scubaman
10-13-2010, 06:55 PM
Transgender Woman Sues L.P.G.A. (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/13/sports/golf/13lawsuit.htm?_r=1)
Transgender Woman Sues L.P.G.A. Over Policy
By KATIE THOMAS
Published: October 12, 2010
A transgender woman filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the L.P.G.A., arguing that its requirement that competitors be “female at birth” violates California civil rights law.
Lana Lawless, a 57-year-old retired police officer who had gender-reassignment surgery in 2005, made her name as an athlete in 2008 after winning the women’s world championship in long-drive golf with a 254-yard drive into a headwind. But this year, Lawless was ruled ineligible in the same championship because Long Drivers of America, which oversees the competition, changed its rules to match the policy of the L.P.G.A. Lawless wrote a letter in May asking for permission to apply for L.P.G.A. qualifying tournaments and was told by a tour lawyer that she would be turned down.
“It’s an issue of access and opportunity,” Lawless said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “I’ve been shut out because of prejudice.”
She is also suing Long Drivers of America, two of its corporate sponsors — Dick’s Sporting Goods and Re/Max — and CVS, the sponsor of the L.P.G.A. Challenge, which begins Thursday in Danville, Calif.
A lawyer for Long Drivers of America and a spokesman for the L.P.G.A. declined to comment on the 13-page lawsuit because they said they had not yet seen it. The lawsuit, filed in United States District Court in San Francisco by her lawyer, Christopher B. Dolan, seeks an unspecified amount in damages and a permanent injunction preventing the tour from holding tournaments or qualifying events in California as long as it continues to exclude transgender people.
Lawless is not the first professional female golfer to be transgender. Mianne Bagger, a Danish athlete, competed in the Women’s Australian Open in 2004 and has since toured professionally in Europe and Australia.
The L.P.G.A.’s policy has remained the same even as several sports bodies have changed their rules to accommodate people who are transgender. In 2004, the International Olympic Committee began allowing transgender people to compete if they have undergone reassignment surgery and at least two years of postoperative hormone-replacement therapy. Several other sports organizations then passed their own policies permitting transgender people to compete, including the United States Golf Association, the Ladies Golf Union in Britain and the Ladies European Golf Tour.
“I think the L.P.G.A. is really out of step with other professional sports organizations of its size, and it’s a wake-up call to other entities that we’re not going to tolerate discrimination based on gender identity,” said Kristina Wertz, the legal director of the Transgender Law Center in San Francisco. She said California was one of 13 states, and the District of Columbia, that had laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender identity.
Lawless said she had no competitive edge over other female golfers. The reassignment surgery removed her testes, and her hormones and muscle strength are in line with someone who was genetically female, she said. According to her birth certificate, she is a woman. “It doesn’t say ‘female-ish,’ ” Lawless said. “There is no such thing as born female. Either you’re female, or you’re not.”
Her view was challenged by an unlikely source: Renee Richards, the transgender tennis player who won the right to play in women’s events in the 1970s. In a telephone interview, Richards — who wearily noted she had spent more than 25 years fielding calls from reporters seeking comment on such cases — said she thought physically strong transgender women could have an advantage. Speaking of the Olympic committee, Richards said, “they’re going to get in trouble someday because somebody’s going to come along who’s strong in sprints or weight throwing or whatever and streak the field.”
However, Richards said that in individual cases, allowing a transgender athlete to play could be appropriate. Richards noted that she was 40 when she filed her suit, and said Lawless, at 57, probably fell into the same category.
“Maybe it’s O.K.,” she said. “Let her play and be done with the whole big argument about it. She’s not going to be on the tour.”
Although Lawless said she had played golf all her life — as an amateur, she played with a 1 handicap — she became interested in competing professionally after watching the women’s long-drive championship on ESPN in 2006. She placed third in 2007 and won the title in 2008. Sponsorships followed, including one with Bang Golf, which sells golf drivers. She said she lost the sponsorship after she was ruled ineligible to compete in the 2010 championship.
“It was devastating to me,” Lawless said of the rule change. “How can they say that rule was not changed specifically directed at me if you have a rule that allows me to play and you come back and you change it?”
Because Lawless has received prize money and sponsorship payments for playing golf, she said she was considered a professional and could not compete in amateur tournaments unless she applied to the U.S.G.A. for reinstatement, something she is not willing to do.
Because the U.S.G.A. allows transgender people to compete, Lawless could play in the United States Women’s Open. But without entry into the L.P.G.A., she said she has just one chance to qualify, by playing in a local tournament.
“All the girls from the L.P.G.A. that are in the top percentile, they get to go straight to the U.S. Open. I have one day,” she said. “Tiger Woods doesn’t play his best golf every day.”
