Transgender woman sues CrossFit for discrimination

Transgender athlete Chloie Jonsson has filed a $2.5-million lawsuit against CrossFit for preventing her from competing as woman in the company's annual fittest woman competition.

The company claims that competitors must compete according to their birth gender, reports CNN.

"The fundamental, ineluctable fact is that a male competitor who has a sex reassignment procedure still has a genetic makeup that confers a physical and physiological advantage over women," reads a letter from CrossFit's lawyer.

Jonsson, who was born male, had gender reconstruction surgery in 2006 and is legally recognized as a female in her home state of California. She is currently on female hormone therapy.

"If I am going to be forced to out myself, I want it to be for the good for all transgendered people and athletes -- not because of a company's discriminatory policies," Jonsson says in a media statement.

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Her lawsuit, filed on Thursday, alleges discrimination, intentional infliction of emotional distress and unfair competition.

Waukeen McCoy, Jonsson's lawyer, argues that CrossFit should follow the lead of the International Olympic Committee, which permits transgender athletes who have undergone gender reassignment surgery to compete according to their preferred gender.

"[She] doesn't have an advantage over other women. She's been on estrogen for such a long time," McCoy says of his client.

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Jonsson is a personal trainer and bootcamp coach who weighs 151 pounds and is 5 feet 4 inches tall.

There have been a number of other legal cases regarding transgender individuals in Untied States.

Last September, a South Dakota woman won $50,000 in a settlement from her employers because she was fired after she announced her decision to transition from male to female.

And last June, a transgender first-grader won the right to use the girls' restroom at her Colorado school.