A girl’s high school 400m race in Portland has become a focus of controversy after a transgender competitor was seen coming from the back of the pack and zipping past his female opponents to win the race, leaving the girls dozens of yards in the rear.
Student Aayden Gallagher, a 10th-grader at McDaniel High School who identifies as a girl, utterly dominated the Portland Interscholastic League Championship Semi-Finals on Wednesday, blowing away all competitors.
Gallagher took first place in the girls’ 400 meters and second in the 200 meters to qualify for the finals, the Daily Mail reported.
Gallagher, who was cleared to compete as a girl on May 7, timed in with 25.49 and finished in second place in that event as well as the 400 meters in seventh place in the 4×100 replay and eighth place in the 4×400 relay.
But the teen’s participation brought much criticism:
Despite the outcry, the Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) has approved Gallagher’s participation under its rules.
“The OSAA endeavors to allow students to participate for the athletic or activity program of their consistently asserted gender identity while providing a fair and safe environment for all students,” the group’s policy states.
“As with Rule 8.2 regarding Duration of Eligibility / Graduation, rules such as this one promote harmony and fair competition among member schools by maintaining equality of eligibility and increase the number of students who will have an opportunity to participate in interscholastic activities,” the policy adds.
The OSAA rules also insist that once any student formally tells a school system of their gender identity, the school must accept it, and the student must be treated as that assumed gender.
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