An online petition to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) seeking to revoke the gold medal of Caitlyn Jenner in the decathlon of the 1976 Summer Olympics has gathered thousands of signatures.
According to Oregon Live, the petition initiated by Jennifer Bradford of Fort Worth contended that Caitlyn Jenner violated gender rules. According to Bradford, Jenner violated the committee rules regarding women competing in men's sports when she claimed that she believed herself to be truly female and was therefore prohibited from joining the decathlon sport for men. As such, it is not fitting for Jenner (formerly Bruce when he competed) to retain her Olympic gold medal because she is disqualified from participating in a men's event on the first place.
The petition equally called on Jenner to voluntarily relinquish the medals in support of the transgender community. It is the petitioner's belief that the continued holding of Jenner to the medal somehow fails to recognize the existence of the third sex as a distinct and separate gender.
To clear itself from any suspicion of hatred against their transgender, the petition further conveys its commendation of Ms. Jenner, for coming out of the closet. It reads "We congratulate Ms. Jenner on these new developments and wish her the best... Thank you, and congratulations to Ms. Jenner for her courage!"
Outsports has earlier described the petition as idiotic because while Jenner maybe confused as to his gender preference when he joined the 1976 decathlon, he was clearly and physically a male when he competed and thus, never misrepresented herself.
The petition which can be accessed in Change.org, an American certified B Corporation that provides free petition tools and hosting services for nonprofits and political campaigns like Amnesty International, has drawn more than 14,000 supporters as of Saturday morning. As of this writing however, the server of Change.org is not available for people to log on their petitions.
