{"id":548104,"date":"2026-03-27T08:27:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T08:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/548104\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T08:27:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T08:27:13","slug":"tennis-players-set-up-new-league-for-trans-women-forced-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/548104\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennis players set up new league for trans women forced out"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"two\t\t\t<\/p>\n

A group of women have opened an inclusive tennis league (stock image via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

In response to repeated attacks against trans athletes<\/a>, a group of women have started their own new recreational tennis<\/a> league in Las Vegas to make the sport more inclusive.<\/p>\n

Tennis with Friends was co-founded by Valarie Witherspoon and Christine Delisle in an attempt to find a home for transgender women that could no longer play in existing leagues.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Las Vegas Fox affiliate KVVU<\/a>, Witherspoon said: \u201cIt started with a text of five people saying, oh, we\u2019re going to play every week. We\u2019re going to figure out a way to play. We\u2019re not losing you.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: World No1 tennis player Aryna Sabalenka \u2018doesn\u2019t agree\u2019 with trans athletes in women\u2019s sport<\/a><\/p>\n

Many trans athletes were left without clubs when the United States Tennis Association quietly banned transgender women from participating and competing with the release of its most recent USTA Player Eligibility Policy in December 2025.<\/p>\n

The changes were made \u201cto ensure that women have a fair and safe competition environment consistent with Executive Order 14201\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people have gone as far as to quit the league and say, we\u2019re not being a part of this anymore,\u201d Delisle said of her previous league, which had about five trans members.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd taking them out of that league really left them with an empty space not to be able to come out on a Saturday and Sunday and be with their friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

She continued: \u201cYou\u2019re going to have lots of people who say, \u2018Well, yes, there shouldn\u2019t be people playing in women\u2019s sports who aren\u2019t women.\u2019 And then you have people who are saying, \u2018Let them play because it\u2019s recreational tennis.\u2019 None of us is competing for scholarships or prize money.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main word that keeps coming up is community, these women just want to hang out with their friends,\u201d Witherspoon said.<\/p>\n

Share your thoughts!\u00a0Let us know in the comments below, and remember to keep the conversation respectful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A group of women have opened an inclusive tennis league (stock image via Getty Images) In response to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[2114,99,428,244291],"class_list":{"0":"post-548104","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-las-vegas","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-tennis","11":"tag-trans-inclusion"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}