Big Win for Women’s Golf: LPGA and USGA Publish New ‘Transgender’ Policies

Ladies Professional Golf Association and the U.S. Golf Association published new policies barring males who went through some stages of puberty from playing women’s professional golf.

The policies were developed after female golfers pushed back when the LPGA Tour allowed Hailey Davidson, a male who attempts to live as a female, to compete in its qualifying series. Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) led the campaign, sending a letter signed by more than 300 female golfers to the LPGA and USGA opposing men in their sport.

The win is part of a growing movement to keep boys and men from erasing girls and women and unfairly taking medals, scholarships, spots on teams and prize money from female athletes.

IWF listed some of the women responsible for this victory:

Professional golfers and IWF ambassadors Lauren Miller, Hannah Arnold, Dana Fall, and Amy Olson have led a movement internally among 300+ female professional golfers to overturn the policies and restore fairness and integrity to their beloved sport and profession.

The letter, which IWF sent on August 19, 2024, was shared with Outkick. The athletes said it was unfair to allow men in women’s sports, arguing:

We all know there can be no equal athletic opportunity for women without a separate female golf category. Yet, the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) 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 advocacy group said it’s impossible for a man to become a woman and noted the advantages males have in golf due to physiological differences between the sexes:

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.

The IWF also led a letter-writing campaign where more than 8,000 individuals wrote letters to the LPGA and USGA demanding the associations “end participation policies that erase equal opportunity and the spirit of women’s professional golf.

The LPGA’s new “Gender Policy for Competition Eligibility” now states:

In consulting with top experts in the fields of medicine, science, sport physiology and golf performance, we have been advised that a Player’s exposure to male puberty provides physical advantages that are beneficial to golf performance compared to Players who have not had such exposure. …

A Player’s exposure to male puberty provides physical advantages that are beneficial to golf performance compared to Players who have not had such exposure.

The policy explains that male players can only play women’s golf if “they have not experienced any part of male puberty either beyond Tanner Stage 2 or after age 12 [whichever comes first].”

The “Tanner Staging System” was developed by British Pediatric Endocrinologist James Mourilyan Tanner after two decades of studying the physical development of children through adolescent to adulthood. Stage 1 is before puberty begins, so Stage 2 is the first stage in puberty, when male or female hormones begin to be released in the body, triggering physical, emotional and mental changes in adolescents.

Conceivably, a child born male, who has early puberty blockers to stop this natural, normal process, and then goes on to have female hormones and surgeries could play on the LPGA Tour and its affiliated tours – even though he is still different from girls and women.

But those who have gone through male puberty, like Davidson, will not be able to compete on the LPGA Tour.

The USGA Policy adopts similar guidelines for “transgender female” athletes but allows women who claim to be men to compete with women – as long as they have never used male hormones. And it allows “transgender females” to compete on men’s teams.

The policy also allows “transgender males” (women claiming to be men) who use testosterone to compete in men’s golf.

IWF and women athletes celebrated the victory, with professional golfer Dana Fall opining:

Today’s policy announcement is a huge win for women and girls in sports. The LPGA and USGA, the premiere bodies which dictate the rules of women’s golf, are standing up for fairness and the integrity of our sport. Today, the message sent to women is that we do matter, and they are working to return equal opportunity and protect fair sport for female athletes.

Related articles and resources:

Independent Women’s Forum and Independent Women’s Law Center explain the physiological differences between males and females and the harms when males compete against women: “Competition Report: Title IX, Male-Bodied Athletes, and the Threat To Women’s Sports”

Addressing Gender Identity with Honesty and Compassion

Focus on the Family: Counseling Consultation & Referrals

Focus on the Family: Transgender Resources

Homeschooled Christian Golfer Amy Olson to Play U.S. Women’s Open While 7 Plus Months Pregnant

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

Women Golfers Protest LPGA Policy Allowing ‘Transgender’ Competitors

Image from Getty.

The post Big Win for Women’s Golf: LPGA and USGA Publish New ‘Transgender’ Policies appeared first on Daily Citizen.

Daily Citizen