PDGA Updates Gender Policy

[brutalbrutus]

https://www.pdga.com/announcements/pdga-updates-policy-eligibility-gender-protected-divisions

The PDGA is implementing a new policy on eligibility for gender-protected divisions (that is, female divisions). The PDGA Policy on Eligibility for Gender-Protected Divisions was developed by the PDGA Medical Committee with input from Laura Nagtegaal and was approved by the PDGA Board of Directors on 12 March 2019.

Previously, the PDGA recognized the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Medical Commission's 2003 Statement of the Stockholm consensus on sex reassignment in sports in determining eligibility for gender-protected divisions. The IOC has since revised its policy with the Consensus Meeting on Sex Reassignment and Hyperandrogenism (November 2015) and the new PDGA policy is in alignment with this latest IOC standard.

Any player competing in PDGA events in a gender-protected division (any division containing "F," e.g. FA1 or FP60) must conform to the requirements of the PDGA Policy on Eligibility for Gender-Protected Divisions. Players wishing to compete in female-only divisions must be declared female at birth or meet the requirements to be recognized as a transgender female, details of which are contained in the policy. The policy also addresses players who wish to reclassify from female to male.

Any player wishing to change their gender in the PDGA database must complete the Gender Reclassification Form and send it, along with required documentation, to [email protected]. Any player with specific queries pertaining to their gender classification may contact the PDGA Medical Committee through this email address. All personal information communicated in this regard is covered through the PDGA Privacy Policy.

 

[Casey 1988]

Yeah the Olympics had to update its policy/rules after a 800 meter incident where a Transgender Female that was not fully transitioned won the 800 meter I think they were from India or Pakistan and a person who had breast reduction surgery from either Africa or one of the tropical islands in the Gulf Of Mexico came in second or third. This was at the 2012 Olympics where it happened.

 

[wolfmandragon]

Even after male to female sex reassignment, old muscle does not simply disappear. Transitioned males still have a great physical advantage.

Female PDGA members should demand that transitioned males not be allowed in the gender protected bracket.

Another reason not to join the PDGA.

 

[Nova P]

Even after male to female sex reassignment, old muscle does not simply disappear.

This is incorrect, and there's tons of studies and evidence showing that post-transition women do not have their prior muscle mass or strength. Further, transgender women frequently have a harder time building strength compared to cis women, as their blood testosterone levels are usually lower than cis women's, as women still have the small output from their ovaries, which transgender women lack.

Transitioned males still have a great physical advantage.

Transgender women aren't male. They're female, or women. It's disrespectful to say otherwise.

Female PDGA members should demand that transitioned males not be allowed in the gender protected bracket.

You should learn more about the subject before you tell other people what to do.

Another reason not to join the PDGA.

Oh, you're a crank. Never mind.

 

[wolfmandragon]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQpQmNhya14

Disc golf, like striking, is fast twitch muscle dominate.

Y chromosome = male.

 

[Nova P]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQpQmNhya14

Disc golf, like striking, is fast twitch muscle dominate.

Man, those armies of doctors and scientists around the world who have been studying this for decades and compiling data and publishing reports have been spinning their wheels in vain. All they had to do was listen to JOE ROGAN.

Weak sauce. Don't come at me with that.

 

[Carolina Crushers]

If you have a penis...you are man. If you have a vagina... you are woman. If you are offended I call you "what you were born". Sounds like "you" have issues.

 

[BrotherDave]

Sexual dimorphism is science. Male to female transgender people are not biologically women. Sports is essentially a competition of superior biology so trans-women and biological women are not equal competitors. There is no point of a gender protected division under the PDGA's current interpretation.

 

[JedV]

Yeah the Olympics had to update its policy/rules after a 800 meter incident where a Transgender Female that was not fully transitioned won the 800 meter I think they were from India or Pakistan and a person who had breast reduction surgery from either Africa or one of the tropical islands in the Gulf Of Mexico came in second or third. This was at the 2012 Olympics where it happened.

Casey's alternate facts strike again! She was not from India or Pakistan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caster_Semenya

and.... In before the Landfill

 

[wolfmandragon]

https://www.bloodyelbow.com/2013/3/...-discusses-possible-advantages-fallon-fox-has

Combat is where B.S. ends. I trained many years in martial arts. Women's bone structure and the amount of fast twitch muscles are not the same as males. VO2 max is also lower, due to factors beyond what gender reassignment will change; although that is not as important in DG.

One of the instructors I trained under was a highly skilled female. I had great respect for her, she taught me a lot. I trained with other women throughout the years, both in traditional martial arts and self defense based one's. One of the things one will learn is the differences in how men and women are built. It takes more than genital reassignment and hormone therapy to change that.

