Posted on 07/19/2004 1:29:22 PM PDT by mountaineer
FORT WAYNE, Ind. -- A golfer who was born a hermaphrodite was banned from a woman's tournament because her birth certificate lists her gender as male.
Instead, 40-year-old Danielle Swope will play in Saturday's qualifier for the Fort Wayne Men's City Tournament.
"I have respect for the men for at least giving me the opportunity to play. The women I don't have any respect for," Swope said in The Journal Gazette on Sunday.
Swope said she was born in Meridian, Miss., with both male and female reproductive organs and underwent gender-reassignment operations to become completely female.
But her Mississippi birth certificate states she was born male. The Fort Wayne Women's Golf Association said that was why Swope could not play in the Women's City Golf Tournament. Swope, who took up golf about two years ago, also was barred from last year's tournament.
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.espn.go.com ...
Yes, it certainly appears that the association's rules are specific and this golfer didn't meet the rules necessary to qualify.
If the golfer can't respect that, that's simply unfortunate.
And perhaps not, given that she was born a hermaphrodite (meaning having characteristics of both sexes). Lots of possibilities for confused chromosomes.
LOL! Great Joke! (The Big Guy, my husband, is just about as rabid in HIS golfing!)
One of his favorites:
A male foursome was on the 8th green, when a funeral procession was spotted going along the road outside the course. One of the four stopped mid-putt, took off his hat and quietly held it at his heart. So the other three guys followed his reverent lead and did the same. After the procession had passed, one of the other men said, "Wow! What a decent thing to do, Fred!"
"Well," said Fred [Mr. Reverent], "I AM going to miss her! We were married for 35 years, after all!"
"If we weren't making a statement, we wouldn't be making statements about not making statements, now would we."
This is not a charity event. Believe me... if this person were another Arnie Palmer it would be sports headline news. So we don't have a star in the making here.
This person, whatever it's sex, has a cause and golf is the route for that cause.
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