A transgender cheerleader, who was born a biological male, was kicked out of a college cheer camp after she allegedly assaulted a female teammate who called her a "man with a penis." Averie Chanel Medlock, 25, was expelled from the Ranger College cheerleading camp in Texas and given a criminal assault by physical contact citation last week.
Medlock allegedly choked her 17-year-old teammate, identified only by her first name Karleigh, who allegedly made transphobic remarks toward her. A Facebook post from Medlock explained that she was no longer part of the college's cheer champ after saying she "stood up" for herself after being subject to remarks concerning gender identity.
Attack and Counter Attack
The incident took place at Ranger College, a community college in Texas, with Medlock claiming to have experienced an "incident of transphobia and racism" that led to the alleged attack. In a Facebook post, Medlock revealed why she had left cheer champ, claiming that she had "stood up" for herself.
"Well guys I'm officially retired as a cheerleader as of last night at 5:30 AM. A girl on the team was being very disrespectful and told me I am a MAN with a PENIS and that [guys] should not be on the team," Medlock wrote on Facebook last week.
"I stood up for myself and she called her mom and dad because she was scared because I [stood] up for myself. Her father said 'she still has testosterone and a penis and I will kill anyone who comes after my daughter,'" the post further read.
According to Medlock, Karleigh made racist and transphobic remarks prior to the conflict.
Karleigh and her teammates, reportedly, barricaded themselves in a locker room to escape an enraged Medlock, who claimed that she was being targeted because of her color and gender. Cell phone footage of the incident shows other cheerleaders hiding from an enraged Medlock in a room.
Following the attack, Mike Jones, Karleigh's father, and the police were called to the scene, and Medlock was expelled from the university.
As evidence that she hadn't been physically violent during the dispute, Medlock claimed to have posted a video on Facebook in which she can be heard speaking to teammates, albeit angrily.
Dirty Fight
Jones, however, claims that the video only captures a portion of the truth and has demanded the release of security and body camera evidence from the police reaction. "I ask you what you would have done when receiving a phone call at 1 o'clock in the morning from your daughter stating they had locked themselves in the room with other girls," the father, Jones, wrote on Facebook.
"At no time did I ever say anything about your race or your gender."
In the video clip posted by Medlock, she can be heard saying: "If anyone has a problem, come address it to my face like an adult." She is then heard saying: "I barely touched Karleigh" and that she was "only joking."
This seems to contradict a subsequent Facebook statement made by Medlock that there was no physical contact.
Female voices could be heard on the other side of the door telling Medlock, "You're a man," and "You have a penis."
While they keep shouting, the girls behind the door are told by a friend of Medlock that they had "crossed a line". Medlock is then heard saying, "There's no beef between me and you, sorry to upset you," as she ends the confrontation.
However, the responding police issued a criminal citation to the former cheerleader and expelled Medlock from the university.
The incident comes as the controversy surrounding transgender athletes competing in female sports, most recently in the case of University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, continues to rage.
Thomas competed for her school's male swim team from 2017 to 2020, but starting 2021, he started competing with females. In 2022, Thomas became the first transgender sportsperson to win an NCAA Division 1 national championship, and ever since has been the center of the debate around transgender participation in sports.
Thomas' teammates have also expressed discomfort about her open exposure of male genitalia in the locker room:
It's difficult to strike a balance between equality and the protection of women, but it's obvious that society's attempts to do so aren't especially successful.
