A male athlete took first place in a race for high school girls over the weekend at an Oregon state championship.
Sophomore Aayden Gallagher, who identifies as female, beat seven girls in the 200-meter dash at the Oregon School Activities Association 6A State Championships, held at the University of Oregon in Eugene.
Gallagher also took second place in the 400-meter. He tallied 18 points for McDaniel High School in Portland, leading the girls team to win fourth place overall in the championship.
Gallagher has dominated his races all season. He qualified to compete at the state championship by beating females for first place in the 200-meter May 9. He also took first place in the event at meets May 1 and April 17.
The crowd booed as Gallagher crossed the finish line Saturday, a video shows.
Male athletes are participating in, and dominating, girls track and cross-country events across the country.
Lizzy Cohen Bidwell, a Connecticut resident whose name at birth was Lucas, qualified in mid-March for the national meet by taking first in the girls high jump in a regional competition.
In Maine, another male who identifies as female, Soren Stark-Chessa, went from the middle of the pack in boys events to win an award for Fastest Sophomore Girl in the state’s largest high school cross-country race.
“We’ve just watched another male take away a state championship from a hardworking girl,” Paula Scanlan, ambassador for the Independent Women’s Forum, told The Daily Signal.
Scanlan, a former University of Pennsylvania swimmer, competed on a girls team that included Lia Thomas, a male who identifies as female. Scanlan now campaigns to save women’s sports.
Supporters of women’s and girls sports can’t keep allowing male athletes to displace female athletes, she said.
“Him competing and winning shows the other girls that they are not worthy of fair competition,” Scanlan said, “and if we continue to allow this, it will discourage young girls from competing altogether.”
