A “transgender” golfer is suing two major golf organizations for changing their rules to prevent men from competing in women’s events.
Hailey (née James) Davidson filed a lawsuit Thursday in New Jersey claiming that the United States Golf Association (USGA) and Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) policies, as enforced by the Hackensack Golf Club, amount to illegal discrimination. (The golf club is also named in the suit.) Garden State law prohibits discrimination based on “gender identity.”
Davidson also charged that, by denying him entry into a 2025 U.S. Women’s Open qualifying event, “the Hackensack Golf Club violated the law by saying the USGA controlled all decisions regarding eligibility,” reported The Associated Press. (The “unbiased” AP repeatedly refers to Davidson with feminine pronouns and uses the phrase “assigned female at birth” in references to golf organizations’ policies.)
Off-kilter Scotsman
Davidson, 33, emigrated from Scotland to the United States as a child. For the first 22 years of his life, he appears to have considered himself, quite naturally, a male. In fact, as the AP reported in 2024 in this masterpiece of doublethink:
Davidson had a scholarship to play on the men’s team at Wilmington University in Delaware before transferring to the men’s team at Christopher Newport in Virginia. Golfweek reported she began hormone treatments in 2015 and had gender-affirming surgery in 2021. [Emphasis added.]
Taking advantage of the LPGA’s openness to transgender golfers — the result of a 2010 lawsuit by former husband and gang-unit cop Lana Lawless — Davidson began entering women’s golf tournaments, qualifying as female because he so identified and had undergone both gender-reassignment surgery and hormone therapy.
In January 2024, Davidson dominated the NXXT Golf Women’s Pro Tour, leaders of which stand a better-than-average chance of making it to the LPGA’s developmental tour.
Perhaps understandably, NXXT had followed the LPGA’s (and USGA’s) lead when it came to men playing in women’s events. NXXT initially stood by the policy in the face of backlash from actual women against Davidson’s participation.
However, after NXXT polled its tour players, it quickly discovered that they were unhappy with being forced to compete against a man. Thus, in March 2024, NXXT issued a new policy stating that “competitors must be a biological female at birth to participate” in women’s events.
Ladies’ Choice
Five months later, the LPGA learned that its members similarly objected to its transgender policy when 275 of them signed a letter demanding Davidson’s ouster from women’s events and a repeal of the policy allowing males to participate in female-only events. (The USGA was copied on the letter.)
According to LifeSiteNews, the letter read in part:
The male advantage in driving the ball is estimated around a 30% performance advantage; this is an enormous difference in the context of sport. Anatomical differences between males and females affect clubhead speed and regulating consistency at ball contact.
Females have higher mean heart rates and encounter greater physiological demands while playing, especially at high altitudes. The anatomical differences are not removed with male testosterone suppression. There is no way to turn a male into a female. Being female is not equated to being male with a reduction in strength.
A 2024 UN report reached similar conclusions regarding men’s participation in women’s athletics, including the startling fact that, as of March 2024, “over 600 female athletes in more than 400 competitions have lost more than 890 medals in 29 different sports” to males.
“To avoid the loss of a fair opportunity, males must not compete in the female categories of sport,” declared Reem Alsalem, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls.
Bowing to the wishes of its members, the LPGA greatly modified its pro-transgender policy in December 2024, barring “players assigned male at birth and who have gone through male puberty.”
Teed Off
The next year, Davidson, undoubtedly well aware of this change, attempted to enter the New Jersey event. When he was denied entrance, he sued, whining that the policy change “effectively bans transgender women from competing in USGA women’s events or the LPGA because many states prevent children from taking hormones or blocking puberty,” reported the AP.
Them, a pro-LGBTQ+ website owned by Condé Nast, wrote (using feminine pronouns for Davidson, of course):
Davidson also claims in her suit that USGA and LPGA officials intentionally crafted the new rules to bar her from competing after she began inquiring about eligibility policies in 2016, and used her medical records to tailor the changes.
Considering it took these groups eight years to get around to kicking Davidson out, and then only under pressure from their members, that accusation hardly seems plausible.
In a statement to the AP, the LPGA said it was aware of Davidson’s lawsuit and would “let the process play out on the proper forum.”
“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,” explained the statement.
Davidson sued NXXT separately in December. NXXT and its attorneys, who filed a motion to dismiss in February, told Fox News they expect the case to be tossed.
“We are asking the courts to dismiss the claims, and we’re addressing the matter,” said NXXT Golf CEO Stuart McKinnon.
“This was about simply protecting women’s sports,” he added. “So the goal was really clarity and competitive integrity, and, as a professional tour, we believe it was our responsibility to define those categories.”
