Washington D.C., May 27, 2021 / 14:01 pm
A religious liberty law firm says a national newspaper edited a gender description in an opinion piece by one of its clients, attributing the changes made after publication to “hurtful language.”
Chelsea Mitchell, a female track-and-field runner, is one of several athletes represented by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) who are challenging Connecticut’s transgender sports policy. She had penned a May 22 opinion piece in USA Today arguing that “males have massive physical advantages” over biological female athletes - referring to her lawsuit over having to compete against biological males identifying as transgender females.
Elizabeth Ray, director of media relations for ADF, told CNA that USA Today published Mitchell’s opinion piece on Saturday, May 22. On May 26, however, Mitchell’s words “male runners” - referring to males identifying as transgender females - were amended to “transgender runners.”
An editor’s note was added to her piece, stating: “This column has been updated to reflect USA TODAY’s standards and style guidelines. We regret that hurtful language was used.”