Australian Trans Golfer Breanna Gill Faces Death Threats After Win

Australian transgender pro golfer Breanna Gill has faced abuses and even death threats after winning a major tournament.

Trigger Warning: This story discusses anti-LGBTQI comments, which might be distressing to some readers. For 24-hour crisis support and suicide prevention call Lifeline on 13 11 14. For Australia-wide LGBTQI peer support call QLife on 1800 184 527 or webchat.

Gill lifted the Australian Women’s Classic trophy on Sunday, April 2, 2023, at the Bonvill course in New South Wales. The celebrations for the historic win were short-lived. 

The WPGA Tour of Australasia – the apex body for women’s professional golf in Australia –  posted a photograph and congratulated Gill for the win. The post was soon targeted by transphobes, with abusive transphobic comments and death threats. WPGA was forced to delete the post and lock their Twitter account. 

Gill, who has been participating in women’s golf competitions for the last eight years, deleted her social media accounts over safety concerns after her first professional win.

Breanna Gill Faces Hate

As a result @WPGATour have locked their Twitter account. pic.twitter.com/QfhYaOmGNV

— CJ Murrumbeena (@CJMurrumbeena) April 4, 2023

WPGA Tour of Australasia chief Karen Lunn, who said she had received death threats as well, told Nine newspapers that it was “really sad” that Gill couldn’t celebrate “the biggest win of her life.” Lunn added that they were concerned about Gill’s welfare.

Soon after lifting the trophy, Gill said she was going to enjoy the win. “I always thought in my head if I ever got the opportunity to actually win a golf tournament and the girls happen to come running out on the green, I was going to stand there and take it. I wasn’t going to run away,” Gill said.

One of those who targeted Gill was US pro golfer Hailey Rae Ostrom. “A biological male won a women’s professional golf tournament this week. I want to hear your thoughts,” Ostrom posted on Twitter, with a link to the WPGA’s now-deleted tweet.

Among those who targeted Gill, included failed Liberal Warringah candidate Katherine Deves. “Today’s cheating, grifting male in women’s sport,” Deves tweeted along with Gill’s photo.

WPGA Allows Trans Women Golfers

The WPGA’s guidelines on the inclusion of trans players are over a decade and a half old. The 2004 guidelines, which have been adopted by other international women’s golf tours, allow transgender players to participate in the sport.

Trans women golfers are permitted to compete in women’s tournaments subject to them having undergone gender-affirming surgery, been on hormonal therapy for at least 12 months before the competition and had legal documentation about their gender. 

Lunn told 7 News that Gill had met the conditions and added that there was no evidence that trans women golfers had any “advantage at all”. 

Trans participation in sports has been increasingly the focus of rule changes across the world. Last month, World Athletics banned transgender women athletes who have been through male puberty from competing in elite female category competitions.

Earlier, Wold Rugby had banned trans women players from participating in women’s games in 2020, and in 2022, FINA, the world governing body of aquatic sports, imposed a blanket ban on trans swimmers in women’s competitions.