Jiu-Jitsu tournament boycott over trans athletes forces the organization to change its policy

Several fighters boycotted a Jiu-Jitsu tournament where they were going to compete against trans athletes in the female category. This forced the North American Grappling Association (NAGA) to review its policy. In a statement, NAGA announced that women will now compete against biological women and that biological men must compete in the men's category.

A trans fighter won four golds in the female category

The controversy intensified after last week's Georgia Grappling Championship. Corissa Griffith, a biological man, won four gold medals in the women's category. Some first and second-place medals were awarded to trans athletes, provoking complaints from the fighters.

The protests began in September when Taelor Moore, one of the competitors - who is also a model - posted on her Instagram account that she had to fight a man without prior notice. Although Moore won the match, she reported having to face a fight against a person who was 65 pounds heavier than her.

After the controversy post, NAGA assured that it "does not force biological women to compete against transsexual women. Instead, we give the option to biological women and, if they decline, they compete in a division only with other biological women."

Complaints and boycott

Several athletes claim this isn't true. In statements to Reduxx, professional martial artists Jayden Alexander and Ansleigh Wilk confirm that they were not warned of the presence of trans people in their category until they faced off against them: "I honestly never thought this would actually happen in a contact sport, especially not MY contact sport. When I saw him, I was so shocked I didn’t know how to respond," said Alexander, a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu blue belt.

Wilk, a brown belt, confirmed that the same thing happened to her after facing Cordelia Gregory, another one of the biological men competing in the female category: "I hadn’t been notified. The only thing that brought it to my attention was my teammates. They kept asking me ‘are you fighting a man’ and I was honestly too focused on coaching the rest of the crew to really pay attention to my opponent."

Fear of the fighters for their physical integrity

The athlete reported that she feared for her integrity during her fight and even what he might do to her afterward: "I realized very quickly I couldn’t muscle them like most girls. Well obviously, because it wasn’t a girl! Then not long after, I had to do a second match of which Cordelia threw a tantrum saying [he] ‘didn’t tap [out].’ I was sincerely scared [he] was going to punch me when I stuck my hand out to shake [his]."

After the fighters' complaints, multiple athletes and celebrities joined their protest and took to social media. Among them was Riley Gaines, who is known for championing women's right to compete in sports without trans people; former tennis player Martina Navratilova and Donald Trump Jr.

NAGA changes its policy on trans people

Following the protests and boycott, NAGA finally updated its inclusion policy on October 28, announcing that the "cisgender women" category will be exclusively for women, while trans women must participate in the men's category.