"All we want is to be ourselves" - Noa-Lynn van Leuven responds to criticism

Noa-Lynn van Leuven caused a stir in recent months by winning tournaments of the PDC Women's Series as well as the Challenge Tour. However, the Dutch transwoman also received some criticism, not only online but from fellow players.

For example, Anca Zijlstra and Aileen de Graaf refuse to play with Van Leuven for the Dutch ladies team alongside van Leuven and Deta Hedman recently withdrew from her scheduled quarterfinal against van Leuven on principle at the Denmark Open.

Van Leuven responded to the criticism on the program Sophie & Jeroen. "It is said that I went into transition to perform better. That is totally untrue," she explains. "I have never seen anyone who has gone through the years of misery of transition only to perform better afterwards. All we want is to be ourselves."

"As trans people, we want to be respected," Van Leuven continued. "I'm Noa-Lynn, I'm a woman and I just want to do what I love to do and happen to be good at, and that's darts," concluded the 27-year-old.