Transgender Bans Enacted By Two National Golf Associations

Two national golf associations have announced new policies that will take effect in 2025 that prevent transgender women from competing in women’s events, according to CNN. The Ladies Professional Golf Association and the United States Golf Association both passed restrictions that deny trans women who went through male puberty the ability to compete in women’s events, including the U.S. Women’s Open and the LPGA Tour. This comes as many other sports organizations are enacting similar crackdowns. 

Transgender women who underwent transition prior to puberty and fall within certain criteria such as maintaining testosterone levels below the 2.5 nanomoles per liter limit stated in the LPGA policy can still participate in women’s events. Similar policies have been established by other athletic organizations, such as World Athletics, World Aquatics and the International Cycling Union, according to ESPN.

 LPGA Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samman says in a press release that the decision was science-based, but the new policy disregards the growing restrictions on access to gender affirming medical procedures and puberty blockers that have ramped up both in the United States and Britain, which recently extended a ban on puberty blocker hormones indefinitely for youth seeking gender affirming care. Among other health consequences arising from these restrictions, they also prevent many transgender individuals from legally pursuing gender-affirming procedures until after puberty something that complicates the global narrative about gender.  

The policy was announced on December 4, but the Biden administration similarly failed to create protections for trans athletes last week when they withdrew proposed legislation which would have limited schools’ ability to restrict transgender athletes from playing sports for teams that match their gender identity, according to Reuters. The legislation would have been enacted by making changes to Title IX, a portion of the 1972 Education Amendments that created protections from discrimination based on sex in education programs.

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