6]

Academic career

McKinnon is an associate professor of philosophy at the College of Charleston in South Carolina.[1][3] She won tenure in March 2019, and became an associate professor in August the same year.[7]

McKinnon's primary research focus is the philosophy of language. The majority of her published work is about the norms of the speech act of assertion,[2] pre-eminently her 2015 monograph The Norms of Assertion: Truth, Lies, and Warrant (Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 978-1-137-52172-9).

Another focus of some of McKinnon's work is feminism and feminist philosophy, particularly issues relating to gender and queer identities.[2]

Athletic career

Prior to moving to the College of Charleston, McKinnon played badminton. Lacking a strong badminton scene at Charleston, McKinnon developed an interest in sport cycling.[5] On 12 October 2018, she won the world 200-meter sprint record for women in the 35-39 age range,[8] and the next day won the UCI Masters World Track Cycling Championship in the Women's Sprint 35-44 age bracket, becoming the first transgender world champion in track cycling.[9][10][11]

Controversy

McKinnon's 2018 cycling victory was controversial.[12] American cyclist Jennifer Wagner, who finished third, complained that the race was unfair because McKinnon's birth sex gave her physiological advantages. The silver-medal winner, Dutch athlete Caroline van Herrikhuyzen, supported McKinnon.[13] McKinnon argued that there was no evidence that being born male gave her an advantage in the race and said she had lost to Wagner in the past.[14]

British columnist Katie Hopkins wrote on Twitter: "for clarity - this was the WOMENS world championships. I repeat. Women's. Congratulations to the brave faces of silver & bronze. The world is gripped by a febrile madness".[15] Tennis great Martina Navrátilová said that allowing people born male to compete in women's sports was "insane" and "cheating" [16] McKinnon on Twitter criticized Navatrilova's comments as "transphobic." [17]

McKinnon said she received more than 100,000 hateful comments on Twitter. She cited one of the fundamental rules of the International Olympic Committee that the practice of sport is a human right.[1] Her participation in the competition was consistent with rules in force since 2003.[18] Some commentators felt that McKinnon had an advantage over her counterparts because of her size and muscle mass. McKinnon objected to this criticism: she must keep her testosterone level low as a prerequisite for her participation in sports competitions. Thresholds for transgender women are lower than for female-born athletes.[19]

In August 2019, McKinnon tweeted (by her account in relation to the death of David Koch) that "it’s okay to be happy, even celebrate, when bad people die". Controversy followed when a respondent, believed to be alluding to the terminal illness of Magdalen Berns (a feminist commentator on YouTube who has been characterised as transphobic),[20] asked if McKinnon "thought it was OK to celebrate the death of a young person suffering from an incurable brain tumor" (quoting the account of the Charleston The Post and Courier). McKinnon replied: "if they’re a trash human actively trying to harm marginalized people because of who they are? I think it’s justified". The exchange provoked a petition seeking McKinnon's public apology.[7][21][22]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Transgender women in sport: Are they really a 'threat' to female sport?". 18 December 2018 – via www.bbc.com.
  2. ^ a b c "McKinnon, Rachel - College of Charleston". philosophy.cofc.edu.
  3. ^ a b 'Rachel McKinnon', The Conversation.
  4. ^ Rachel McKinnon, "Reasonable Assertions: On Norms of Assertion and Why You Don't Need to Know What You're Talking About" (unpublished PhD thesis, University of Waterloo, 2012).
  5. ^ a b Fred Dreier, "Q&A: Dr. Rachel McKinnon, masters track champion and transgender athlete", VeloNews (15 October 2018).
  6. ^ Rachel McKinnon, "Coming Out in Class", The Chronicle of Higher Education (25 June 2012).
  7. ^ a b Jenna Schiferl, "The tweet heard ’round the world: Charleston professor sparks global Twitter debate", The Post and Courier (29 August 2019).
  8. ^ A. C. Shilton, "Transgender Track World Champion Defends Her Human Right—To Race", Bicycling (4 January 2019).
  9. ^ Fred Dreier, 'Commentary: The complicated case of transgender cyclist Dr. Rachel McKinnon', VeloNews (18 October 2018).
  10. ^ Dreier, Fred (15 October 2018). "Q&A: Dr. Rachel McKinnon, masters track champion and transgender athlete". VeloNews.com. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  11. ^ Alex Ballinger, "Rachel McKinnon Becomes First Transgender Woman to Win Track World Title", Cycling Weekly (17 October 2018).
  12. ^ "Transgender Track World Champion Defends Her Human Right—To Race". bicycling.com. 4 January 2019. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |day=, |month=, and |deadurl= (help)
  13. ^ "Transfrau erntet Hass für Sieg bei Bahnrad-WM". queer.de. 16 October 2018. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |day=, |month=, and |deadurl= (help)
  14. ^ "Rachel McKinnon becomes first transgender woman to win track world title". Cycling Weekly. 18 October 2018. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |day=, |month=, and |deadurl= (help)
  15. ^ "Commentators clash over controversial first transgender world champion", nzherald (16 October 2018).
  16. ^ https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/feb/17/martina-navratilova-criticised-over-cheating-trans-women-comments. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  17. ^ "Martina Navratilova ignites transgender athlete debate, calling it 'cheating'". Stuff. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
  18. ^ "Gold an Rad-WM: Trans-Frau Rachel McKinnon im BLICK-Interview - Blick". blick.ch. 31 October 2018. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |deadurl=, |day=, and |month= (help)
  19. ^ "Erste Transgender-Weltmeisterin bei Fahrrad-WM löst Welle der Kritik im Netz aus". thueringer-allgemeine.de. 15 October 2018. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |deadurl=, |day=, and |month= (help)
  20. ^ Narjas Zatat, "JK Rowling criticised for following a 'famous transphobe' on Twitter", The Independent (25 June 2019).
  21. ^ Colleen Flaherty, "College Supports Trans Scholar Under Fire", Inside Higher Ed (3 September 2019).
  22. ^ Madeleine Kearns, "Magdalen Berns, a ‘Shero’ Among Women", The Corner (4 September 2019).
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