57-year-old Lana Lawless has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, claiming the LPGA requirement that all competitors must be “female at birth” violates California civil rights laws.
As a man, Lawless was married, but fathered no children, and worked as a S.W.A.T. cop for 18 years.
He played golf for 21 years, but left the sport behind after gender-reassignment surgery. Lana returned to golf as a woman in 2006, after watching an ESPN broadcast of the RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship.
Lawless won the women’s world championship in long-drive golf in 2008, but was barred from competing this year because Long Drivers of America — which oversees the event — had changed its policy to mirror that of the LPGA.
“I am a woman,” insists Lana Lawless, who adopted her new name from classic-movie star Lana Turner but doesn’t want to discuss her previous name. “I’ve lost muscle mass. I don’t have big guns (biceps). They give you a drug that stops you from producing testosterone. Your muscles atrophy. In about seven months, I went from 245 pounds to 175 pounds. I’ve gained back a little bit, but I feel like I don’t have any power.”