Rachel McKinnon

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Rachel McKinnon, 2017

Rachel McKinnon (born July 18, 1982 in Victoria , British Columbia ) is a Canadian scientist and transgender activist. In 2018, when she won the Masters class sprint title, she became the first trans woman to be world champion in track cycling .

Life

Education and professional career

McKinnon studied philosophy at the University of Victoria , graduating with a bachelor's degree ; she continued her studies at Dalhousie University , which she graduated with a Master of Arts degree in 2006 . She completed her doctorate at the University of Waterloo . There she was awarded her dissertation in 2012 with her dissertation Reasonable Assertions: On Norms of Assertion and Why You Don't Need to Know What You're Talking About. PhD .

In 2014 she went to the USA to teach philosophy and gender studies at the College of Charleston , where she is an associate professor (as of 2018).

Rachel McKinnon published her first book in 2015 and writes essays and columns. She is also active as a lecturer.

Coming out and living as a trans woman

McKinnon was entered in the birth registry as male at birth. According to her own statement, at the age of 13 she began to suspect that she might be affected by transsexuality ("trans"); It took 16 more years to be sure of their gender identity. In 2012, just before she finished her doctoral studies, she began her gender change into her female gender identity.

Two days after her scientific defense of her dissertation, McKinnon came out as a trans woman. At the beginning of the semester at the beginning of May 2012, when she was already teaching as a private lecturer in two classes at the University of Waterloo in Ontario , she made her transgender status public in front of her students after she had already been in her faculty and with her colleagues before the start of the semester Friends and family. As an openly living transgender person and with the approval of the support of the faculty management, she was now able to officially complete her process of transition from male to female.

McKinnon, an activist for transgender rights, answered a related question as follows: “I became an activist because I had to defend myself as a trans woman. Not the other way around."

Athletic career

Early years

According to his own account, McKinnon began playing golf at the age of five , but also played baseball , tennis , badminton and was active in a number of other sports. At the age of 16, a traffic accident with serious injuries ended her dream of a professional sports career. After she went to the USA in 2014 and has since taught at the College of Charleston, she initially continued to play badminton there.

Cycling

As a result, McKinnon began cycling and in 2017 specialized in the short-term disciplines on the track, after initially driving road races. In 2018 McKinnon became the Sprint World Champion in the age group 35-44 in Los Angeles Masters. According to her own statements, this makes her the first trans world champion in cycling. In contrast, the website Velo News stated that trans woman Michelle Dumaresq had already won a Masters World Championship with a mountain bike in 2006 . The following year, McKinnon defended her world title in Manchester after she had previously won a silver medal in the 500-meter time trial .

Hostility after winning the title

Rachel McKinnon's title win was followed by critical and sometimes transphobic voices, including hate attacks. While the silver medalist, Caroline van Herrikhuyzen from the Netherlands, supported McKinnon, third-placed Jennifer Wagner from the USA complained that the win was "not fair". Rachel McKinnon countered that she had already lost to Wagner in various races. The preliminary round winner Sarah Fader canceled her participation in the final race against McKinnon shortly before the start. After the race, she stated in an interview that this was her form of protest against what she saw as unfair rules.

Right-wing British commentator Katie Hopkins wrote: “To be clear, this was the Women's World Cup. I repeat: women. Congratulations to the brave silver and bronze medalists. The world is seized with feverish madness. ”The tennis player and nine-time Wimbledon winner Martina Navratilova was also critical, whereupon she was relieved of her ambassadorial function for the association Athlete Ally , which works for equality in sport. McKinnon said he had received more than 100,000 “hate messages” on Twitter . You had to hire four employees to take care of these negative comments.

McKinnon referred to a basic rule of the IOC : “ The practice of sport is a human right. ”(“ The practice of sport is a human right. ”) She went through all the necessary tests before starting according to the rules that have been in force since 2003. Some commentators suggested that McKinnon had an advantage over her opponents simply because of her size and muscle mass. Rachel McKinnon defended herself against this criticism: she had to keep her testosterone level as a prerequisite for participating in sporting competitions “harmful to health”. The specified limit values ​​for trans women are even lower than those that apply to cisgender athletes.

