Two hundred seventy-five women golfers sent a letter to the Ladies Professional Golf Association, the International Golf Federation, and the United States Golf Association protesting policies allowing men to compete against women.
The LPGA hosts a qualifying series of tournaments, known as qualifying schools, where players compete for a tour card, giving them membership in next year’s tour. This membership allows them to compete in many events without having to compete to qualify.
This year, “transgender”-identified golfer Hailey Davidson is set to play against 245 women at the LPGA Qualifying Series, October 20-25, in Venice, Florida.
The Independent Women’s Forum (IWF), a conservative group that “celebrates women’s accomplishments and fights to expand women’s options and opportunities,” believes:
Men and women are equal, but we are not the same. Biological differences between the sexes are more than skin-deep, and profoundly shape our lives.
The law must recognize this reality in certain circumstances, such as in sex-segregated sports teams or prisons, or it risks placing women and girls in harmful or even dangerous situations.
Men and women are equal, but we are not the same. Biological differences between the sexes are more than skin-deep, and profoundly shape our lives.
The law must recognize this reality in certain circumstances, such as in sex-segregated sports teams or prisons, or it risks placing women and girls in harmful or even dangerous situations.
IWF shared the golfers’ letter with Fox Corporation’s Outkick, a sports and culture website. The letter states:
We all know there can be no equal athletic opportunity for women without a separate female golf category. Yet, the Ladies Professional Golf Association continues to propagate a policy that allows male athletes to qualify, compete and win in women’s golf, even as several national and international governing bodies of sport and state legislatures increasingly reject these unjust and inequitable policies that harm female athletes.
The 275 female athletes who signed the letter oppose the LPGA’s Gender Policy, which seeks “to provide transgender athletes an avenue to membership and opportunity to participate in events, and in an effort to assure fair competition for all members and participants.”
The policy states:
Tournaments and membership are open only to female athletes, including transitioned female athletes.
“Transitioned female athletes” don’t exist, of course. Only men and women exist, and they cannot “transition” to the other sex.
Transgender-identified applicants must notify the LGPA Tour of their “gender reassignment from male to female after puberty” and “provide proof of gender.” The policy lists two requirements:
The applicant must have undergone gender reassignment surgery (i.e., a gonadectomy) prior to submitting an application for membership or entering the tournament; and
The applicant must have undergone, for at least one (1) year, appropriate hormonal therapy and maintained testosterone levels in a verifiable manner sufficient to minimize or negate gender-related advantages in sport competitions
But a male athlete who has gone through puberty, even if he has his testicles removed and is taking estrogen, still maintains most of the size, strength and performance advantages of a male athlete, as the letter to the LPGA explains:
The male advantage in driving the ball is estimated around a 30% performance advantage; this is an enormous difference in the context of sport. Anatomical differences between males and females affect clubhead speed and regulating consistency at ball contact.
Females have higher mean heart rates and encounter greater physiological demands while playing, especially at high altitudes. The anatomical differences are not removed with male testosterone suppression. There is no way to turn a male into a female. Being female is not equated to being male with a reduction in strength. (Our emphasis.)
Outkick reports that the female golfers are asking the LPGA, the U.S. Golf Association, and the International Golf Federation to:
“Repeal all policies and rules that allow male golfers to participate in women’s golf events” and “establish and enforce the right of female professional golfers to participate in women’s golf based on sex-eligibility must be limited to members of the female sex.”
Allowing men to compete in women’s athletics is inherently unfair, as men take opportunities, scholarships, places on teams and victories from women. Women’s privacy and safety are also at risk when men play women’s sports.
The website SheWon.org lists hundreds of “female athletes who were displaced by males in women’s sporting events and other types of competitions expressly for women.”
So far, the site lists 717 female athletes who lost 1,055 “medals, scholarships or other opportunities,” in 522 competitions in 37 sports – everything from cycling to disc golf, skiing to track and field, and swimming to rowing. She Won shows the women who would have won – if men had been kept from competing against them.
Related articles and resources:
Addressing Gender Identity with Honesty and Compassion
Counseling Consultation & Referrals
No, It’s Not ‘Complicated’ to Keep Men Out of Women’s Sports
Riley Gaines and 15 Other Female Athletes Sue NCAA Over ‘Transgender Policy’
#SaveGirlsSports – New Campaign Launched by Family Policy Alliance
Shoving Girls Off the Podium: More Male Athletes Participating in Girls Sports
Third Court Halts DOE’s Title IX Rewrite, Girls’ Sports & Spaces Preserved
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