Turning Point USA

A biological boy who identifies as a transgender girl was booed after winning the Oregon Girls’ 200-meter state championship, according to the New York Post. 

Aayden Gallagher, a sophomore from McDaniel High School, won the girls’ state championship by two-tenths of a second. The biological boy also ran the fastest 400-meter preliminary, though he lost the final of the 400-meter by a fifteenth of a second. 

Photos and video footage of the event show Aayden towering over opponents. In a side-by-side of Aayden winning the 200-meter race, he appears significantly larger in both height and muscle mass than the second-place finisher. 

In video footage popularized by women’s rights activist Riley Gaines, the crowd cheered for the girl who won second place. The crowd proceeded to boo Gallagher as he was awarded a first-place medal. 

The Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) permits transgender athletes to participate in high school athletics. The organization’s rules state that “once a transgender student has notified the student’s school of their gender identity, the student shall be consistently treated as that gender for purposes of eligibility for athletics and activities, provided that if the student has tried out or participated in the activity, the student may not participate during that same season on a team of the other gender.” 

Several commentators online encouraged the biological girls in Oregon to stop competing against Gallagher in hopes of creating change in OSAA’s existing policies. 

Gallagher’s victory in the biological female category comes a few weeks after five middle school girls from West Virginia were barred from competing in track and field events after refusing to compete against a biological boy. 

Five girls from Lincoln Middle School refused to throw during a shot-put competition against a biological boy. Biological male Becky Pepper-Jackson, a 13-year-old who takes puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, won the competition in the female category.