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Saturday 6 June 2015

Petition calls for Caitlyn Jenner's Olympic gold medal to be 'revoked'


A controversial petition urging the International Olympic Committee to "revoke" Caitlyn Jenner's gold medal has been launched on Change.org.

The petition, written in the style of an open letter to the IOC, has already gained almost 9000 signatures.
Jenner, 65, won the medal for the decathlon at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. She revealed her new name as "Caitlyn" earlier this week in a Vanity Fair article, in which the former athlete explained that she had always identified as female.
The petition claims that Jenner's victory was therefore "in violation" of "committee rules".
Its author, a Jennifer Bradford from Texas, writes: "Dear International Olympic Committee: It has recently come to light that gold medallist Bruce Jenner is in fact transgender, and therefore, identifies as a woman.
"This creates somewhat of a problem as Ms Jenner (as talented as she is) claims that she has always believed herself to be truly female, and therefore, was in violation of committee rules regarding women competing in men's sports and vice versa.
"Therefore, it is with a heavy heart that we must ask whether or not it is proper that Ms Jenner should retain her Olympic records in light of this, as we must now either claim that Bruce Jenner and Caitlyn Jenner are two entirely different people (which we know is not true), or that Bruce Jenner was, in fact, a woman participating in a men's event. It is only fair that women receive their credit as champions of the decathlon and that the men racing Ms Jenner are not expected to compete with a superior, streamlined being such as herself."
The petition urges Jenner to "support the transgender community by giving up the medals" and ends with the hashtag #givebackthegold.
The petition has sparked a contrary campaign: #dontgivebackthegold.

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