This paper presents a new design method for gain-scheduled static output feedback (SOF) controllers of saturated LPV (linear parameter varying) systems. Our solution is based on a special SOF scheme in conjunction with specific congruence transformations. The regional design is established through an effective,treatment of nonlinear effects introduced by the saturations in, the, closed loop. Using parameter-dependent Lyapunov functions, the control design is reformulated as a parameter-dependent LMI optimiiation with a single line search parameter. Then, by an equivalent polytopic transformation, tractable design conditions are derived for constrained LPV systems with a broad dais of parametric dependencies. In particular, it is proved that the new method generalizes some well-known results based on linear matrix equalities while reducing the design conservatism. Moreover explicit rank constraints on state-space system matrices are not required. A physically motivated example is given for illustration purposes. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.