Transgender Disc Golfer Loses Bid to Compete in Women’s Division

Natal­ie Ryan, a trans­gen­der disc golfer, was barred from com­pet­ing in the wom­en’s divi­sion of a major disc golf tour­na­ment in Cal­i­for­nia after an appeals court over­turned an ear­li­er rul­ing that allowed her to participate.

Ryan, who has won two events on the Pro­fes­sion­al Disc Golf Asso­ci­a­tion tour dur­ing her career, filed a law­suit in Feb­ru­ary alleg­ing dis­crim­i­na­tion after the sport’s gov­ern­ing body tight­ened its rules for trans­gen­der par­tic­i­pa­tion. The new pol­i­cy requires trans­gen­der women to have med­ical­ly tran­si­tioned before age 12 and have testos­terone lev­els in a cer­tain range to com­pete in wom­en’s divisions.

A US dis­trict court judge ini­tial­ly issued a restrain­ing order allow­ing Ryan to com­pete in the OTB Open disc golf tour­na­ment in Cal­i­for­nia. But the PDGA appealed and won on Fri­day, prompt­ing tour­na­ment orga­niz­ers to remove Ryan from the competition.

The rul­ing dashed Ryan’s hopes of win­ning up to $35,000 in prize mon­ey at the OTB Open. In an Insta­gram post, Ryan said she would con­tin­ue fight­ing for inclu­sion of trans­gen­der athletes.

“I will not be threat­ened, I will not be intim­i­dat­ed, I will not be erased,” Ryan wrote. “It is a breath of fresh air to be com­pet­ing where I belong. To all the trans folks out there that love this sport as much as I do, I’m here for you, we all deserve better.”

The par­tic­i­pa­tion of trans­gen­der ath­letes in wom­en’s sports has become a con­tro­ver­sial issue, with some argu­ing that trans women have phys­i­cal advan­tages over cis­gen­der women that make com­pe­ti­tion unfair. Sup­port­ers counter that trans inclu­sion pro­motes human rights and that exist­ing poli­cies can ensure fairness.

Ryan’s case high­lights the com­plex debate around trans­gen­der ath­letes as sports gov­ern­ing bod­ies deter­mine their own poli­cies. While the Inter­na­tion­al Olympic Com­mit­tee has allowed trans women to com­pete in wom­en’s divi­sions since 2003, poli­cies vary sig­nif­i­cant­ly in oth­er sports.