A Calgary business’ Olympics inspired post on Twitter has prompted outrage including a death threat
On Thursday evening, Fashion Calgary tweeted ‘Am I still watching Women’s Semi-Finals?’ and included images of 800 metre competitors Caster Semenya of South Africa and Margaret Wambui of Kenya in the message.
Semenya has naturally high testosterone as a result of a condition called hyperandrogenism.
The Twitter post drew immediate criticism on the social media site and several users say they were blocked by Fashion Calgary after voicing their concerns with the alleged sexism and transphobism.
The controversial tweet was deleted and Fashion Calgary issued an apology.
We would like to apologize everyone who was offended by our post.The post is deleted and we'll make responsible the person who post it.
— Fashion Calgary (@FashionCalgary) August 19, 2016
Rafal Wegiel, the owner of Fashion Calgary, says the post’s intention was to spark discussion on fairness as he believed the runners had an unfair advantage.
“I feel absolutely horrible and I apologize to people who are offended by this,” said Wegiel. “The main meaning of asking this question is that a lot of people would like to know a little bit more about it and, you know, also make sure that all those Olympic Games are fair games.”
Amelia Marie Newbert of the Trans Equality Society of Alberta calls Fashion Calgary’s tweet an affront to the human rights of the runners.
“I was deeply, deeply disappointed on so many levels,” said Newbert. “Deeply disappointed that we seem to have this hang up as a society, that we are still talking about this.”
In 2009, a number of Semenya’s fellow runners questioned the gender of the South African athlete. The athletics federation created guidelines and began testing testosterone levels in female athletes. As a result, Semenya was banned for a brief period before the imposed regulations were overturned by a sport arbitration court.
Wegiel says expressing an opinion online should not make him a target.
“It was absolutely brutal to deal with,” said Wegiel of the messages he received. “We are getting hateful tweets, emails, messages on Facebook.” Wegiel confirms he has received a death threat.
“There's tons of emails with just F bombs, going after my company, my wife, my kids.”
The 800 metre final is scheduled for Saturday night. Semenya and Wambui have claimed berths in the final in a field that includes Canadian Melissa Bishop.
With files from CTV's Shaun Frenette
