The US tennis association bows to the court
A milestone: after a court ruling, Renée Richards is allowed to play in the US Open as a woman.
On 17 August 1977, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) officially announced that Renée Richards would be allowed to take part in the US Open as a woman.
The day before, the association had suffered a legal defeat: on 16 August, Judge Alfred Ascione had ruled that the USTA could no longer force her to take a chromosome test. Richards had undergone gender-affirming surgery in 1975 and had then won several women's tournaments. When she entered the US Open in 1976, the USTA introduced the so-called Barr body test at short notice, a measure which, according to the court, was clearly intended solely to exclude Richards from taking part.
According to the New York Times, Ascione called the procedure "grossly unfair, discriminatory and inequitable" and a violation of New York's anti-discrimination law. At the same time he stressed that the test remained permissible in principle but could not be the sole criterion. In its statement of 17 August, the USTA admitted that it had been wrestling for a year with the "difficult problem" of balancing consideration for a single trans person with fairness to the other players, and now accepted the ruling.
The case is regarded as one of the first major legal victories ever won by a trans athlete and anticipated debates about trans women in sport that continue to this day. Richards competed in the US Open shortly afterwards, lost in the first round to the Wimbledon champion Virginia Wade, but reached the doubles final with Betty Ann Stuart. Previously, 25 of the 32 entered players had walked out of another tournament in protest because Richards was taking part. She continued to play professionally until 1981 and later became Martina Navratilova's coach.