Transgender Woman Sues L.P.G.A. Over Policy
By KATIE THOMAS
Published: October 12, 2010
A transgender woman filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the L.P.G.A., arguing that its requirement that competitors be “female at birth” violates California civil rights law.
Lana Lawless, a 57-year-old retired police officer who had gender-reassignment surgery in 2005, made her name as an athlete in 2008 after winning the women’s world championship in long-drive golf with a 254-yard drive into a headwind. But this year, Lawless was ruled ineligible in the same championship because Long Drivers of America, which oversees the competition, changed its rules to match the policy of the L.P.G.A. Lawless wrote a letter in May asking for permission to apply for L.P.G.A. qualifying tournaments and was told by a tour lawyer that she would be turned down.
“It’s an issue of access and opportunity,” Lawless said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “I’ve been shut out because of prejudice.”
She is also suing Long Drivers of America, two of its corporate sponsors — Dick’s Sporting Goods and Re/Max — and CVS, the sponsor of the L.P.G.A. Challenge, which begins Thursday in Danville, Calif.
A lawyer for Long Drivers of America and a spokesman for the L.P.G.A. declined to comment on the 13-page lawsuit because they said they had not yet seen it. The lawsuit, filed in United States District Court in San Francisco by her lawyer, Christopher B. Dolan, seeks an unspecified amount in damages and a permanent injunction preventing the tour from holding tournaments or qualifying events in California as long as it continues to exclude transgender people.
Lawless is not the first professional female golfer to be transgender. Mianne Bagger, a Danish athlete, competed in the Women’s Australian Open in 2004 and has since toured professionally in Europe and Australia.
The L.P.G.A.’s policy has remained the same even as several sports bodies have changed their rules to accommodate people who are transgender. In 2004, the International Olympic Committee began allowing transgender people to compete if they have undergone reassignment surgery and at least two years of postoperative hormone-replacement therapy. Several other sports organizations then passed their own policies permitting transgender people to compete, including the United States Golf Association, the Ladies Golf Union in Britain and the Ladies European Golf Tour.
“I think the L.P.G.A. is really out of step with other professional sports organizations of its size, and it’s a wake-up call to other entities that we’re not going to tolerate discrimination based on gender identity,” said Kristina Wertz, the legal director of the Transgender Law Center in San Francisco. She said California was one of 13 states, and the District of Columbia, that had laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender identity.
Lawless said she had no competitive edge over other female golfers. The reassignment surgery removed her testes, and her hormones and muscle strength are in line with someone who was genetically female, she said. According to her birth certificate, she is a woman. “It doesn’t say ‘female-ish,’ ” Lawless said. “There is no such thing as born female. Either you’re female, or you’re not.”
Her view was challenged by an unlikely source: Renee Richards, the transgender tennis player who won the right to play in women’s events in the 1970s. In a telephone interview, Richards — who wearily noted she had spent more than 25 years fielding calls from reporters seeking comment on such cases — said she thought physically strong transgender women could have an advantage. Speaking of the Olympic committee, Richards said, “they’re going to get in trouble someday because somebody’s going to come along who’s strong in sprints or weight throwing or whatever and streak the field.”
However, Richards said that in individual cases, allowing a transgender athlete to play could be appropriate. Richards noted that she was 40 when she filed her suit, and said Lawless, at 57, probably fell into the same category.
“Maybe it’s O.K.,” she said. “Let her play and be done with the whole big argument about it. She’s not going to be on the tour.”
Although Lawless said she had played golf all her life — as an amateur, she played with a 1 handicap — she became interested in competing professionally after watching the women’s long-drive championship on ESPN in 2006. She placed third in 2007 and won the title in 2008. Sponsorships followed, including one with Bang Golf, which sells golf drivers. She said she lost the sponsorship after she was ruled ineligible to compete in the 2010 championship.
“It was devastating to me,” Lawless said of the rule change. “How can they say that rule was not changed specifically directed at me if you have a rule that allows me to play and you come back and you change it?”
Because Lawless has received prize money and sponsorship payments for playing golf, she said she was considered a professional and could not compete in amateur tournaments unless she applied to the U.S.G.A. for reinstatement, something she is not willing to do.
Because the U.S.G.A. allows transgender people to compete, Lawless could play in the United States Women’s Open. But without entry into the L.P.G.A., she said she has just one chance to qualify, by playing in a local tournament.
“All the girls from the L.P.G.A. that are in the top percentile, they get to go straight to the U.S. Open. I have one day,” she said. “Tiger Woods doesn’t play his best golf every day.”