Dr. Katia Bissonnette, a female psychologist from Saguenay, Canada, recently withdrew from a provincial boxing championship in Quebec after finding out that the boxer against whom she was scheduled to box was a transgender individual named Mya Walmsley. Dr. Bissonnettee alleged that she had not been notified ahead of time that she was scheduled to box against a transgender individual.

The championship in which Dr. Bissonnettee was scheduled to compete was the 2023 Provincial Golden Glove Championship, which took place from October 27 to 29 in the town of Victoriaville, Quebec. The three-day tournament was hosted by a collaborative partnership between the Quebec Boxing Federation and the KO-96 boxing club. The purpose of the tournament was, beyond the usual reasons for boxing, to give novice boxers the opportunity to qualify for December’s Canadian Championship.

Commenting on the background as to why she withdrew from the fight just an hour before it was scheduled to begin, Dr. Bissonnettee said, “I came down from my hotel room to head towards the room where all the boxers were warming up. My coach suddenly took me aside and told me he received information by text message, which he had then validated, that my opponent was not a woman by birth. We did not have any other additional information.”