This week, Townhall covered how a transgender golfer who previously competed against women would no longer do so, stating “I’m not a woman.”
The athlete, Nicole Powers, made the remarks in an interview with Outkick.
"When I was transitioning and starting my athletic career, you didn't see trans women competing in women's sports because we all knew that that wasn't the right thing to do," Powers explained to the outlet. "I didn't necessarily see that I was part of the problem because you're force-fed this information that your existence is not the problem, and you should enter women's spaces without restraint."
"It wasn't until I saw real problems occurring within women's sports that I had to take a step back and realize that biological realities are real and competitive advantages will always exist despite what number of years you've transitioned or whatever surgeries and hormones you've done, and then understood that my place is not in women's sports,” Powers said.
Another so-called “transgender” golfer has taken the opposite stance, angering hundreds of female golfers.
According to The Telegraph, hundreds of female golfers have complained about the participation of Scottish-born transgender player Hailey Davidson, 31, in the LPGA Tour’s qualifying competition (via The Telegraph):
But after progressing through August’s first stage of Q-School , the former player on a US male college team was accused of acting “unfairly”, with Amy Olson, a two-time major runner-up, railing against Davidson being allowed to compete. “These women have worked too hard and too long to have to stand by and watch a man compete for and take their spot,” she said.
It has now emerged that this view was held by many in the field, with the International Women’s Forum revealing that 275 signed a letter sent to the LPGA, the US Golf Association and the International Golf Federation, urging Davidson’s removal from the tournament.
A copy of the letter was reportedly obtained by Outkick.
“We all know there can be no equal athletic opportunity for women without a separate female golf category,” the letter reportedly said.
“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,” it added.
Davidson, who is now based in Florida, has made egregious remarks about competing against women, which Townhall has reported.
“I will never understand athletes who blame a transgender competitor on their own athletic failures,” Davidson wrote on Instagram at one point.
“If you don’t take accountability for your failures then you will never actually be good enough to make it,” he reportedly added.
Earlier this year, Townhall covered how Davidson acknowledged that transgender athletes have an advantage against women. He made the admission in a sit-down interview with Good Morning Britain.
“I 100 percent agree, the men do have advantages. Say you get a trans person on hormones for a year, no surgery, nothing, of course, for the most part, they’re going to have an advantage,” Davidson said, adding that he does not believe that transgender people should be banned from sports.
“I don’t get what the fear of me, one person, is doing,” he said of the backlash about his wins against women.
Transgender golfer, Hailey Davidson, says she fears for her safety after winning a place on a US tour designed to provide 'growth opportunities' for female players.
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) January 22, 2024
She has been accused of having an unfair advantage because she can hit a ball further than a female born player. pic.twitter.com/iN1JGwOuD4