Dear Golfers, It’s Time to Step the F*ck Up

We All Know that Only Sports can Reverse Anti-Trans Legislation

Katy Koop
Katy Koop
Jul 27, 2017 · 6 min read

As some of you may know, Trump has announced a ban on transgender soldiers in the military. As The Washington Post reports,

President Trump announced on Twitter Wednesday that he will ban transgender people from serving in the military in any capacity, reversing an Obama administration decision to allow them to serve openly and drawing dismay and anger from advocates.

Citing the need to focus on what he called “decisive and overwhelming victory,” Trump said that the military cannot accept the burden of higher medical costs and the “disruption” that transgender troops “would entail.”

And I, as a resident of North Carolina, know that there is probably one person that we can maybe put blame on for this:

Look at that fucking asshole (via Charlotte Observer)

According to the News & Observer, a NC based newspaper, Pat McCrory headed to a meeting with Donald Trump in December of 2016. Reportedly,

“There is a very good rapport between the president-elect and Governor McCrory,” Trump spokesman Jason Miller told reporters Wednesday morning. “Governor McCrory is someone who the president-elect had the chance to get to know pretty well on the campaign trail this year.”

McCrory is the Governor under which the infamous bill HB2 was passed which, as the Charlotte Observer explains, was passed under a

one-day specially convened session on March 23, 2016 North Carolina’s legislature passed a sweeping law that reverses a Charlotte ordinance that had extended some rights to people who are gay or transgender.

The law passed by the General Assembly and signed that same night by Gov. Pat McCrory goes further than a narrow elimination of Charlotte’s ordinance, which had generated the most controversy by a change that protected transgender people who use public restrooms based on their gender identity. The new law also nullified local ordinances around the state that would have expanded protections for the LGBT community.

To put it plainly: the bill did not go over well. Both Paypal and Deutsche Bank halted expansions in the state, Bruce Springstein and Ringo Starr canceled events, productions of Wicked were halted, and some states halted public funded airline travel to the state. The one boycott that seemed to make a difference though, was the decision by the NCAA to move tournament games out of North Carolina. In fact, on March 30, 2017, the N.C. General Assembly approved a compromise bill that repealed it but restricted anti-discrimination ordinances in cities and counties. This is important, because they held this session the day before the deadline the NCAA imposed on them to decide whether or not NCAA basketball games would be held next year in the State. In fact, the NCAA lifted the ban April 2017 and released a statement saying,

We are actively determining site selections, and this new law has minimally achieved a situation where we believe NCAA championships may be conducted in a nondiscriminatory environment. If we find that our expectations of a discrimination-free environment are not met, we will not hesitate to take necessary action at any time.

The message: pressure from sports organizations can make conservatives take steps to undo their shitty behavior. Of course, by all means the compromise bill was not even that effective at all and it still sucks for LGBT people in North Carolina, it proves that sports have power. Basketball got Pat McCrory voted out and a repeal bill to be talked about, so that’s probably something, right?

So, we just have to think about what sport is powerful enough to sway the Trump administration and it’s pretty obvious what sport has to do the heavy lifting:

Yeah it’s golf (via Business Insider)

Why Golf?

Trump plays a lot of golf. While we may not know exactly how many rounds, Newsweek reports that,

“It is known, however, that the president has spent 40 of his 181 full days in office at a Trump-branded golf course. That’s roughly 22 percent of his days in office. He has been to Trump National Bedminster in New Jersey 14 times, Trump International West Palm in Florida 13 times, Trump National Potomac Falls near Washington, D.C., 12 times and Trump National Jupiter in Florida once, according to NBC News’s tracker. The website TrumpGolfCount.com has community-sourced a rough tracker of the president’s rounds of golf and estimates he has been spotted playing golf at least 16 times.”

That’s a lot of golf and investment in the sport. According to the website, PGA and associated organizations ran a lot of tournaments on Trump golf courses including the Kitchen Aid Senior PGA championship and the 2017 U.S. Women’s Open. So starting by putting pressure on the PGA, PGA Tour, LPGA, and USGA, who wanted to distance themselves from Trump as early as 2015, an impact could be made. Golfers could potentially put pressure on Trump as a business and a brand, by doing boycotts of the golf courses or even PGA events citing the trans ban in the military. With enough boycotts and loss of revenue, golf could send a serious message.

While the boycotts of North Carolina and job loss only constituted just 0.1% of the State’s GDP, when the NCAA stepped in, it forced action. Maybe PGA and affiliates could send a similar message, if only to make sure people are voted out next time elections roll around.

If Golfers stepped up, maybe we would see some impact. But it is a maybe, because it is Trump.

What Else Can You Do?

Can golf change what happened today? Maybe it could….maybe not, but you know, it can’t hurt.

In all seriousness though, whether you golf or not, there are some things you can do to help the trans and greater LGBT community. Here’s a couple actions you can take and general good practices:

  1. Ask people’s preferred pronouns and use them. If you didn’t ask and they told you, also just use them.
  2. Call your representatives [House|Senate] and tell them that you do not support the trans ban in the military and why they should not support any further legislation and while you’re at it tell them you do not support a repeal of the ACA (Because reasonable access to health care for people with pre-existing conditions affects trans people and their needs as well)
  3. Amplify Trans Voices- That means artists, writers, developers, scientists, whoever they are, amplify their voices when you can. If you’re gonna RT a good article about what the trans ban means, RT a trans writer. Support publications publishing Trans writers writing about Trans things. More shares could mean more money and more opportunities for them.
  4. Participate How You Can- Find your local LGBT center and other organizations dedicated to making their voices known and participate how you can. Whether that means a RT or going out to protest, make sure you do your part.

Golfers and non-golfers, if we can stand together and listen to our trans friends, we can try to fight this.

Katy Koop

Written by

Katy Koop

A writer that loves feminism, movies, theatre, and coffee. If you like what you’re reading, buy me a latte: https://www.paypal.me/katykooped/5

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