Mick Hartley

Chutzpah is famously defined as "that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan." Perhaps the modern equivalent would be a male athlete who declares himself to be a woman and then complains at length about how unfair and how cruel it is that he can't compete in his favourite sport as a woman. 

A breathless report from Perth Now:

Sasha Jane Lowerson doesn’t identify as a transgender woman, just simply a woman with a “trans-experience”.

“I am human. I’m a woman, just like you, I don’t want to be treated any differently,” Lowerson told AAA.

But the Mandurah surfer is making a difference for all transgender people with her quest for more equality in her sport. In her former life, Lowerson was among the top longboard surfers in the country and the world but now living her full truth, as her authentic self, she said the sport that helps her feel “as free as a bird” is now caging her in like a criminal.

“I’ve been hiding in this male shell up until a year ago, for 42 years. To still be made to be that guy that I’m not, it’s shattering,” she said.

In December 2020, she began her journey to be given the right to compete as the gender with which she identifies.

“I want change for myself as an elite athlete but I also want to see fairness in community-level sport and for a better future for the next generation,” she said.

“There’s a lot of work to be done in this space, we need to get away from that old-school way of thinking.”

Lowerson described the current policy, where one person (the contest director) is given the final say on which gender category competitors compete in as “archaic” and “unfair”.

“(Surfing) is an Olympic sport now, we should get on board with the IOC’s (International Olympic Committee) guidelines,” she said.

Those guidelines allow those who transition from male to female to participate in the female category under a series of conditions.

The 43-year-old said if the rules were to changed she would feel included in the sport that she has given so much to.

“I’m not doing it to take over, trans-girls aren’t going to take over the world, we just want to be included, we’re humans too.”

Old-school way of thinking? That men shouldn't be allowed to compete in women's sport, otherwise it becomes meaningless? This is chutzpah with a vengeance.

Here she is, living her full truth, with foot raised in a delightfully feminine manner:

[Credit: Trevor Collens/The West Australian]

Of course no one's stopping him surfing. But he has to compete, it seems, and at the age of 43 he might be getting a little old to mix it with the top male athletes…