In 1977, Renée Richards broke barriers for trans athletes when she won a historic case that gave her the right to play in the women’s division at the U.S. Open.
Richards spent much of her career as an ophthalmologist, but her passion for tennis led her to compete at the U.S. Open as an amateur. Richards also served in the U.S. Navy, where she won singles and doubles competitions in the All-Navy Championships. Richards began privately transitioning after completing her naval service in the 1960s. After undergoing gender-affirming surgery in 1973, she moved to California to work as a surgeon and compete in local tournaments as her authentic self.
Her attempt at a private life was challenged in 1976 when—after winning a women’s local championship—she was outed by San Diego KFMB-TV reporter Richard Carlson, Tucker Carlson’s father. Carlson’s report spread like wildfire, and Richards was forced to make a decision that would change the trajectory of her life: abandon her tennis career or take on the challenge for her right to play.
Richards set her sights on the U.S. Open and applied to play in the women’s division in 1976. The United States Tennis Association demanded that she take a chromosomal test to prove her gender, but she refused and instead sued them for discrimination. The case went to the New York State Supreme Court, where Richards submitted affidavits from her doctor as well as her doubles partner Billie Jean King. In 1977, Judge Alfred Ascione ruled in her favour, writing that the chromosomal test was “grossly unfair, discriminatory and inequitable, and violative of her rights.”
Richards would ultimately lose in the first round of singles at the U.S. Open, though she made it to the finals in doubles. In 1979, Richards was 19th in the world in women’s professional tennis, the highest ranking of her career. She would retire from the sport in 1981 at the age of 47.
But Richards has since changed her tune on trans women in sports. In 2024, she presented a position paper to the Women’s Tennis Association where she stated that going through “male puberty” should disqualify trans women because of a “retained physical advantage.”
Richards is a complicated figure in the fight for trans equity and inclusion in sports. Fifty years after she challenged discrimination and fought for her right to play, Richards has turned her back on the bravery that made her historic in the first place.
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