Taylor Silverman, a female skateboarder complained on Instagram on Wednesday, angry that transgender athletes are allowed to compete in women’s events and saying that it is costing her thousands of dollars in prize money.
Silverman from Michigan in the USA said she has competed in “three different contests with trans women, two of which I placed second.”
She took to her Instagram on Wednesday to say, “I am sick of being bullied into silence.”
In 2021 Silverman placed second to Lillian Gallagher, a transgender biological man at the Red Bull Cornerstone Skate Series. She wrote an email letter of complaint to Red Bull saying that it is an “unfair” competition… “A biological man with clear advantage won the women’s division, best trick, and also won multiple qualifiers,” she wrote.
Silverman shared screenshots of her email to Red Bull outlining her concerns. She said that the company had not responded to the complaint.
Gallagher claimed the prize of $5,000 for her performance, which included ‘Best Trick’.
“This took away the opportunity that was meant for women to place and earn money,” Silverman wrote in her letter to Red Bull Senior Marketing Manager Erich Dummer, “I deserved to place first, be acknowledged for my win, and get paid.”
Silverman received a stream of messages of support for her plight, with some people even suggesting events, where transgender skaters were allowed to compete against female competitors, should be boycotted.
She also received several trashy, opinionated messages accusing her of being ‘transphobic’ and a ‘sore loser’. One such comment: “I’m not a transphobe’ says transphobe, after tagging every transphobe they can think of in their transphobe post,”
Silverman was interviewed by Piers Morgan on Thursday and Morgan said, “the abuse that she got from the trans community was appalling.”
A tweet from blogger Christina Buttons read: “the amount of vitriol Taylor Silverman has received is exactly why more women don’t come forward when biological males enter sports category.”
She called Silverman “incredibly brave for speaking up to defend her sports category. Not many can tolerate the onslaught of abuse she’s endured.”
Neither Gallagher nor Red Bull has responded publicly to the criticism. Red Bull did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