Publications

  • The Norms of Assertion: Truth, Lies, and Warrant . Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, ISBN 978-1-137-52171-2 (English).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Rachel McKinnon , College of Charleston website
  2. ^ Rhys McKinnon: Local justification: a new look at epistemic justification . Dalhousie University, Halifax 2006, NOVANET ALEPH001488240 . (Thesis (MA) at the Department of Philosophy at Dalhousie University)
  3. ↑ Rachel McKinnon: Reasonable Assertions: On Norms of Assertion and Why You Don't Need to Know What You're Talking About . UWSpace, Waterloo 2012, hdl : 10012/6619 . (Dissertation at the University of Waterloo ).
  4. ↑ a b c d Alistair Magowan: Transgender women in sport: Are they really a 'threat' to female sport? In: BBC Sport. December 18, 2018, accessed July 3, 2019 .
  5. ↑ a b c First transgender world champion at the Bicycle World Cup triggers a wave of criticism on the Internet. In: thueringer-allgemeine.de. October 15, 2018, accessed July 5, 2019 .
  6. ^ Publications. In: rachelmckinnon.com. May 16, 2019, accessed July 4, 2019 .
  7. ↑ See gender change / transition: Transitioning (transgender) in the English language Wikipedia and z. B. in: Transgender. Entry in the gender portal of the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE), undated, accessed on August 4, 2019.
  8. ↑ a b Fred Dreier: Q&A: Dr. Rachel McKinnon, masters track champion and transgender athlete. In: velonews.com. October 15, 2018, accessed on August 4, 2019 : "VN: 'What is the story behind your transition?' - RM: 'I was born with an “M” on my birth certificate. Not all trans people are the same; we don't all know at age two or three. I started supposing I [was trans] when I was 13, and it took another 16 years to come to terms with it and figure it out. I started my transition right before I finished my Ph.D. and came out to the world two days after I defended my dissertation. '"
  9. ^ Rachel McKinnon: Coming Out in Class. In: The Chronicle of Higher Education. June 25, 2012, accessed August 4, 2019 .
  10. ↑ a b Gold at World Cycling Championships: trans woman Rachel McKinnon in a BLICK interview - Blick. In: blick.ch. October 31, 2018, accessed July 5, 2019 .
  11. ↑ a b Cycling. In: rachelmckinnon.com. March 7, 2019, accessed March 10, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Jason Ryan: CofC Philosophy Professor Is Fast at Play . In: The College Today , College of Charleston, April 6, 2015.
  13. ↑ Results F35-44 Sprint (pdf) on veloresults.com. Retrieved July 5, 2019.
  14. ↑ Welcome. In: rachelmckinnon.com. May 16, 2019, accessed July 3, 2019 .
  15. ↑ a b c Fred Dreier: Commentary: The complicated case of transgender cyclist Dr. Rachel McKinnon. In: velonews.com. October 19, 2018, accessed August 4, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Alex Ballinger: Transgender athlete Rachel McKinnon defends track world title. In: Cycling News. October 21, 2019, accessed October 22, 2019 .
  17. ^ Transgender Track World Champion Defends Her Human Right — To Race. In: bicycling.com. January 4, 2019, accessed July 3, 2019 .
  18. ↑ Trans woman reaps hatred for victory at World Track Cycling Championships. In: queer.de. October 16, 2018, accessed July 3, 2019 .
  19. ↑ Rachel McKinnon becomes first transgender woman to win track world title. In: Cycling Weekly. October 18, 2018, accessed July 4, 2019 .
  20. ↑ Marlene Meinecke: Martina Navratilova against transgender athletes in women's sports. In: tennismagazin.de. February 21, 2019, accessed July 7, 2019 .
  21. ↑ Briar Stewart: Canadian researcher to lead largest known study on transgender athletes. In: CBC. July 24, 2019, accessed July 24, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME McKinnon, Rachel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian cyclist
DATE OF BIRTH July 18, 1982
PLACE OF BIRTH Victoria , British Columbia