12/07/2021
The BBC and other news sources have reported that New Zealander Laurel Hubbard will be the first ever transgender athlete to take part in the Olympics. She has been selected for the Women's Weightlifting Team for the deferred Tokyo 2020 Olympiad, due to take place later this year. She began her transition journey in 2013. Although the anti-transgender echo chamber was filled with the usual groups complaining that she had an unfair advantage, the New Zealand government pointed out that Hubbard had met all the stringent tests for participation in the Olympics and stressed that the country was behind their entrants wholeheartedly. "I am grateful and humbled by the kindness and support that has been given to me by so many New Zealanders," Hubbard said in a statement issued by the New Zealand Olympic Committee on Monday.
