A biological male transgender cheerleader was reportedly kicked out of a cheerleading camp and given a criminal citation for allegedly choking a female teammate.
The cheerleader, Averie Chanel Medlock, wrote about the altercation in a Facebook post last week, Fox News reported. The incident reportedly occurred at Ranger College in Texas.
“Well guys I’m officially retired as a cheerleader as of last night at 5:30 a.m. A girl on the team was being very disrespectful and told me I am a MAN with a PENIS and that [guys] should not be on the team,” Medlock wrote. “I stood up for myself and she called her mom and dad because she was scared because I [stood] up for myself. Her father said ‘she still has testosterone and a penis and I will kill anyone who comes after my daughter.’”
Police responded to the dispute between Medlock and the other teammate at the camp. Medlock claimed that a teammate made racist and transphobic remarks before the incident. A video posted on Facebook showed some of the cheerleaders hiding in a room from an angry Medlock at the camp.
In the video, Medlock is heard telling the girls in the room that “outside of cheer, I don’t f**k with y’all” and “we’re only f**king teammates and that’s it.”
In the video, Medlock also insisted that the choking incident was taken “out of proportion” and was a “joke.”
Police who came on the scene reportedly gave Medlock a citation. Medlock was then removed from the college campus.
The father of the girl whom Medlock allegedly choked, Mike Jones, has pushed for police to release body camera footage and security camera footage from the incident.
"I ask you what you would have done when receiving a phone call at 1 o’clock in the morning from your daughter stating they had locked themselves in the room with other girls," Jones wrote on Facebook. "At no time did I ever say anything about your race or your gender." Daily Mail reported that Mike Jones’ daughter, Karleigh, is 17 years old.
In an interview with Abilene-based outlet KRBC, which is affiliated with NBC, 25-year-old Medlock said that Karleigh called her father from the camp. He came to the scene along with the police.
“I was kicked off the team for assumptions because of the dad’s assumptions of what happened,” Medlock told the KRBC.
KRBC noted that “other parents did express that they were uncomfortable with Averie being on the team around their children because she’s 25-years-old and they believe she is a man.”
Ranger College provided KRBC a statement on the incident, which reads, “Ranger College takes all allegations of this nature seriously and is committed to providing a learning environment free from discrimination. At this time, Ranger College is following all applicable Title IX regulations and Board Policies.”
The issue of biological male transgender athletes participating in women’s sports was pushed to the forefront after Will “Lia” Thomas competed on the women’s swim team at University of Pennsylvania this past season. Thomas previously competed on the men’s team for three seasons. Thomas made headlines for breaking records competing against women and taking home an NCAA Division I title at the NCAA championships in March.
Several of Thomas’ teammates spoke out about the situation on the condition of anonymity. One female UPenn swimmer told The Washington Examiner that Thomas “compares herself to Jackie Robinson” and “mocks” competing on the women’s team, as Townhall covered. In addition, a teammate told Daily Mail that Thomas makes the women’s locker room uncomfortable, which Matt covered.
“It’s definitely awkward because Lia still has male body parts and is still attracted to women,” the swimmer told Daily Mail. “But we were basically told that we could not ostracize Lia by not having her in the locker room and that there’s nothing we can do about it, that we basically have to roll over and accept it, or we cannot use our own locker room.”
To date, 18 states have enacted measures to require athletes to participate in sports on a team that aligns with their biological sex rather than their "gender identity."