A Massachusetts high school has come under fire for allowing a transgender athlete to help win the state track championship last month amid heated debate over trans athletes in sports.
Chloe Barnes helped Brookline High School win the state Interscholastic Athletic Association Division 1 indoor track and field championships over three other schools after competing in the girls’ 55m hurdles.
Her fourth-place finish in the race, behind a Brookline teammate, helped her school earn the points needed to win the title.
Barnes, a junior who began competing in the women’s competition this academic year, had previously helped them win a 4×200-meter relay in a race in January.
In video from that race, she can be seen running ahead of her competitors, helping Brookline to victory at the Massachusetts State Athletic Trainers Association’s Northeast Invitational.
She was following the rules, since state policy explicitly states that “all students must be allowed to participate in a manner consistent with their gender identity” when disciplines are segregated by sex.
Chloe Barnes (pictured right) after competing in a track event with the Brookline High School girls’ track team
Barnes (third from left on track) competes in the girls’ 55m hurdles. The final of it helped Brookline win a championship.
‘Students who are transgender can participate according to the gender identity they consistently affirm at school. Interscholastic athletic activities are addressed through clarification of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) Gender Identity Policy,” the policy reads.
A year ago, before starting to compete against girls, Barnes had developed a defiant attitude toward any possible outrage over his participation in women’s sports, after telling a student newspaper last year that critics should ‘deal with it’. Just deal with it.’
This was after spending a year practicing with the girls’ team but competing with the boys, saying ‘it was more the result of being afraid of other people seeing me run’.
Critics have spoken out, with female athletes advocacy group ICONS Women saying Barnes prevented another girl from taking part in the final, arguing that boys’ hurdles are higher than girls’, making it easier for them to compete. from Barnes.
British Olympian Andy Turner quoted ICONS on Twitter as saying: ‘Just cheating! This should not be allowed #SaveWomensSport.’
Riley Gaines, an American swimmer at the University of Kentucky and a rising star in trying to avoid what many see as biological men competing in women’s and women’s sports, also spoke out on Twitter.
“Massachusetts Girls High School Track State Championships a few weeks ago,” she wrote, with a photo of Barnes alongside her competitors. ‘Can you guess which one is the male?’
Barnes (right lane) is seen competing in a women’s 4×200 meter relay in late January
Barnes’ performance also helped Brookline win a title in this meeting.
Gaines is a rising star on the conservative speaking circuit, having recently been on a panel discussion organized by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to keep student-athletes who are born biologically male out of women’s sports.
The 23-year-old became an activist against transgender women participating in women’s sports teams after she was forced to go head-to-head with University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas.
Earlier this year, Gaines criticized President Joe Biden for proposing to change the definition of “sex” in a federal civil rights law to include “gender” and “gender identity.”
Changes to Title IX, the 1972 law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any school or any other educational program that receives federal funding, would allow transgender athletes to compete against biological women in sports.
By doing so, Gaines wrote in an essay, biological women would be disadvantaged when competing against transgender women.
Gaines took the opportunity to recount how she was forced to share a locker room with Thomas at the NCAA Championship in March 2022.
Riley Gaines has become a rising star on the conservative speaking circuit, having recently been on a panel discussion organized by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to keep student-athletes who are born biological males out of women’s sports. She is seen here outside the 2023 State of the Union address
Gaines was the guest of Rep. Lisa McClain (pictured) at the State of the Union address because, in the congresswoman’s words, she is “a brave young woman… who fights against colleges… stands up for my daughters”. That’s an incredible story to tell.’
She wrote: “At the NCAA Championships, I saw a 6’4” man exposing male parts in our women’s locker room.
“To be perfectly clear, the anatomy that I and many other women were forced to see confirms that Thomas is male.”
Gaines said she then asked National Collegiate Athletic Association officials where she could change “since I had no intention of undressing in front of a man.”
“I was informed that there were no protections to change in a space that Thomas did not have access to.
“To summarize, the NCAA placed the responsibility on women to avoid disrobing in front of a biological man with biological parts who is sexually attracted to women. Let that sink in.
Gaines also moderated the panel during the House event last week, then switched to McCarthy’s microphone to hear Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Lisa McLain of Michigan and Virginia Foxx of North Carolina.
The speaker opened his event by noting the absence of Rep. Greg Steube of Florida, who last year introduced the Women and Girls in Sports Protection Act in the former Democratic-controlled House.
In addition to Gaines, panelists included volleyball player Macey Petty, former track star Margo Knorr and retired tennis player Chloe Satterfield.
Lia Thomas’ (pictured) participation on the UPenn women’s swim team has brought the issue of transgender students’ participation on their chosen gender’s school sports teams to the forefront of the current culture wars.
During Gaines’ next panel with the three conservative legislators, Michigan Rep. McCLain broke rules that allow students to wear costumes that align with their chosen gender.
‘Where is the equality?’ McCLain was furious.
“As a mother, I have no idea what I would have done if my daughter came home and said, ‘Mom, I was forced to undress in a locker room in front of a man with a penis.'”
She continued: ‘Do you know what I call it? I call that indecent exposure. So, let’s start calling it what it is.
Conservative efforts to crack down on transgender participation in school sports have gained steam in recent years, particularly since the rise of Lia Thomas.
It has become a new culture war front and was even featured as a campaign issue in several races in the 2022 election.
The left and LGBTQ activists have responded, claiming that policies that force students to participate in school activities designated by biological sex, rather than gender identity, are repressive of transgender youth.
As of now, 18 states have laws that prohibit students from participating in school sports that align with their gender identity, according to the LGBT MAP project.
