Transgender Persons Participating in B.C. Golf

 

Competitions Policy

 

B.C. Golf believes in and is committed to diversity, inclusion and gender equity among its competitors. As participation in B.C. Golf Championships provides golfers a unique and positively powerful experience, the goal of this policy is to create opportunity for transgender golfers to participate in accordance with their gender identity while maintaining the relative balance of competitive equity within our events.

 

Guiding Principles

 

B.C. Golf will utilize the following principles to guide its decision-making process in accordance with this policy:

The implementation and administration of this policy will consider a fair and equitable level of monitoring that is respectful, inclusive and respects a person’s human rights.

 

Definitions:

 

a) Golfer - any individual who seeks to participate as a player in any of B.C. Golf's events.

b) Transgender - refers to an individual who has been assigned one gender (male or female) at birth, but identifies with the other gender.

c) Transgender Female - someone who was born with a male body, but who identifies as a girl or a woman and who is being treated for gender reassignment.

d) Transgender Male - someone who was born with a female body, but who identifies as aboy or a man and who is being treated for gender reassignment.

e) Gender reassignment - a medically-supervised program of treatment to change a person’s body to align with their gender identity, through hormone therapy and/or surgery.

f) Medical Practitioner - a person licensed to practice medicine in Canada, who has obtained a medical school diploma (“MD”), and is registered with the Physicians Credentials Registry of Canada.

g) Gender Review Sub-Committee - is a sub-committee of the Amateur Competitions committee and is made up of B.C. Golf’s Director of Rules, & Competition & Amateur Status, the Chair of the B.C. Golf Amateur Championships Committee, B.C. Golf’s Chief Sport Officer and the Chair of the B.C. Golf Sport Development Committee.

The following policy clarifies participation of a transgender Golfer in an event. For purposes of this Policy, any reference to an "event" refers to a B.C. Golf Championship event, including any practice round(s).

 

Eligibility

 

A Golfer will be eligible to participate in an event, provided that they participate;

a) Under their birth gender,

 

OR

 

b) For individuals who have undergone gender reassignment before puberty the following guidelines will be used:

I. Individuals undergoing gender reassignment of male-to-female shall be regarded as female.

II. Individuals undergoing gender reassignment of female-to-male shall be regarded as male

 

OR

 

c) For individuals who have undergone gender reassignment after puberty, the following guidelines will be used:

I. Male-to-female transgendered persons, to compete as a female, must submit documentation from a medical practitioner that gender reassignment has been ongoing for at least one year.

II. Female-to-male transgendered persons, to compete as a male, must submit documentation from a medical practitioner that gender reassignment is ongoing.

 

OR

 

d) Any transgender Golfer who is not taking hormone treatment related to gender reassignment may participate in sex-separated events in accordance with his or her assigned birth gender.

 

Application for Eligibility

 

The applicant will initiate the process by submitting by mail or email, the necessary documentation from a Medical Practitioner as outlined in above. The B.C. Golf Gender Review Sub-committee will decide each case based upon the documentation provided and may, with reasonable cause, request additional information. Upon review of the documentation provided and if it is deemed sufficient, the athlete will immediately be registered as their new gender and will continue to do so unless circumstances dictate that another gender declaration should be made. Drug testing procedures and prohibitions also apply to people who identify as transgender. A person receiving treatment involving a Prohibited Substance or Method, as described on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Prohibited List, should apply for a standard Therapeutic Use Exemption.

 

Confidentiality

 

The Parties agree that they will not at any time (unless required by law) disclose information identified by the other party as confidential to any person, corporation or third party and will make no use whatsoever of any information identified as confidential (other than in the ordinary and usual course of implementing this policy) without the written consent of the disclosing Party, unless required by law.