Samoa Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said he was shocked a transgender had been allowed to competeagainst women in the Pacific Games and promptly called on the Pascific Games Council to address the issue.
“This fa’afafine or man should have never been allowed by the Pacific Games Council President to lift with women,” he told local media yesterday.
Tuilaepa urged the President of the Samoa Association of Sports and National Olympic Committee, Fepulea’i Patrick Fepulea’i to address the issue with the Pacific body.
The Prime Minister, who is the oldest competitor in the games his country is hosting, said he had questioned on national television the legitimacy of allowing a transgender to lift with women.
The controversy has been brewing since New Zealand transgender weightlifter Laurel Hubbard won the gold medal ahead of Samoan favourite Feagaiga Stowers.
“The reality is that gold medal belongs to Samoa,” said Tuilaepa.
When he was asked in a media interview last year about the same lifter winning at the Commonwealth Games in Australia, he said Samoa should look at getting the many fa’afafine around the country to compete as women lifters too.
“No matter how we look at it, he’s a man, and it is shocking this was allowed in the first place,” was his tune yesterday.
