Reminders and Clarifications Regarding Recent PDGA Survey

On Wednesday, October 5th, PDGA members received a request to participate in a survey on behalf of the PDGA Medical Subcommittee on Gender-Based Divisions. The PDGA has received feedback on the survey and this announcement is intended to address the most common feedback and questions.

Privacy and Email

The PDGA Medical Subcommittee partnered with a research team at Western Carolina University (WCU) to conduct the survey. This partnership enables WCU and the PDGA Medical Subcommittee to use PDGA member email addresses in accordance with the PDGA Privacy Policy for the sole purpose of providing PDGA members access to the survey. WCU and their survey platform, Qualtrics, are in compliance with applicable privacy laws, CCPA and GDPR. Furthermore, all survey responses are strictly confidential and cannot be linked to any individual. You can read more about the Qualtrics privacy policy here. 

Survey Construction

The purpose of the survey is to comply with the new International Olympic Committee (IOC) framework on Fairness, Inclusion and Non-discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sex variations. The questions comprising the survey have been approved by a federally mandated institutional review board. Similar questions to those in this survey have been used by other global sports organizations to inform policy on the topic of transgender participation in competition. The survey leveraged by the PDGA Medical Subcommittee followed tested construction, including the use and phrasing of specific questions. These questions help control for a variety of demographic, political, and attitudinal factors, which is in line with formal qualitative studies and surveys covering a variety of subjects. 

Next Steps

The PDGA Board of Directors will be briefed on the results of the survey at the PDGA Board of Directors Fall Summit in early November. This briefing, along with a presentation of medical research reviewed by the subcommittee, will be used to guide policy on the topic of transgender competitors participating in PDGA sanctioned events. After this process is complete, the board of directors will share pertinent research data with the membership. 

While the subcommittee completes this process, this announcement will serve as another reminder of Eligibility Standards for PDGA Sanctioned Events.