Nicole Powers, a transgender woman who has competed in various sports, including golf, alongside cisgender women, recently spoke out about her experiences. Powers shared that she came to feel it was not fair to compete against biological females, acknowledging a perceived advantage she held during these events.
Powers explains decision
Reflecting on her past competitions, Powers revealed that she often refrained from giving her best effort, as she felt uneasy about what she saw as an imbalance.
“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 told OutKick.
“[Coaches and other competitors have even said] ‘You belong here.’ And even with me saying, ‘No, I don’t,’ they still are continuing to try to force the agenda that, ‘You’re a trans woman; we’re going to keep championing you in women’s sports.’
“I’m not a woman; 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 I’m telling them I’m not.
“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.
“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].”
Her comments come amid a broader national debate over the participation of transgender athletes in women’s sports. Currently, more than two dozen states have introduced rules limiting such participation.
The conversation gained further momentum after President Biden’s recent changes to Title IX, which expanded protections for trans athletes.
“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,” Powers added.
“There has to be a clear line in the sand. And it’s not from a position of discrimination at all. It’s just from a position of fairness, from the original reason why we [have] women’s sports and men’s sports.”
Read the full article here
