A Canadian powerlifting organization is refusing to drop its existing transgender-inclusion policy after multiple female athletes railed against the unfair competition they faced from biological men in their division.

After a five-month review triggered by complaints from female lifters, the Canadian Powerlifting Union decided that the “current CPU Transgender Policy will be retained,” according to an email update obtained by April Hutchinson, a female Canadian record holder in the sport.

The board of the CPU had been consulting with its sport-law personnel, provincial executives, the IPF executive, and the IPF medical chairperson before making the decision. The current policy, which allows men to simply identify as women to compete in the female category without hormone-level monitoring, “is in line with other Canadian Sports and Canadian Human Rights legislation,” the governing body stated.

Hutchinson, in recent months, has protested the participation of transgender-identifying man Anne Andres in the female events under the CPU’s jurisdiction. After learning she’d be facing Andres in her weight class at the Vancouver national tournament in February, Hutchinson withdrew in an act of protest. Hutchinson’s Canadian powerlifting peer Kristine Bayntun was also bested by Andres at the 2019 British Columbia Powerlifting Association Fall Classic, without realizing he was a man until years later.

Dr. Linda Blade, a Canadian performance coach who works with the International Consortium on Female Sports, led a demonstration against Andres’ inclusion in the Vancouver competition. Nineteen ICFS members and supporters peacefully demanded fairness for female lifters.

In March, male Canadian powerlifting coach Avi Silverberg broke the Alberta women’s bench-press record to make a point about the lunacy of the CPU’s extremely lenient trans-inclusion policy. Silverberg, who does not identify as transgender, defeated Andres and others in the 84+ kg female category at the CPU’s “Heroes Classic.”

Hutchinson wrote on Twitter in response to the CPU’s doubling down on its policy: “A very sad day for women in sports. My federation- The Canadian Powerlifting Union has decided NOT to change policy and still allow biological males to compete in our sport.”