Bearded Hulk Quickly Changes 'Identity' and Enters Women's Competition to Demolish Trans Lifter's Record
A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.
A male powerlifting coach, sporting a masculine beard and bulging muscles, staged a powerful weekend protest against the idea of men competing in women’s sports by “identifying” as female just long enough to unofficially demolish a previous record in the bench press held by a “trans” competitor.
And the “trans” competitor didn’t like it at all.
According to Reduxx — a website that bills itself as “an unapologetically pro-woman, pro-child safeguarding source of news and commentary” — the scene played out during the Heroes Powerlifting Classic Meet, which took place Saturday in the city of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada.
Under the rules of the Canadian Powerlifting Union, athletes can compete in the gender of their choice. Check out the result here:
A male powerlifting coach self-identified as a woman and broke a women’s benchpress record in protest of gender self-identification in sport.
Avi Silverberg performed the defiant act while the current record holder, a transgender male, watched.
READ: https://t.co/MXiyiGMgWQ pic.twitter.com/7J1b4iHlFG
— REDUXX (@ReduxxMag) March 28, 2023
Reduxx writer Yuliah Alma identified the man as Avi Silverberg, a coach in powerlifting who, Alma wrote, “was attempting to highlight the unfair advantage males have when competing in women’s athletics.”
It would be fair to say the attempt was successful.
Bravo. Expose the insanity of self ID
— Janeo (@woozel7) March 28, 2023
“We need more of this,” one user wrote.
We need more of this! Please male athletes, mock the system. Expose it to the point where officials and politicans can no longer hide behind their ‘inclusivity’ agenda.
— Lizmo (@lizmo777) March 28, 2023
“Thank you to all men taking a stand against this nonsense,” wrote another.
Thank you to all the men taking a stand against this nonsense.
— Wordsweep (@wordsweep299) March 28, 2023
But one person who wasn’t happy was Anne Andres, the man competing as a woman who established the record Silverberg demolished. Silverberg bench-pressed 370 pounds, according to the New York Post. That’s almost 100 pounds more than Andres’ record.
In a series of Instagram videos, Andres called Silverberg a “bigot and coward.” He also declared that he had been transitioned for more than two decades (“I’ve been me,” as another Instagram post put it).
Well, if you say so. But it’s interesting to note that Andres himself has acknowledged that men have an inherent biological advantage in sports like powerlifting.
In fact, in another Instagram video discussing Saturday’s incident — a different video from the one where he called the man who defeated him a “bigot and coward” — Andres managed to get to the truth of the matter.
“It really struck me that maybe my participation isn’t necessarily fair,” he said. “I mean, the science, whatever. But people welcome me because I’m actually nice to people. I show up and I try to make everyone happy.”
That’s super. Nothing wrong with being nice to people, but there’s that “science, whatever” that keeps coming up.
It’s not particularly nice to use God-given physical characteristics in competition with women who do not have the built-in advantages of male muscle and bone structure, lung capacity or any of the other physical attributes that make men naturally stronger than women. (A county judge in Minnesota apparently hasn’t gotten that figured out yet, or thinks he knows better.)
It’s not particularly nice to make videos — as Andres did in January — essentially berating female competitors for not being good at the particular area of powerlifting — bench pressing — where Silverberg made his point Saturday.
Riley Gaines, an actual woman athlete who has become an activist to protect women’s sports from male encroachment, posted a copy of Andres’ patronizing video to Twitter:
Anne Andres (male who identifies and competes as a woman) doesn’t understand why female powerlifters are so “bad” at bench press….well idk Anne, but maybe it’s because you have 20 times more testosterone than them. Just a thought…. pic.twitter.com/klxd4WaoYc
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) February 17, 2023
It’s worth pointing out here that Andres describes himself in that video as a “tranny freak,” which is not the kind of words any fair-minded person would use to describe individuals so unfortunate that they find themselves at some kind of mental war with their own bodies.
But clearly such individuals exist, and they deserve the deepest sympathy a decent person would extend to anyone suffering an illness, physical or mental.
However, a fair-minded person also has to acknowledge what “fair” competition is.
Whatever sexual confusion “transgenders” must experience, even a hint of the ability to reason will show that a male human body is simply designed to be stronger and faster than a female’s.
(Weightlifting is a particularly obvious area of athletics where this is true, as the controversy over New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard showed. And male weightlifters before Silverberg have gone public to demonstrate how facile it is to argue with the laws of human nature.)
It’s as fundamental a fact as the fact that those same bodies will one day die — or that virtually no American woman thinks “The Three Stooges” are funny.
As ludicrous as it might be, though, it’s getting increasingly necessary to point that out to people who know it to be true, simply by virtue of becoming adults in the bodies God gave them, but insist on denying it.
The lunatic fringe of the transgender advocate groups will never accept it. The progressives in the White House, the Democratic Party and the establishment media won’t publicly admit they know it.
But the lesson has to be taught and will keep being taught, as it was on Saturday in Alberta.
Because a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do. And a woman does, too.
It’s like, science, whatever.
CORRECTION, March 30, 2023: The city of Lethbridge is in the Canadian province of Alberta. An earlier version of this article stated its location incorrectly.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
