Aug. 1 (UPI) — Dutch transgender darts champion Noa-Lynn van Leuven spoke out after her sport’s international governing body released a new gender-eligibility policy that bans trans women from women’s competitions.
The World Darts Federation released its new policy Monday.
“This decision does affect me personally — though, thankfully, not too severely at this point in time. But still, it hurts,” she said on Instagram. “Once again, it’s a loss for the trans community in sports. And that breaks my heart.
“As a trans person in the darts world, I know how vital inclusion is – not just on paper, but in practice. It’s disheartening to see yet another policy framed around ‘fairness’ that ultimately results in exclusion, without truly considering the people behind the labels.
“My heart goes out to all the athletes impacted by this. We remain visible. We keep going.”
Opinions in darts remain divided, Darts World posted.
“From what’s been seen online, a significant portion of darts fans appear to support the WDF’s position — viewing the inclusion of trans throwers such as Van Leuven in the women’s game as an unfair advantage.”
The rule change states that entry and participation in the federation’s women’s and girls ranking tournaments and cups will only be open to players who were “recorded female at birth.” Under this policy, trans women are ineligible, and trans men are eligible as long as they are not undergoing hormone treatment. All trans women and trans men are eligible to compete in the open category.
Van Leuven, a star who has won several women’s titles in the sport, will be banned from WDF’s women’s tournaments under the new guidelines, effective immediately.
In a statement announcing the change, the federation said the decision followed a vote at the WDF General Meeting in September where the majority of its members voted in favor of limiting participation in women’s and girls tournaments to those assigned female at birth.