Transgender athlete Hailey Davidson is suing the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) and the United States Golf Association (USGA) after she says she was unlawfully banned from competition.
The golfer, 33, filed the lawsuit against the two organizations on Thursday, March 19, alleging that a policy change kept her from competing in a 2025 U.S. Women’s Open qualifier at the Hackensack Gold Club in New Jersey, according to ESPN and Fox Sports.
In the suit, Davidson claims that the new policy is essentially a total competition ban for all trans women, citing the fact that at least 30 states have passed laws that prohibit trans children from accessing gender-affirming care, like hormones or puberty blocking medication — essentially making it impossible for any trans athlete to meet the new qualifications for competition.
Davidson also names the Hackensack Golf Club in the lawsuit, arguing that the Club violated the law when it claimed that the USGA was the sole decision maker regarding player eligibility.
The athlete is seeking “unspecified damages,” according to ESPN.
“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,” an LPGA spokesperson said in a statement, acknowledging that the organization is aware of the lawsuit and would “let that process play out on the proper forum.”
Hailey Davidson Instagram/@haileydgolf
In 2024, the USGA and LPGA established new gender policies, requiring all players to be assigned female at birth to have transitioned from male to female before going through puberty in order to compete in LPGA tournaments or all eight of the USGA championships for women.
The policies were first enacted in 2025 and are, at the time of publication, indefinite.
The new rules also automatically ruled Davidson ineligible for competition — the athlete began hormone treatments when she was in her early 20s in 2015, long after she first started puberty. She underwent gender-affirming surgery in 2021.
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Davidson won while on a 2024 Florida mini-tournament called NXXT Golf, until the circuit announced a similar decision to ban trans athletes from competition, and missed qualifying for the U.S. women’s Open that same year by one shot. She also failed to qualify for LPGA Q-school.
“Can’t say I didn’t see this coming,” Davidson wrote in a 2024 Instagram Story, per the Associated Press. “Banned from the Epson and the LPGA. All the silence and people wanting to stay ‘neutral’ thanks for absolutely nothing. This happened because of all your silence.”
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