A pair of male pool players who identify as females faced each other at a championship match in the United Kingdom.
Harriet Haynes faced Lucy Smith at the Ultimate Pool Women’s Pro Series Event 2 at Robin Park Leisure Centre in Wigan, after the trans players beat four female opponents each, Fox News reported.
Haynes led 6-3 early in the tournament, but Smith battled back to only one down. Despite the comeback, though, Haynes ended up winning it all.
Regardless, both trans players tore through their female opponents this season. Smith won 85 of his 113 matches and 62 percent of 848 frames since 2021. Hayes had a similar winning record, with a .750 winning percentage in 241 matches and 61 percent of frames before entering this week’s tournament, Fox News said.
The European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF) opened up its female categories to men who say they are transgender women. Consequently, it approved Harriet Haynes, who claimed to have “transitioned” to a female in 2014 at the age of 23. The World Eightball Pool Federation (WEPF) also moved to allow transgender players.
However, the WEPF announced that the policy was under review and, in August 2023, announced that it would only allow those “born female” to play in the women’s category. Despite that change, the WEPF reversed itself and pushed out a rule stating that any transgender person who supposedly transitioned four years before competing could play as a woman.
Hayes has stirred controversy for several years. In 2024, Irish pool champion Kim O’Brien pulled out of the European Pool Championships after officials allowed Hayes to compete in the women’s category.
Last year was not the first time a female player refused to face Haynes.
Pool champion Lynne Pinches also made it to the finals at the English Pool Association’s 2023 Champion of Champions Ladies event but opted to forfeit in protest after being required to face the transgender Haynes.
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