‘Extremely Unfair and Just Insane:’ Protests Grow Over Biological Boy Racing on Girls Cross Country Team

Two teenage girls who forfeited a cross country race last month rather than race against a biological male received a show of support Tuesday when nearly half of their teammates walked off the field rather than race alongside their schoolmate.At least 10 female high school runners opted not to run the race in Washington state, posting up but walking off the field as the race whistle blew and the other runners surged ahead, according to independent journalist Brandi Kruse. Ms. Kruse said some other runners from the school also did not bother to make the trip to compete in the away meet.This comes as a 16-year-old female volleyball player in Michigan filed a federal civil rights lawsuit last week under Title IX claiming that school officials knew that a biological male played on the rival team but declined to inform the female athletes or their parents.For former Division I competitive swimmer Paula Scanlan, who was forced to compete alongside and share a locker room with biological male Lia Thomas, it’s an uncomfortably familiar feeling.“I watched my teammates lose podium spots while the adults told us to stay quiet. Now, high school girls are still living it,” Ms. Scanlan told The New York Sun. She added that the governing body for high school athletics and activities in Washington state, the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, “should be answering for this, not teenage girls. This is another example of bad leadership failing young girls.”The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association allows athletes to compete in the division that matches their self-defined gender. A ballot initiative going before voters next month would change that. Initiative 638 would prohibit biological males from competing in girls’ sports.Opponents have falsely claimed the ballot initiative would mandate genital inspections. Instead, it would verify biological sex through a note from a healthcare provider.The protests in Washington began when sophomores Sierra Retzlaff and Charlie Garrett, who attend Skyview High School at Vancouver, Washington, refused to race in a September 15 match against rival Camas High School, which fielded the biological male on the girls team.“We decided that it’s more important to take a stand and to show how we believe that this isn’t right,” Miss Garrett told the Sun in a phone interview Friday, “and how these opportunities are going to be taken away from us because of this person.”“It’s absurd to me that someone can just decide that they don’t feel a certain gender and then without doing anything about it, they can just go and switch races,” Miss Garrett added. “And then obviously there’s a huge biological difference between boys and girls, especially in sports, so I just think that it’s extremely unfair and just insane to me.”Camas School District Superintendent John Anzalone said in a statement that the district would “continue to follow state law and WIAA policy.” “Regarding event facilities, cross country meets are typically held at parks and open fields that do not have traditional locker rooms,” Mr. Anzalone said. “Portable restrooms, which are gender-neutral, are available on-site. Cross country runners generally arrive and depart already in their uniforms and warmups.”In Michigan, the Thomas More Law Center filed its lawsuit Friday on behalf of tenth grader Briley Lechner and her father. Miss Lechner competed against a biological male in a September 2025 volleyball game.The suit claims that the athletic director of Miss Lechner’s school at Monroe, Michigan, knew the day before the competition she would be competing against a biological male. The player at the center of the dispute was also allowed to use locker room facilities that were designed for the school’s female athletes. The suit claims the Monroe Public Schools Board of Education mishandled a complaint about the match, unlawfully discussing it in closed session and refusing to vote on it, leading to an “unsubstantiated” finding. The suit claims those actions violate Title IX.“Title IX was enacted to protect girls and women from sex discrimination in education,” the president of the Thomas More Law Center, Richard Thompson, said in a news release. “It was not enacted to allow school officials to disregard the very distinctions that make equal athletic opportunities for girls possible.”In Washington, Miss Garrett said she is not scheduled to race against the biological boy until the districtwide or statewide competitive rounds. She said she would be competing in those races rather than forfeiting.“Why I’m doing this isn’t because I have hate for trans people. It’s because it’s just not biologically fair that someone can do this,” Miss Garrett said. “I’m not thinking about how I don’t like trans people. I don’t think that at all.”

‘Extremely Unfair and Just Insane:’ Protests Grow Over Biological Boy Racing on Girls Cross Country Team

‘Extremely Unfair and Just Insane:’ Protests Grow Over Biological Boy Racing on Girls Cross Country Team

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