Massachusetts highschool solidifies state title with assist from transgender woman, coverage put underneath microscope

A Massachusetts highschool was thrust into the highlight late final month as they picked up a state championship in women indoor observe and discipline with the assistance of a transgender student-athlete.

Chloe Barnes picked up 5 of Brookline High School’s 63 factors within the Girls 55m Hurdles in late February with a time of 8.72. Barnes completed fourth within the race and behind one in all her teammates. Barnes, nevertheless, did not make it to the Meet of Champions remaining later within the state event.

Brookline received the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletics Association Division 1 Indoor Track and Field Championships over Newton North, Wachusett and Central Catholic. Newton North scored 5 factors within the championship meets.

Massachusetts’ coverage allowed for transgender athletes to compete in opposition to the genders they establish with.

However, controversy ignited this week as Barnes’ run was highlighted on social media. ICONS Women, a female-athlete advocacy group, famous that Barnes – a organic boy – pushed one other woman from probably moving into the finals within the hurdles competitors. The group famous that boys hurdles are taller than women hurdles in highschool athletics as effectively.

The ordeal got here underneath fireplace.

“Simply dishonest!! This shouldn’t be allowed,” Olympian Andy Turner tweeted.

Fellow Olympian Sharron Davies agreed, “This is dishonest!!”

Massachusetts officers basically created the pathway for transgender women and boys to compete in opposition to the genders they establish with in 2012.

“Where there are sex-segregated courses or athletic actions, together with intramural and interscholastic athletics, all college students should be allowed to take part in a fashion per their gender id,” the coverage from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education reads. “With respect to interscholastic athletics, the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association will depend on the gender willpower made by the coed’s district; it is not going to make separate gender id determinations.”

The Cypress – an impartial scholar newspaper for Brookline – famous the Public Schools of Brookline’s coverage relating to transgender college students in interscholastic athletics, which was revealed in 2014.

A protester voices assist for the promotion of transgender ideology in faculties throughout a pro-transgender march in October 2022. (Mark Kerrison/In Pictures by way of Getty Images)

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“Students who’re transgender might take part in accordance with the gender id they constantly assert at college. Interscholastic athletic actions are addressed via the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association Gender Identity Policy (MIAA) clarification,” the coverage says.

Barnes advised the coed newspaper on the time that they wished to apply with the ladies staff however race for the boys staff over concern of others questioning what they had been doing. Barnes made clear they weren’t going to let the concern get to them as they had been set to compete for the ladies in 2022-23.

Barnes additionally had a blunt message for these making an attempt to bar transgender athletes from advocates making an attempt to maintain organic males from competing in opposition to women in sanctioned competitions.

“Deal with it,” Barnes advised the paper. “Just cope with it.”

Barnes didn’t do something unlawful and appeared to take part throughout the guidelines of Massachusetts highschool athletics. Whether it was truthful for that to occur is one other query.

From collegiate athletics to highschool sports activities, a debate has grown over whether or not having transgender girls and women compete in opposition to organic females and women is actually an equal taking part in discipline.

Lia Thomas, a transgender feminine, received an NCAA girls’s swimming championship within the 500 free final March. The debate has even gone to the doorstep of the NCAA.

University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, middle, enters for the 200 Freestyle remaining in the course of the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships on March 18th, 2022 on the McAuley Aquatic Center in Atlanta. (Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Images)

Recently, a Vermont Christian college was banned from future state-sanctioned tournaments for its women basketball staff’s refusal to play one other opponent who had a transgender woman on the staff.