What to Know
A trans golfer is claiming that a 2024 policy change has effectively banned trans women from competing. In a lawsuit against the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA), the United States Golf Association (USGA), and Hackensack Golf Club, Hailey Davidson, 33, asserted that she couldn’t compete in a 2025 U.S. Women’s Open qualifier due to the new policy.
Per ESPN, the new policy requires golfers to either be assigned female at birth or to have medically transitioned before puberty. Because Hailey transitioned after puberty, she didn’t meet these requirements and couldn’t compete in 2025, when the new policies took effect.
In the lawsuit, she points out that many states prohibit gender-affirming care before puberty.
So, how can trans athletes be expected to meet these requirements? She argues that the policy basically keeps trans women out of the sport entirely, given that gender-affirming care is not accessible to minors in many U.S. states. Hailey’s accusing the organizations of violating New Jersey state law. Per Them, New Jersey has a civil rights law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression.
The lawsuit also addresses the impact the new rules have on her personally. It alleges that the organizations purposely worked to bar her from competing in the sport.
Per Them, it states, “Both organizations exerted an incredible amount of control over Hailey’s ability to play the game she loved and her personal medical information in an effort to unlawfully control her participation in women’s golf. The USGA and LPGA preyed on Hailey’s love of the game and desire to play to get the precise medical information that would allow them to exclude her from the sport.”
The LPGA has defended its policy.
New LPGA and USGA policy to ban many transgender women from competing in elite tournaments https://t.co/goY3tNVqpz
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) December 5, 2024
In a statement shared with ESPN, the organization stated, “The LPGA’s gender policy was developed through a thoughtful, expert-informed process and is grounded in protecting the competitive integrity of elite women’s golf.” The LPGA also acknowledged the lawsuit in the statement and said the organization would simply “let that process play out on the proper forum.”
People reached out to the USGA and Hackensack Golf Club for comment, but did not hear back. In a heartbreaking post from 2025, Hailey wrote, “Truthfully, I feel less and less welcome in the golf world and society as a whole each and every day. A majority of society wants exactly that to be the case too.”
These new rules come amid President Donald Trump’s efforts to keep trans women from playing sports.
"Isn't he just the best?" — Olympian Kaillie Humphries gives Trump an award for his impact on women's sports and "standing up to keep biological women in women's sports" pic.twitter.com/0HQS7BfvNP
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 12, 2026
While making transphobic comments and signing an executive order aimed at banning trans girls and women from competing in girls’ and women’s sports, Trump has tried to act like he cares about protecting cis women. His executive order put pressure on educational institutions and organizations to ban trans women from participating. When he signed his executive order last year, he said, “With this executive order, the war on women’s sports is over.”
But of course, it’s hard for Trump critics to believe that he truly cares about looking out for women, given his history of misogynistic comments and sexual misconduct allegations. It’s estimated that about 1% of the population in the U.S. identifies as trans (and even fewer of those people are professional athletes), but Trump spends a decent amount of time talking about keeping trans women out of women’s sports.
At a White House Women’s History Month event on March 12, Olympic bobsledder Kaillie Humphries sparked backlash when she gave Trump her Order of Ikkos to thank him for “standing up to keep biological women in women’s sports.”
“Isn’t he just the best?” she said at the event. But a lot of critics online vehemently disagreed.
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