Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the party is always right.
Huge victory for normalcy: NZ weightlifter Lauren Hubbard qualifies for Olympics and will compete with other women
Yes, she has a penis, but it's a female penis!
Laurel Hubbard's journey to the Tokyo Olympic Games goes far beyond medals and athletic performances. Her selection to New Zealand's weightlifting team is an affirmation of her decision to live authentically as a transgender woman.
Hubbard became perhaps the first openly transgender woman to individually qualify for the Olympics, even though the Games have had an inclusion policy for trans athletes since 2003. She lifted a net weight of 628 pounds across two lifts to qualify and will enter the Games ranked fourth among women's weightlifters weighing more than 192 pounds.
Hubbard is the oldest weightlifting qualifier at 43 years old, and in 2018, she sustained a gruesome broken arm during a snatch at the Commonwealth Games that could have been a career-ending injury.
Hubbard began her transition eight years ago, and she is in compliance with all of the stringent rules that the International Olympic Committee places on transgender women. Athletes transitioning from male to female must declare their gender as female for a minimum of four years, demonstrate that their testosterone levels are below 10 nanomoles for a minimum of 12 months and maintain those levels throughout the duration of their eligibility to compete.
According to a Gallup poll conducted in May, 34% of Americans support the inclusion of transgender people in sports.
Laurel Hubbard's journey to the Tokyo Olympic Games goes far beyond medals and athletic performances. Her selection to New Zealand's weightlifting team is an affirmation of her decision to live authentically as a transgender woman.
