In January, Hailey Davidson, a biological male who claims he’s a woman, caused an uproar when he won first place in a Florida women’s pro golf league tournament. The win, which was 100 points ahead of the woman in second place, brought the male player close to qualifying for the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA). At the time, golfers on that tour were polled on whether they support policies that allow men who identify as transgender to compete alongside biological women. Overwhelmingly, respondents voted no.

As a result, the NXXT Women’s Pro Tour changed their policies, making it a requirement to be a “biological female at birth” to compete. However, this did not bar Davidson from the female golfing scene entirely. He managed to move forward after he passed the pre-qualifying stage of the LPGA’s Q-School in August. On Tuesday, he played for the second stage of qualifying for an LPGA Tour card. Notably, this is the case even after consistent backlash from female players who object to his participation.

OutKick highlighted the fact of the matter: Davidson’s “inclusion may align with LPGA’s current gender policy, but not with the vast majority of fellow competitors.” This is evident in a letter that was signed by 275 women golfers and sent by the Independent Women’s Forum to three major golf organizations mid-August — the LPGA, United States Golf Association (USGA), and the International Golf Federation (IGF). The letter read, “It is essential for the integrity and fairness of women’s golf to have a clear and consistent participation policy in place based on a player’s immutable sex. There are differences between the sexes — female and male — that specifically affect our sport of golf.” It also emphasized the fixed nature of biological sex and how “anatomical differences are not removed with male testosterone suppression.”

Despite the “multiple data-focused points” to make its case, the letter’s plea evidently did not stop the LPGA from allowing Davidson to compete. It begs the question: is there hope for change? While the LPGA has yet to uphold the fairness and integrity of women’s sports, there are numerous examples off the green of those who have.

For instance, the topic of men in women’s sports has held its spot in the political sphere. In fact, the 2024 election season has seen oodles of it. Just this week, Rep. Mary Peltola (D-Alaska) reportedly flipped her position on the topic after news broke that her Republican opponent emerged as the front-runner in the race for the congressional seat in Alaska.

The Democratic lawmaker had formerly voted against legislation that would have protected women’s sports. But now she has said she doesn’t believe “we should have men competing in women’s sports.” While experts have pointed out that her reversed stance “reeks of desperation” to win votes, they’ve also noted how it seems to reveal that Peltola felt protecting women’s sports better resonated with the people of Alaska.

Additionally, Michigan Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers created a campaign ad that called for the exclusion of men from women’s sports. After he noticed Meta had removed his ad on multiple occasions, Rogers posted on X, “Time and again, big tech activists at Facebook have REMOVED our ad exposing Slotkin’s failures to protect our daughters. Biological men should not compete in women’s sports. This is about FAIRNESS for our daughters and privacy for women.” Consequently, after Rogers and others pushed the issue, Facebook finally admitted on Tuesday they had taken the ad down by “mistake” and proceeded to restore it on the social media platform.

Other examples of success in protecting women’s sports include five women’s volleyball teams, as well as two girls’ soccer teams in New Hampshire, that have refused to play against teams with a biological male player. Each instance has stirred immense support from those who no longer want to see men competing against female athletes.

As a former Division I athlete, Family Research Council’s Mary Szoch weighed in on the topic. “Someone needs to do an investigation into the LPGA — and all other sports organizations that are allowing men to play women’s sports,” she told The Washington stand. “They must be receiving massive amounts of funds from somewhere,” Szoch added. “Why else would a sports organization [repeatedly] destroy fair play and jeopardize the safety of women?” It simply “does not make sense.”

Moving forward, Szoch urged that regardless of how long it takes, “We cannot give up the fight for women’s sports,” because “doing so would be giving up on truth — something that our society cannot function without.” If they’re going to better reflect the values of the women in their league, Szoch concluded that the LPGA needs to “immediately change their policy. Second place to a man isn’t good enough for women in sports.”