Women's Committee Meeting 7/3/2023

The Women's Committee, like all PDGA committees which are composed of volunteers, does not engage in viewpoint discrimination. The Committee has among its members outspoken voices from all sides of the gender eligibility debate.

The PDGA has been made aware of the comments made by Ms. Leonard regarding the Women's Committee meeting that took place on Monday, July 3, 2023. While Ms. Leonard may certainly have any opinion she chooses regarding eligibility, Ms. Leonard's recollection of the discussion on Monday does not match that of other members of the Committee who were also present at the meeting.

The Committee was not discussing divisional eligibility, which is solely in the jurisdiction of the Global Board of Directors. Instead, the discussion was about the increasingly coarse and toxic commentary around eligibility, with several members, including Ms. Nagtegaal, expressing that such topics should be discussed and debated in a less polarized and more civil manner, and wondering if the Women's Committee could provide leadership in this regard. During this discussion, Ms. Nagtegaal was expressing her personal fear that physical harm might befall a transgender woman as a result of the increasingly extreme nature of the discourse. Ms. Nagtegaal absolutely was not making threats of any kind.

Committee members need to be able to speak frankly and confidently among one another. Posts like Ms. Leonard's chill such speech by making such frank and confident talk subject to social media dissection without context or fact-checking.