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Players must be assigned female at birth or have transitioned to female before going through male puberty to compete in LPGA tournaments or the eight USGA championships for females under new gender policies published Wednesday. The policies, which begin in 2025, follow more than a year of study involving medicine, science, sport physiology and gender policy law. The updated policies would rule out eligibility for Hailey Davidson, who missed qualifying for the U.S. Women's Open this year by one shot and came up short in LPGA Q-school. Davidson, who turned 32 on Tuesday, began hormone treatments when she was in her early 20s in 2015 and in 2021 underwent gender-affirming surgery, which was required under the LPGA's previous gender policy. She had won this year on a Florida mini-tour called NXXT Golf until the circuit announced in March that players had to be assigned female at birth. “Can't say I didn't see this coming,” Davidson wrote Wednesday on an Instagram story. “Banned from the Epson and the LPGA. All the silence and people wanting to stay ‘neutral’ thanks for absolutely nothing. This happened because of all your silence.” LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan, who is resigning in January, said the new gender policy "is reflective of an extensive, science-based and inclusive approach." By making it to the second stage of Q-school, Davidson would have had very limited status on the Epson Tour, the pathway to the LPGA. The LPGA and USGA say their policies were geared toward being inclusive of gender identities and expression while striving for equity in competition. The LPGA said its working group of experts advised that the effects of male puberty allowed for competitive advantages in golf compared with players who had not gone through puberty. “Our policy is reflective of an extensive, science-based and inclusive approach,” said LPGA Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan, who announced Monday that she is resigning in January. "The policy represents our continued commitment to ensuring that all feel welcome within our organization, while preserving the fairness and competitive equity of our elite competitions.” Mike Whan, the former LPGA commissioner and now CEO of the USGA, said it developed the updated policy independently and later discovered it was similar to those used by swimming, track and field, and other sports. United States Golf Association CEO Mike Whan said the new policy will prevent anyone from having "a competitive advantage based on their gender." “It starts with competitive fairness as the North star,” Whan said in a telephone interview. “We tried not to get into politics, or state by state or any of that stuff. We just simply said, ‘Where would somebody — at least medically today — where do we believe somebody would have a competitive advantage in the field?’ And we needed to draw a line. “We needed to be able to walk into any women's event and say with confidence that nobody here has a competitive advantage based on their gender. And this policy delivers that.” The “Competitive Fairness Gender Policy” for the USGA takes effect for the 2025 championship season that starts with the U.S. Women's Amateur Four-Ball on May 10-14. Qualifying began late this year, though there were no transgender players who took part. “Will that change in the years to come as medicine changes? Probably,” Whan said. “But I think today this stacks up.” The LPGA “Gender Policy for Competition Eligibility” would apply to the LPGA Tour, Epson Tour, Ladies European Tour and qualifying for the tours. Players assigned male at birth must prove they have not experienced any part of puberty beyond the first stage or after age 12, whichever comes first, and then meet limitation standards for testosterone levels. The LPGA begins its 75th season on Jan. 30 with the Tournament of Champions in Orlando, Florida. Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, foreground right, dives toward the end zone to score past San Francisco 49ers defensive end Robert Beal Jr. (51) and linebacker Dee Winters during the second half of an NFL football game in Orchard Park, N.Y., Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus) Houston Rockets guard Jalen Green goes up for a dunk during the second half of an Emirates NBA cup basketball game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr) Mari Fukada of Japan falls as she competes in the women's Snowboard Big Air qualifying round during the FIS Snowboard & Freeski World Cup 2024 at the Shougang Park in Beijing, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Andy Wong) LSU punter Peyton Todd (38) kneels in prayer before an NCAA college football game against Oklahoma in Baton Rouge, La., Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. LSU won 37-17. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) South Africa's captain Temba Bavuma misses a catch during the fourth day of the first Test cricket match between South Africa and Sri Lanka, at Kingsmead stadium in Durban, South Africa, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, left, is hit by Baltimore Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey, center, as Eagles wide receiver Parris Campbell (80) looks on during a touchdown run by Barkley in the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough) Los Angeles Kings left wing Warren Foegele, left, trips San Jose Sharks center Macklin Celebrini, center, during the third period of an NHL hockey game Monday, Nov. 25, 2024, in San Jose, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez) Olympiacos' Francisco Ortega, right, challenges for the ball with FCSB's David Miculescu during the Europa League league phase soccer match between FCSB and Olympiacos at the National Arena stadium, in Bucharest, Romania, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru) Brazil's Botafogo soccer fans react during the Copa Libertadores title match against Atletico Mineiro in Argentina, during a watch party at Nilton Santos Stadium, in Rio de Janeiro, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado) Seattle Kraken fans react after a goal by center Matty Beniers against the San Jose Sharks was disallowed due to goaltender interference during the third period of an NHL hockey game Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, in Seattle. The Sharks won 4-2. