On Wednesday, the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) banned biological males who have reached puberty but identify as transgender athletes from competing against biological females in a major modification to the organization’s “Gender Policy for Competition Eligibility.”
According to a Wednesday press statement, under the LPGA’s updated policy, which will go into effect for the 2025 golf season, “athletes who are assigned female at birth are eligible to compete on the LPGA Tour, Epson Tour, Ladies European Tour, and all other elite LPGA competitions.” However, the LGPA stated that “players assigned to males at birth and who have gone through male puberty are not eligible to compete in the aforementioned events.”
The LPGA’s revised rules will still permit biological guys to compete against females if they “have not experienced any part of male puberty either beyond Tanner Stage 2 or after age 12 (whichever comes first).” Transgender athletes competing against women must demonstrate that they have “continuously maintained the concentration of testosterone in their serum below 2.5 nmol/L.”
In a press release on Wednesday, the LPGA stated that they collaborated with a “working group of top experts in medicine, science, sport physiology, golf performance, and gender policy law” to develop the new policy, which prohibits transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports. They also emphasized the importance of maintaining the competitive integrity of women’s professional tournaments and elite amateur competitions.