Trans tennis players in Las Vegas build their own league after being sidelined

After transgender women were pushed out of traditional tennis play, a group of players in Las Vegas built their own league, turning a group chat idea into a growing community on the court.

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The group, called Tennis with Friends, was co-founded by Valarie Witherspoon and Christine Delisle, who began organizing games after hearing from players who felt they no longer had a place in existing leagues. What started as a small text thread quickly expanded into a regular gathering, drawing in transgender women and other players looking for an inclusive space.

The United States Tennis Association quietly banned transgender women from competing in the women’s leagues in October of last year. The ban was made with no public announcement, stating compliance with executive orders meant to keep trans women out of women’s sports.

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“It started with a text of five people saying, oh, we’re going to play every week. We’re going to figure out a way to play. We’re not losing you,” Witherspoon told Las Vegas Fox affiliate KVVU.

The group’s formation comes amid a broader and rapidly shifting landscape for transgender athletes, as policies at the state and national levels increasingly restrict participation in women’s sports.

Related: Texas AG Ken Paxton sues swimming group over inclusion of transgender women

Last November, Texas Attor­ney Gen­er­al Ken Pax­ton launched an investigation against the U.S. Tennis Association’s Texas league to determine if the organization had violated Texas law by allowing transgender women to participate in women’s matches.

“We will defeat the radical left, which is obsessed with crushing the dreams of so many girls by allowing men to compete against women in sports,” Paxton said.. “If USTA is allowing biological males in women’s matches and misleading players about who they are competing against, my office will take all necessary action within our power to defend Texas women and girls.”

At the federal level, President Donald Trump has issued executive orders aimed at limiting transgender women’s participation in sports, defining eligibility based on sex assigned at birth. Those directives have influenced policy debates at multiple levels of competition, though implementation varies widely across sports and governing bodies.