A trailblazing transgender golfer now supports legal changes that would’ve stopped her from competing — claiming that “male-bodied” competitors can dominate female sports in a “slap in the face to women.”
Danish golfer Mianne Bagger, now 55, made history in 2004 when she became the first transgender athlete in a professional golf tournament at the Women’s Australian Open.
But she told Australian TV’s “Insight” that she now supports a bill seeking to ban transgender athletes from female events Down Under, conceding it’ll leave her branded a “hypocrite,” according to news.com.au.
Bagger complained that current laws allow “male-bodied people presenting as women, who live as women, with varying degrees of medical intervention and in some degrees, no medical intervention.”
“It’s crossed the line, in my view, it really has,” she said, according to the report.
“It’s a slap in the face to women.”
Bagger ripped the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for amending its trans-inclusion policy, which now means gender reassignment surgery is no longer required for a trans female athlete to compete.
The decision to allow trans athletes to be eligible after a year without hormones — down from the previous two — “almost denies the impact of testosterone on physical performance,” Bagger insisted on the show.
“Which is obviously utter rubbish,” she said.
“Anyone with any basic understanding on biology and the difference between men and women knows it’s ridiculous. It’s male puberty that really grants boys and men that physical performance in sport,” she said.
“And I think it’s irrefutable — it’s ridiculous to suggest otherwise.”
Bagger told the show that her own transition was “pivotal” in her life, and stressed that she still sought “inclusion” in “everyday society.”
“We want equality, lack of discrimination, and of course every single person should have equal access to life and services and work in society,” she said.
“In sport? It’s different,” she insisted. “Sport is about physical ability. It’s not just about discrimination, it’s not just about equality and equal access. It is a physical ability.
“If you’ve got one group — males — that are on average stronger, taller, faster, as opposed to women, there has to be a divide,” she insisted.
This was particularly important “when it comes to elite, professional sport,” she stressed.
“You’ve got money, medals, world records — there’s a whole different dynamic at play,” she said.
Bagger said she would be open to trans athletes competing under tougher rules, but not the “current, softened policies that are requiring less and less medical intervention of a male-bodied person entering women’s sport.”
“I’m seen as a bit of hypocritical voice at the moment, so I just have to take the abuse and whatever criticism that is going to come my way,” she said.
