The role of transgender athletes participating in women’s sports has become one of the biggest debates in the country following Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham’s comments on the matter in an ESPN profile earlier this summer.

“I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I’m like, ‘I never once said that,'” Cunningham said. “I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest. And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”

Since Cunningham’s initial comments, everyone from sports media members to opposing coaches to the White House has weighed in. Now, the debate has reached Alberta, Canada. Transgender golfers Veronica Ivy and Rachel Elser have won five individual women’s golf championships this summer, and aren’t apologizing for it.

“To the bigots: stay mad, and get a better hobby,” Ivy wrote, according to Outkick. “You’re deeply unwell and you’re obsessed with harassing a stranger. You’re not going to make me stop existing and succeeding. I feel really sorry for you. You have my pity.”

Alberta Golf updated its official policy to be more inclusive of all competitors in 2025. The organization’s rules read as follows: 

“For individuals who have undergone gender reassignment after puberty, the following guidelines will be used: I. Male-to-female transgendered persons, to compete as a female, must submit documentation from a medical practitioner that gender reassignment has been ongoing for at least one year.”

They just see that I won some competition–without any checking for what level of competition it was,” Ivy told OutSports of her detractors earlier this month. “I went from competing in elite world-level track cycling, though never making the national team or the Olympics, to contesting for age group provincial titles.

“I still haven’t cracked the top 10 at the Canadian national mid-amateur championship. I’m just out here trying my best, being a good competitor. Transphobes are pathetic.”

Hopefully, both Ivy and Elser will keep competing and living their lives to their fullest.