LTA Transgender & Non-Binary Policy
This policy applies to domestic British competitions for which the LTA has responsibility. The LTA does not have responsibility for setting the rules at international tennis and padel competitions (adult and junior) played in this country.
For example, the rules for The Championships at Wimbledon, ATP and WTA tournaments at Queen’s, Eastbourne and Nottingham, ATP Challenger or ITF World Tennis Tour Events, or FIP padel events played in this country, will be set by the relevant governing body.
In developing this Policy, we have had to balance two potentially conflicting responsibilities. We have a responsibility to ensure competition in our sport is fair and a responsibility to make sure tennis is welcoming and inclusive for everyone.
Tennis is a gender-affected sport – the average man has an advantage when playing against the average woman. This includes longer levers with which to reach and hit the ball and increased cardio-vascular capacity. The current broad consensus, including the conclusion of the review carried out by the Sports Councils Equality Group, is that this advantage is likely to be retained to a significant degree in trans women, making competition potentially unfair.
The Policy attempts to balance these two responsibilities appropriately but in the knowledge that different people will reasonably have different views as to where that balance should lie.
Download the full LTA Transgender and Non-Binary Policy
Key points
- We have decided to draw a line in the competition structure to create two different designations of competition for the purposes of the Policy: Specified and Non-Specified. Specified Competitions will usually be "inter" venue, i.e. involving individuals from different clubs or counties (which are Graded 1-6). Non-Specified Competitions will usually be "intra" venue, i.e. involving players from within one venue (which is everything below Grade 6).
- We are changing our Policy to restrict trans women and non-binary individuals assigned male at birth from playing in the women’s category in Specified, inter-venue, competitions. These will be competitions ranging from our National Championships through to local county and district leagues, where the purpose is to provide fair competitive opportunities. This helps ensure there is a common national standard for all these competitions which is fair.
- For Non-Specified Competitions within venues, the purpose is primarily to provide fun, social competition to enable people to feel part of their local tennis community and players will be able familiarise themselves with the policy within their own venue and hence who they are likely to play against. These can range from weekend social tournaments through to Club Championships, which are able to be fully inclusive, and the choice will be for local venues to make.
- We want to encourage local venues to ensure that they are as inclusive as possible for trans and non-binary individuals, providing opportunities to compete in a friendly environment. In line with this our own Local Tennis Leagues will remain fully inclusive.
For more details, please read our full policy and accompanying documents.
Policy documents
Download our full policy for more information: