This Week in Disc Golf | December 13, 2022

Video Transcript

foreign welcome to another edition of this week in disc golf it's Tuesday December 13th I'm Charlie eisenhood and here's what happened this week well all the conversation in the disc golf world has been about new guidelines coming out from the PDGA and the disc golf pro tour yesterday around transgender participation in the fpo division the new guidelines will effectively block transgender women from competing in the fpo division at Pro majors and Elite Series and silver events on the dgpt the PDGA gender eligibility policy reads that for pro Majors transgender women are only eligible to compete if they began medical transition during Tanner stage 2 or before age 12 whichever is later effectively this requires a transgender woman to have begun taking testosterone suppressants before going through puberty as a male this matches the controversial guidelines that were set out by Fina the International Swimming Federation what this means for now is that Natalie Ryan Chloe Alice and other transgender women will be unable to compete in the fpo division on the professional tour Natalie Ryan won twice in 2022 on the disc golf pro tour she won the Discraft Great Lakes open as well as the MVP open she wrote on Instagram quote I'm incredibly saddened and hurt by this announcement I did everything I could to speak on behalf of inclusion but the PDGA board of directors had a decision made before I ever set foot in that room she later told ulti World disc golf quote trans participation wasn't a problem until I was successful I feel broken in the wake of these announcements but one thing is clear to me this decision was to force me off the tour not to make it more fair the research they used to justify this is a joke and the fact that they use public opinion to make policy is downright lazy at best I will prove their short-sighted hatred in court Natalie Ryan has since formed a GoFundMe to raise legal fees for a potential lawsuit against the PDGA this could become one of the first times that a top athlete has sued a sports Federation around transgender eligibility in the women's division and this could potentially set a legal precedent for transgender participation in sports more generally if this does go to court the PDGA released a lot of information about the board...