Hillcrest business owner Chris Tina Bruce enters bodybuilding competition, faces controversy

By Margie M. Palmer | GSD Reporter

(Courtesy Chris Tina Bruce)

Hillcrest Fitness Owner Chris Tina Bruce is ruffling feathers in the body building community after announcing her intent to compete in the upcoming National Physique Committee (NPC) Border States Bodybuilding Championship. The competition will be held at the Scottish Rite Event Center in Mission Valley on Oct. 29.

Bruce, who spent the first 40 years of her life living as a man, is not a stranger to bodybuilding contests. The only difference between competitions of days past and competitions of days future, she said, is the gender category in which she will be competing.

“The last time I competed was in 1993, when I was 24 years old,” said Bruce, now 42. “So I’ve literally inverted everything in my life since then: not just my age, but also my gender.”

The crux of the controversy lies not in her having entered the contest, but instead lies in the approval from event producers allowing her to compete as a woman.

“Some people don’t like the idea, but I expected that,” Bruce said.

La Mesa personal trainer Laurie Delaney, who has also entered the competition, told Fox5 San Diego she feels that Bruce being able to compete against other women is unfair. A third, “transgender” category, Delaney said, should be added to level the playing field.

Delaney’s husband has also become a vocal opponent of Bruce being able to compete as a woman. In an Oct. 5 post to his Facebook page, Delaney asked friends to opine in with their thoughts.

“If you are born as a male, you are a male,” wrote Carol Gereau on the Facebook page. “HE shouldn’t be allowed to compete. [You] don’t need to be a doctor to understand that.”

Another commenter, Thomas Vinciguerra, pointed to parallels between Bruce and pro-tennis player Renee Richards, who was barred from playing in the 1976 U.S. Women’s Open tennis tournament because she was not born a woman. Richards sued the U.S. Tennis Association and won the right to compete the following year.

In an e-mail to Bruce regarding her entry into the competition, bodybuilding promoter and NPC contact Jon Lindsay wrote, “In the NPC we cannot offer specialty classes within a class… Because you have made the transition from male to female you are permitted to compete in the Women’s Bodybuilding division in the contest.” Lindsay added he was looking forward to seeing Bruce compete in San Diego in her “best shape ever,” he said.

Bruce said although some are claiming she will have an unfair advantage due to her being born with an XY chromosome. However, Bruce explained, because she’s on hormone therapy, her testosterone levels might actually be lower than those of other women in her category.

“I’m on two testosterone blockers, estrogen and progesterone,” she said. “Some of these women may be taking steroids and if so, their testosterone levels could actually be higher than mine.  This could actually put me at a huge disadvantage.”

Regardless as to the day’s outcome, Bruce said that it is not whether she wins or loses, but that she is playing the game at all.

“I want to help facilitate the conversation that there are transgender people out there and they’re not the typical Rocky Horror Picture Show [or] Corporal Klinger from ‘M*A*S*H’ stereotype,” she said. “If I can get people talking about this and having that conversation, I’ll consider this to be a success, regardless of how I do in the show.”

The Scottish Rite Event Center is located at 1895 Camino del Rio South. Prejudging starts at 11 a.m. with the finals at 6:30 p.m.