Outside of the disc golf scene, I’m in a pretty left-leaning area, but the thought of going out to play a round alone in girl mode scares the shit out of me. Ironically, playing disc golf alone was one of the things that helped me sort out my thoughts and accept my gender id, but even in boy mode I just get this overwhelming anxiety now. Particularly when locals/other golfers approach me on the course— the culture reminds me a lot of skate culture, but with older people and more bro-y misogynist talk (constantly talking about how much they love pussy and want to fuck).
I don’t even give a shit about tournaments (fuck the PGDA though) I just want to throw discs. I don’t really know if my fear is justified, but the tenor of the conversation around trans athletes online makes me feel super unsafe.
Any of the comments that I have seen about trans athletes has not been that they shouldn’t play, the controversy is about whether they should be allowed to play in a professional women’s league or not. In my experience the disc golf community is very liberal and welcoming. As others have said maybe go with some friends to get a feel for it and don’t let the online rhetoric keep you from doing something you enjoy.
This is just patently false.
How do you know what I’ve seen or haven’t seen? I’m sure if I looked for it I could find trans hate speech but that’s probably the same in most communities, there are trolls and bigots everywhere.
All of my exposure came from Reddit or here and any of the discussions that I saw, while frustratingly polarised, where about the rules in place, the fairness of said rules and the general fairness of trans women playing in a female league. I didn’t sort the comments and I didn’t doom scroll. Quite frankly the whole drama frustrates me and I don’t subscribe to disc golf communities for pro news/drama.