‘It’s like this bizarro world where I’m trying to defend my reality’
A transgender golfer who recently declared they would no longer compete against biological females is coming under fire from the LGBTQ community.
“The reaction was almost the same as at a lot of these events that I’m competing in,” Powers told the outlet. “It’s very shocked in the sense of ‘well no, no, no, you belong here,’ even with me saying ‘no I don’t,’ they still are continuing to try and force the agenda that you’re a trans woman and we’re going to continue championing you in women’s sports. Really have a think about this, you’re a woman, and that’s what they’re saying.
“I’m like ‘no, I’m not, I’m a trans woman,’ and it’s like this bizarro world where I’m trying to defend my reality against people who are trying to defend something that I’m telling them that I’m not.
“The agenda has gotten to everybody in the athletic world including my coaches, trainers, and governing bodies of my sports.”
Powers made the decision to stay out of women’s sports after coming to the realization about how much of an advantage she had.
“I had to take a step back and realize that biological realities are real and competitive advantages will always exist despite the number of years or whatever surgeries and hormones you’ve done, and then understood that my place is not in women’s sports,” Powers said.
Powers said during competitions against biological females, she wouldn’t give 100% in order to not raise any red flags.
“I didn’t want to raise any flags. So if I’m standing on the tee box with three other women, I’m not going to just bomb a drive out on the fairway 310, 315 yards, even though I knew I could. Despite my lifelong transition or transition for 10-plus years, I knew that I could do that, but instead, I would maybe club down, lay off a little bit on my game, because I didn’t want to raise those flags,” Powers said.
“In the back of my head this entire couple years, I was playing in professional tournaments, I knew I wouldn’t feel right if I did take awards (from women).”
While Powers has decided to stay out of competitions for women, there has been a rise in transgender females participation in such events.
Powers now advocates for “fairness” in women’s sports.
“I don’t know what the governing bodies need to do, but they need to listen to woman athletes. Women, adult human females, they need to listen to those athletes, listen to their pain points and understand that there has to be a change. There has to be a clear line in the sand. And it’s not from a position of discrimination at all,” Powers said. “It’s just from a position of fairness, from the original reason why we (have) women’s sports and men’s sports.”
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