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) New York Islanders left wing Anders Lee (27), center, fight for the puck with Boston Bruins defensemen Parker Wotherspoon (29), left, and Brandon Carlo (25), right during the second period of an NHL hockey game, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024, in Elmont, N.Y. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson) Jiyai Shin of Korea watches her shot on the 10th hole during the final round of the Australian Open golf championship at the Kingston Heath Golf Club in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake) Mathilde Gremaud of Switzerland competes in the women's Freeski Big Air qualifying round during the FIS Snowboard & Freeski World Cup 2024 at the Shougang Park in Beijing, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Andy Wong) Lara Gut-Behrami, of Switzerland, competes during a women's World Cup giant slalom skiing race, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, in Killington, Vt. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) New York Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin cools off during first period of an NHL hockey game against the Boston Bruins, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024, in Elmont, N.Y. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson) Brazil's Amanda Gutierres, second right, is congratulated by teammate Yasmin, right, after scoring her team's first goal during a soccer international between Brazil and Australia in Brisbane, Australia, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Pat Hoelscher) Las Vegas Raiders tight end Brock Bowers (89) tries to leap over Kansas City Chiefs cornerback Joshua Williams (2) during the first half of an NFL football game in Kansas City, Mo., Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga) Luiz Henrique of Brazil's Botafogo, right. is fouled by goalkeeper Everson of Brazil's Atletico Mineiro inside the penalty area during a Copa Libertadores final soccer match at Monumental stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) England's Alessia Russo, left, and United States' Naomi Girma challenge for the ball during the International friendly women soccer match between England and United States at Wembley stadium in London, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth) Gold medalists Team Netherlands competes in the Team Sprint Women race of the ISU World Cup Speed Skating Beijing 2024 held at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) Minnesota Vikings running back Aaron Jones (33) reaches for an incomplete pass ahead of Arizona Cardinals linebacker Mack Wilson Sr. (2) during the second half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr) Melanie Meillard, center, of Switzerland, competes during the second run in a women's World Cup slalom skiing race, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024, in Killington, Vt. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) South Carolina guard Maddy McDaniel (1) drives to the basket against UCLA forward Janiah Barker (0) and center Lauren Betts (51) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer) Sent weekly directly to your inbox!John Parker Romo made a 29-yard field goal to lift the Minnesota Vikings to a 30-27 overtime win against the host Chicago Bears on Sunday afternoon. Romo buried the game-winning kick in his third career game for Minnesota (9-2), which won its fourth game in a row. The score capped a 10-play, 68-yard drive for the Vikings after the Bears went three-and-out on the first overtime possession. Sam Darnold completed 22 of 34 passes for 330 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Vikings. Wideout Jordan Addison finished with eight catches for a career-high 162 yards and a touchdown. The overtime defeat spoiled an impressive performance from rookie quarterback Caleb Williams, who completed 32 of 47 passes for 340 yards and two touchdowns for Chicago (4-7). D.J. Moore had seven catches for 106 yards and a touchdown, and Keenan Allen finished with nine catches for 86 yards and a score. Chicago erased an 11-point deficit in the final 22 seconds of regulation to send the game to overtime. Romo had put Minnesota on top 27-16 when he made a 26-yard field goal with 1:56 remaining in the fourth quarter. Williams trimmed the Bears' deficit to 27-24 with 22 seconds to go. He rolled right and found Allen wide open in the end zone for a 1-yard touchdown, and moments later he fired a strike to Moore for a two-point conversion. The Bears recovered an onside kick on the next play to regain possession at their 43-yard line with 21 seconds left. Cairo Santos' onside kick bounced off the foot of Vikings tight end Johnny Mundt, and Tarvarius Moore recovered it. D.J. Moore put the Bears in field-goal position with a 27-yard reception across the middle of the field, and Santos made a 48-yarder as time expired to even the score at 27-all. Minnesota led 24-10 after three quarters. Romo made a 40-yard field goal early in the third quarter, and Aaron Jones punched in a 2-yard run with 1:22 left in the period to put the Vikings on top by two touchdowns. Addison and Jalen Nailor each had receiving touchdowns in the first half for Minnesota. Roschon Johnson scored on a 1-yard run for the Bears' only touchdown of the first half. Chicago trailed 14-10 at the break. --Field Level MediaCHICAGO — On quiet nights during the Christmas season, Ed O’Malley enjoys visiting the Nativity scene he helps set up every year in an Arlington Heights park. He’ll check whether the wind has blown over a statue, or whether any lights have gone out. On relatively warm evenings, many families will be out and about, O’Malley said. Usually, they’ll end up in front of the depiction of infant Jesus. “Many times, you’ll see the little children will look in and they’ll touch the statues,” said O’Malley, 64, of nearby Prospect Heights. “A few times, you see a father or a mother just get down on a knee, and you can see that she’s explaining to them what this is.” Despite some misconceptions — stemming from the First Amendment’s separation of church and state — private groups can put up Nativity scenes on public property as an expression of free speech after a federal judge ruled in 1988 that religious exhibits could be erected if maintained by private groups. Private groups can put up Hanukkah menorahs on public property to celebrate the Jewish holiday. Likewise, private groups can put up atheist, satanic, artistic, political, apolitical, eco-modernist or anarcho-pacifist displays on public property, if they so desire. The right to erect religious displays on government land wasn’t always clear — especially in December 1987, when government workers in Chicago began dismantling a Nativity scene in the Loop’s Daley Plaza, almost throwing the statue of the baby Jesus into a trash bin at one point and prompting members of the public to shield what was left of the display with their bodies. O’Malley said he’s learned much about the First Amendment as president of American Nativity Scene, a group that has helped put up more than 200 Nativity scenes on public property across the country. The group was founded in 2012 by O’Malley and his father-in-law. They believe that erecting Nativity scenes on public property is a good way to help keep the birth of Jesus at the center of a Christmas season that they say has become far too commercialized. “Christ is the reason for the season,” O’Malley said. With the backing of an anonymous donor of Nativity sets and conservative public interest law firm Thomas More Society, American Nativity Scene has helped put up scenes at public libraries, parks and courthouses. The group’s main goal is to display them in the country’s 50 statehouses. When O’Malley and his father-in-law created American Nativity Scene 12 years ago, about six or seven state capitol buildings, including the one in Springfield, had regular Nativity displays, O’Malley said. Since then, under American Nativity Scene’s watch, 43 state capitols have put up Nativity displays at least once. To commemorate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, American Nativity Scene will make “an all-out push” and try to have a Nativity scene on display at every state capitol during the 2026 Christmas season, O’Malley said. Adding a state to the tally isn’t an exact science. American Nativity Scene needs to find people in that state willing to form a local committee that will approach local officials about putting up a Nativity scene on capitol property. O’Malley said he has used friends and the Thomas More Society’s network to identify people who might be interested in forming a local committee in states lacking displays in their capitols. He’s also called random churches and local religious organizations like Knights of Columbus chapters, he said. “We want to be able to say that someone has a Nativity up in every state capitol,” O’Malley said. “I mean, we got Alaska and Hawaii — we got them one. They were interesting. You talk to a lot of great people.” Steven Melia, a Wyoming resident involved with local religious groups who has helped put up a Nativity scene at the statehouse in Cheyenne for the past four years, said he doesn’t remember how exactly O’Malley got in touch with him. After Melia agreed to help advance American Nativity Scene’s mission, O’Malley sent Melia a Nativity set and Melia’s rancher friend built a wooden structure to house it, Melia said. It’s fairly easy to schedule blessings of the Nativity set at the Wyoming statehouse and get permission to leave it up during the season, Melia said. He said the capitol hosts all sorts of school, religious and community gatherings throughout the year. “The capitol belongs to everybody ... I didn’t really know that at the beginning,” Melia said. Other than finding people to attend the blessing, pretty much all Melia has to do is buy insurance for the event and fill out a few forms, he said. One optional form is for inviting the governor, who showed up to the Nativity blessing the first three years, Melia said. O’Malley said he and his father-in-law decided to start American Nativity Scene after facing pushback while trying to erect a Nativity scene in 2012 in North School Park in Arlington Heights. O’Malley’s father-in-law brought in the founder of Thomas More Society, Tom Brejcha, who wrote a “strongly worded” letter to the park district about the pair’s right to put up religious displays on public property, according to O’Malley. Brejcha said he considers the 1988 ruling that protects the right of private groups to put up religious displays on public property as forms of free speech a “landmark” ruling. In summer 1987, the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a Nativity scene in Chicago’s City Hall violated the First Amendment’s ban on government establishment of religion. Judge Joel Flaum wrote that City Hall visitors would be left with the unavoidable impression that the city tacitly endorses Christianity. In December 1987, a group put up a Nativity scene in Daley Plaza without posting a $100,000 bond demanded by the Public Building Commission of Chicago, which administered the plaza. The commission demanded the bond to cover the cost of defending itself against possible First Amendment lawsuits. After government workers began tearing down the plaza Nativity scene — almost throwing the statue of the baby Jesus into a trash bin at one point — members of the public intervened, shielding what was left of the display with their bodies. In a case stemming from the bond dispute and Nativity scene dismantling, federal judge James Parsons in November 1988 ordered the building commission to allow the Nativity group to put up a display without posting a bond. Parsons wrote that the commission had misplaced fears that allowing religious displays could violate the First Amendment’s ban on government establishment of religion. He deemed the plaza a public forum and wrote that “religious expressive conduct in a traditional public forum enjoys the same protections afforded political, artistic, or other types of protected speech under the First Amendment.” O’Malley, who is also part of the group that continues to put up a Nativity scene on Daley Plaza every year, said that after the Arlington Heights park Nativity scene was successfully erected thanks to Brejcha’s letter, he and his father-and-law started to think about how they could expand. The idea of placing Nativity sets on other government land, especially state capitols, “clicked,” O’Malley said. Thomas More Society Executive Vice President Thomas Olp said the firm supports efforts to put Nativity scenes on public property and has a standard letter it sends to public officials explaining why religious displays on public property are allowed. Olp said the firm hasn’t had to file any lawsuits on behalf of American Nativity Scene. “Not to say there’s anything wrong with the free exercise of religion, but the free speech rationale cut through a lot of the opposition to this,” Brejcha said. ©2024 Chicago Tribune. Visit at chicagotribune.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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