Noa-Lynn van Leuven has said her ban from the Women’s Series has brought back traumatic childhood memories, but insists she is “not done” with darts.
History-making Van Leuven is no longer eligible after changes by the Darts Regulation Authority (DRA) earlier this month, which now state that transgender women cannot compete in women’s events.
The rules were changed after the governing body undertook a review of its policy last year, commissioning a report from academic developmental biologist Dr Emma Hilton, whose findings concluded that “multiple, small-magnitude sex differences accumulate to generate male advantage over females in darts”.
Van Leuven says it “changed everything” for her, and it was news she received without warning by email a day before it became public.
“It brings up childhood memories of people not accepting me for who I am or what I am,” the 29-year-old from the Netherlands told the Press Association.
“It happened in middle school. It happened at kindergarten. It happened. And it’s just something that keeps coming back.
“It’s been a rough couple of weeks. I’m not going to tell you it wasn’t, but I guess every year has been like this.
“Every year something happens, and every time I crawl out of the big hole I get pushed in, I keep coming back.
“This one really sucks. And I truly still don’t get it. I just don’t believe darts really is a ‘gender-affected sport’ as they call it, especially with the points that they’re coming up with.
“It feels like the decision is influenced by gender-critical perspectives, which I strongly disagree with.
“If you’re a biological male, you should have advantages in being taller, having longer arms, whatever. But take a look at who has been taking every title in this game? Phil Taylor, (Luke) Littler now. Neither of them is above 180cm.
“So, I just don’t get it. It changed everything for me, and I found out about it without any real warning, which made it even harder to process.”
Her argument that men do not have a physical advantage was given more fuel by Beau Greaves winning a Pro Tour event last month in Milton Keynes, becoming the first woman to secure a PDC Tour ranking title.
Van Leuven does not want to politicise the victory and says her contemporary deserves to bask in her “amazing” success.
She has competed alongside Greaves on the Women’s Series since 2022, which was her route to history as she became the first trans player to qualify for the World Championship and Grand Slam of Darts.
Without a main PDC Tour card, she is now restricted to second-tier Challenge Tour events or World Darts Federation competitions.
The PDC, which runs the tournaments, is bound to the DRA’s rules and has offered Van Leuven counselling in the wake of the change.
“I just want to try to enjoy the game again,” she added. “I just want to improve myself this year and maybe hope I get a Tour card for next year.
“Hopefully, I can still find enough opportunities to do that.
“I’m not done with this game, but it still hurts, and all my goals for this whole year, they’re gone, and there’s not a lot of time left to get new big goals.”
Van Leuven believes the decision is indicative of how the trans community is being treated.
“I’m not sure if it would actually help to fight it,” she said. “You’ve got the court ruling on trans women not being women in the UK.
“If you take a look at America, trans rights are kind of gone everywhere, and it’s only getting worse and worse. It’s not easy to fight this at this moment.
“It’s not only happening in sports, but also take women’s restrooms.
“I don’t know any trans woman who actually transitioned just to go to the women’s room. They just want to be themselves.
“They just want to live their own lives. They’re not scary, they’re not angry human beings.
“I hear a lot of people talking really bad about trans people, like they’re not even human beings, like they’re some sort of object. But yeah, we’re human beings. We also have feelings.”
When contacted by PA, the DRA reiterated that the decision was not taken lightly and that it considered extensive legal advice before reaching its conclusion.
