One Trans Golfer Seeks to Change ‘Female at Birth’ Requirement for Women’s Golf Tournament

Five years ago, Palm Springs, Calif., resident and former police officer Lana Lawless underwent gender reassignment surgery. Since that time, Lana has been living as a woman. Her driver’s license indicates she is female. Her birth certificate has even been changed. She says her hormone levels are the same as any “genetic born female.”

Yet, that’s not enough for the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) and Long Drivers of America (LDA), two of the nation’s top women’s golf organizations.

In May, Lawless sent a letter to the LPGA and asked if she’d be able to compete, writing (via SF Weekly):

My name is Lana Lawless and I am post-operative transsexual. I had gender reassignment surgery in 2005, and my hormone levels are currently in the range of a genetic born female. I am legally a female and my birth certificate states female also.

I was hoping to send in my application for the LPGA Qualifying School, however I noticed on your web site that it says that female competitors must “be female at birth.”

My question is: Am I eligible to compete in the LPGA as a female? I have felt like a female since birth and I have had gender reassignment surgery to harmonize my anatomy with my feelings.

Lawless’ direct approach, didn’t work. The LPGA responded simply:

Thank you for your letter requesting more information on the LPGA Q-school. You are correct that our regulations permit only women who are “female at birth” to play on the LPGA Tour which subsequently would deny a woman who does not meet that requirement the ability to compete in the LPGA Qualifying Tournaments. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me directly either by email or by phone.

But Lawless didn’t follow up directly with the LPGA. She followed up with a lawyer, and has now filed a lawsuit against the LPGA. The lawsuit also names LDA as a defendant.

In 2010, the LDA changed its regulations to prohibit transgender competitors after Lawless won their Long Drive Championship in 2008. The golfer’s lawsuit says the two organizations’ “female at birth” requirement violates California civil rights laws.

Transgender or intersex athletes’ place in sports isn’t a new question or controversy.

In what is perhaps the most high profile controversy to date, South Africa’s Caster Semenya, who won the women’s 800-meter run at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics, came under attack for rumors that she had in intersex condition giving her an unfair advantage over other runners. The controversy sparked a firestorm of scrutiny from both athletics professionals and the media. Semenya was withdrawn from competition and later asked to take a “gender test,” the results of which have never been released. Semenya has been denied the opportunity to compete in at least one other contest.

Two groups hope to change the way transgender people are treated in sports, and they’re starting with inclusion and equal opportunity in high school- and college-level athletics programs.

Released this month, a joint report by the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the Women’s Sports Foundation seeks to provide guidance on the place of transgender students in the world of college sports. The report, “On The Team: Equal Opportunity for Transgender Student Athletes” (PDF), says inclusion of transgender high school and college students in school sports in a “core value” that must be adopted by educational leaders.

“Over the course of many years, schools have learned and continue to appreciate the value and necessity of accommodating the sport participation interests of students of color, girls and women, students with disabilities, and lesbian, gay, and bisexual students,” the report reads. “These are all issues of basic fairness and equity that demand the expansion of our thinking about equal opportunity in sports. The right of transgender students to participate in sports calls for similar considerations of fairness and equal access.”

Researchers assert that opportunities to play in school athletics are “integral parts of a well-rounded education experience,” and that its benefits include “positive effects on physical, social, and emotional wellbeing.”

A failure to adopt inclusive policies, researchers say, creates negative consequences for both educational institutions and student players: “When schools fail to adopt inclusive participation policies, they are not living up to the educational ideals of equality and inclusion, and may reinforce the image of athletics as a privileged activity not accountable to broad institutional and societal ideals of inclusion and respect for difference,” the report reads. “Moreover, this failure puts schools, athletic conferences, and sport governing organizations at risk of costly discrimination lawsuits and negative media attention.”

The report recommends schools and colleges take proactive steps to include transgender student athletes, even in the absence of a transgender student who has expressed an interest in joining a sport. Researchers also suggest that state and national student athletic associations and governing organizations adopt inclusive policies and national standards that clearly define terms and concepts like “transgender,” “gender identity,” and “gender expression,” while “maximizing inclusiveness, rather than restricting students’ opportunities to participate based on their gender identity or expression” and that “enable all student athletes, regardless of their gender identity or expression, to compete in a safe, competitive, and respectful environment free of discrimination.”

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has already adopted transgender-inclusive guidelines, a move applauded by researchers. Yet, the report also outlines several flaws in the IOC’s policy among them a requirement for genital reconstructive surgery, a procedure many transgender people—especially transgender youth—don’t or can’t undergo due to financial resources or medical considerations of age and development.

Matt Comer is a staff writer for Campus Progress.

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