As I stated earlier, combat is where the truth shines and is why I am focusing on it. There are other sports where the empirical evidence is being shown should you wish to look.

 

[TAFL]

If you have a penis...you are man. If you have a vagina... you are woman. If you are offended I call you "what you were born". Sounds like "you" have issues.

The ignorance should hurt.

 

[Horsman]

Please dont landfill this. Conversations like this one need to stop being suppressed, and are very important conversations to have. Please lets keep it civil.

 

[oddjob]

Don't see the issue. They already had a policy and simply updated it to mirror the IOC updates, right?

If there was a problem with former dudes winning F divisions we would have seen it by now.

 

[NDABRUSH]

Casey's alternate facts strike again! She was not from India or Pakistan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caster_Semenya

and.... In before the Landfill

Facts Shmacts. Facts are over rated, except in Skydiving.

 

[Nova P]

If you have a penis...you are man. If you have a vagina... you are woman.

This was good science fifty or sixty years ago, but through study we have learned since then that it's vastly more complicated than that.

If you are offended I call you "what you were born".

Funny you should say that, as there is significant evidence that one is born transgender, due to the effects on development in the womb of the timing of the delivery of various hormones to the developing fetus.

Sounds like "you" have issues.

The main issue most transgender people face is not a medical one -- medicine is pretty good at sorting that out nowadays. The main issue they have is dealing with an uneducated public who go out of their way to cause them no end of misery, through mockery, discrimination in employment and housing, social ostracization, and even expulsion from their families. They just want to live their lives and be happy the same as most other people, and at every turn they are met with resistance and abuse and rejection for no good reason.

 

[Horsman]

Funny you should say that, as there is significant evidence that one is born transgender, due to the effects on development in the womb of the timing of the delivery of various hormones to the developing fetus.

Do you have the studies for this? I think this would be an interesting read.

 

[wolfmandragon]

Don't see the issue. They already had a policy and simply updated it to mirror the IOC updates, right?

If there was a problem with former dudes winning F divisions we would have seen it by now.

Some of us never knew the former policy existed.

While what you say is correct in that this has not happened in DG, we are a small sport that is only now starting to attract high level athletes. Sure, there have been a handful of high level athletes in the past and they dominated co-dominated the game.

Take any of the MPO players that have at least 1 x by their title and gender reassign them. Not only would they have a higher percentage of fast twitch muscle and long bone structure, they also have hard wired neurological advantage on being able to judge spatial coordances and to be more co-ordinated.

So much is focused on hormones, bones and muscles, yet very little is being said about how the brains of males and females physically differ and much of this structure is already in place in the womb.

The males brain is specialised to have increased spatial awareness, increased reactions, better co-ordination and a higher ability to focus, whilst the female brain is better at tasks that require multitasking, communication and memory.

The physical brain and nervous system will still be whatever it was before gender reassignment.


https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hope-relationships/201402/brain-differences-between-genders

 

[Nova P]

Do you have the studies for this? I think this would be an interesting read.

Quickly skimming some search results, I got this pretty decent article written in casual language for the lay person, with links to more scholarly articles in the footnotes:

http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2016/gender-lines-science-transgender-identity/

For further reading, I suggest Googling "transgender epigenetics" or "transgender prenatal."

 

[Cgkdisc]

From a practical standpoint, ratings divisions within the female amateur ranks will prevent what some may see as gender sandbagging since everyone considered female under this policy will not be able to play in a division below their rating level. Until we see a player who can retain a rating above say 990 after becoming qualified to enter FPO, that previously played in MPO, doesn't seem like this policy should be a concern for fair competition in female divisions.

 

[Nova P]

From a practical standpoint, ratings divisions within the female amateur ranks will prevent what some may see as gender sandbagging since everyone considered female under this policy will not be able to play in a division below their rating level.

You know what really prevents gender sandbagging, not just in disc golf but in any sport?

The notion that a man would voluntarily transition to female, live as female pretty much forever, go through the medical hassle of hormone therapy, watching his (deleted) shrivel up like a Vienna sausage and a pair of old raisins, growing breasts, having to go through the hassle of changing his legal documentation with dozens or hundreds of companies and government agencies, and immediately joining the ranks of one of the single most despised and discriminated-against minorities, being a social pariah, facing ostracization from his peers and family, and all that. . .

Just to win some disc golf trophies.

Yeah no. There's a reason gender sandbagging isn't a thing. The boogey-man (no pun intended) of some guy just dropping everything and playing as a woman for the lols falls apart with more than a moment's casual thought.

Not picking on you, Chuck, just running with the topic since you mentioned it. <3