LPGA and USGA to require players to be assigned female at birth or transition before male puberty

[HereForTheParty]

Source: AP

Players must be assigned female at birth or have transitioned to female before going through male puberty to compete in LPGA tournaments or the eight USGA championships for females under new gender policies published Wednesday.

The policies, which begin in 2025, follow more than a year of study involving medicine, science, sport physiology and gender policy law.

The updated policies would rule out eligibility for Hailey Davidson, who missed qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Open this year by one shot and came up short in LPGA Q-school.

Davidson, who turned 32 on Tuesday, began hormone treatments when she was in her early 20s in 2015 and in 2021 underwent gender-affirming surgery, which was required under the LPGA’s previous gender policy. She had won this year on a Florida mini-tour called NXXT Golf until the circuit announced in March that players had to be assigned female at birth.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/lpga-usga-transgender-policy-hailey-davidson-7367835d36c67a51d4cf0baf282c1d98

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“Can’t say I didn’t see this coming. Banned from the Epson and LPGA. All the silence and people wanting to stay ‘neutral’ thanks for absolutely nothing. This happened because of all your silence.

“And somehow people are surprised the suicide rate for transgender people is around 50%. Situations just like this are part of the reason.”

- Hailey Davidson on Instagram.

[milestogo]

1. What about intersex people?

Some people do not clearly have a sex "assigned" to them at birth. I guess they can never play sports?

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

9. they would have a sex assigned in developed countries. Most intersex dominating in sports are

males born with their male parts not evident. at puberty they produce testosterone and develop male bodies.

[Freethinker65]

2. SCOTUS will probably allow States to ban puberty blockers for no real reason but intolerance and cruelty.

Puberty blockers are reversible so no reason to ban them, but the court will. I suppose some families will move out of regressive freedomless states to obtain the best available medical care for their kids, but I don't think a future playing golf professionally will be a major factor in those decisions.

Therefore no trans golfer will be able to play professionally for the next several years. However, there are plenty of excellent golfers that are not in those leagues, just as all wonderful doctors don't belong to the AMA. I can envision non PGA sponsored tournaments where trans golfers will be able to compete along side non-trans top golfers.

SCOTUS doesn't give AF about the LGTBQ community and neither did Trump voters.

[Prairie Gates]

3. I think it's time to reconsider these two arguments

1) "All the silence and people wanting to stay ‘neutral’ thanks for absolutely nothing. This happened because of all your silence." - Both trans activism and left activism in general has been dominated by this need to have people affirmatively profess their allegiance to X and their opposition to Y. In other words, all these activist arguments have spent a lot of time telling people that they HAVE TO take a position, or they're bad. I don't know how to tell you that this is a very bad and counterproductive strategy, and that people hate enforced professions of faith and compelled discourse, which is essentially what these arguments call for. The left has spent a long time telling people that they are bad allies. It's a poor use of argumentative resources and attention.

2) "And somehow people are surprised the suicide rate for transgender people is around 50%. Situations just like this are part of the reason." Trans activists have relied on the m oral force of this argument: if you don't agree with us (and loudly!, see point 1) you are responsible for suicides among trans youth. You are literally killing kids if you don't agree. I'm not passing judgment on whether this argument is true. I am asking us to consider whether it is effective. At this point, I think it's simply not. People view it as at best exaggerated, at worst, emotional blackmail.

So, here we have a conservative argument that clearly has some purchase with the public: those assigned male at birth or those who have gone through male puberty shouldn't be eligible to play in girls and women's sports. It's fair to say that this argument has swayed good portions of the public.

The counterargument here is "You must openly say you support trans rights (to play sports) or you're actively causing suicides among trans kids." Both of these points have some merit, but they've been tested and tested and tested over the last several years, and they don't have any purchase. They're perhaps fine as moral sentiments, but they're bad as public argument.

[hlthe2b]

4. A question about this new "policy." Would they allow her to play in the men's field?

I'm curious about how they think they can refuse participation at all...

And golf, especially--a sport for which I quite freely admit to holding no particular knowledge of how there would or would not be an argument for "benefit" imparted from having gone through puberty. Just trying to understand their "thinking" in making this stance. Does the possible ability to hit the ball harder really create such a differential and advantage? It seems you have to be able to direct it too.

My attempt to follow their rationale leaves me again asking: how do they think they can refuse participation at all? It doesn't seem like this policy is defensible--even if one ignores any malign motivations for making it.

[Captain Stern]

5. I think she could play in the PGA.

I'm not positive, but I think the PGA is open to anyone that's good enough to qualify.

[Jose Garcia]

6. Women have played in the PGA

https://www.golflink.com/tour-golf/has-a-woman-ever-played-on-the-pga-tour

[maxsolomon]

7. Yes, hitting a golf ball harder and further is a big advantage in Golf.

2 strokes to the green versus 3. That's the advantage that male musculature provides.

I've played Soccer on Co-ed teams. It's fun, but I had to be very careful on defense when challenging women for the ball - they weighed 50-60 pounds less than me. Back then (the 90s) I was a relatively svelte 190-195. Dudes can just push on each other - 2 immoveable objects. Women go flying.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

8. yes, muscles come into play in golf... males hit the ball further and get it closer to the hole thingy

[Igel]

10. I'd argue that perhaps arm length should, too.

That club's going to need to be moving fast, and the longer the distance from the axis of rotation for a given angular velocity the greater the linear velocity.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

11. seems reasonable