What was supposed to be a moment of celebration for an Australian golfer on the weekend was marred by death threats and anti-trans abuse.
Transgender athlete Breanna Gill won the Australian Women’s Classic trophy at NSW’s Bonville course on Sunday after a thrilling play-off.
Australian golfer Breanna Gill celebrates her 2023 Australian Women’s Classic win on Sunday.
But the 32-year-old’s achievements were quickly soured: After a tweet was posted by the tour announcing the win, Gill received dozens of abusive anti-trans messages, including death threats, across her social media accounts.
WPGA Tour of Australasia chief Karen Lunn said spoke out in support of Gill, telling The Age and Sydney Morning Herald: “It’s the biggest win of her life. It’s really sad that she can’t celebrate that win.”
Gill, who has played professionally across women’s tournaments for eight years, was sprayed with champagne by her competitors after she made her winning metre-long birdie putt on the final hole. It was her first professional title win.
“I had always had a good feeling that I might have an opportunity to win this golf tournament one day,” she said.
“For it to actually happen is just incredible. I can’t actually believe it.”
The governing body of the tournament, WPGA Tour of Australasia, posted the tweet in celebration of Gill on Sunday.
The tweet did not mention that Gill was transgender but various accounts, including that of US pro-golfer Hailey Ostrom, were critical of a trans person being able to win a female golf tournament.
In response to one Twitter account that said “… One solution would be to create a trans league to keep the playing field level,” Ostrom said: “This is my opinion as well.”
“It’s the biggest win of her life. It’s really sad that she can’t celebrate that win”
WPGA Tour of Australasia chief Karen Lunn
The next day, the WPGA’s tweet had reached over seven million people, and received thousands of responses.
Much of the responses were abusive, and a source who saw the messages directed to Gill described it as a “targeted attack”.
Gill deleted her social media profiles on Twitter and Instagram as a result.
The WPGA’s tweet about Gill was also deleted, and the tour’s account was made private in an attempt to mitigate the abuse.
Lunn said the tournament deleted the tweets over concerns for Gill’s welfare.
Lunn said she had also received death threats, as had other governing members of the WPGA.
The WPGA has welcomed transgender players since 2004, a policy adopted by all seven of the major international women’s golf tours.
That policy requires the athletes to have undergone gender reassignment surgery; have undertaken hormonal therapy for at least a year; and provide legal documents that recognise their gender as female.
The suitability and acceptance of those conditions are subject to the discretion of the WPGA.
Lunn said Gill met all the relevant eligibility criteria.
She added that Gill’s membership and participation in competitions had never been a problem for the organisation’s 300 members.
