This Is Why Girls Need and Deserve Girls-Only Sports

This video is making the rounds. As the voice over indicates, this shows an Oregon 10th grader, a boy who identifies as a girl, dominating in this semi-final of the girls 400 meter race. Aayden Gallagher placed first in a time of 56.14, and placed second in the 200-meter semi-final in a time of 24.49. These performances allowed Gallagher to move on to the finals where he won both events. Gallagher’s 56.14 would have put him in 17th place in the boys’ 400 meter, and his 24.49 200-meter would have earned him 20th place in the boys’ semi-finals, and thus would not have moved on to the finals.

As I have been accused of “being mean” to “poor trans kids who just want to live their lives and do the sport they love,” let me say right up front that I do not “hate” this kid. He’s being used as cannon fodder in an ideological war on reality by cowardly adults who are conveniently not in this video. I don’t think he’s doing this with the intent of cheating, though it absolutely is unfair because he is male. My disgust is reserved for adults—legislators, activists, sports administrators, school administrators, counselors, and parents—who have lied to kids, who have told them they can compete with their gender identity, who have dismissed the reality of the impact of sex on athletic performance, and prioritized a boy’s feelings over fairness for all girls. Nobody wins here—not Gallagher, not all the girls, not the school or sports organization that made these policies, and certainly not trans people as a whole.

This is not an attack on a 10th grader, but rather an illustration of why girls need and deserve sex-segregated sports.

The Oregon School Activities Association (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.”

This is an anodyne statement that falls apart in practical application. Allowing males to self-identify into girls’ sports is incompatible with fairness and safety for all girls. If boys can self-identify into girls sports, it’s no longer fair or safe for girls. You cannot have both fairness and eligibility by gender identity. The science is very robust on this, and has been for decades.

Tweeting in reference to the video above, sport scientist Ross Tucker wrote: “A video helpfully illustrating the absurdity of ignoring reality of biological sex. However, we should also recognize that this male would be well beaten by Bol, Adeleke, Miller-Uibo etc, and thus a participant in IOC funded research published in @BJSM_BMJ concluding no advantage.” Tucker is referring to the IOC-funded “study that identified as science” that I wrote about, and that was dismantled by Drs. Greg Brown and Mary O’Connor, that compared unfit trans-identified men with elite female athletes (like Femke Bol and Shaunae Miller-Uibo). Since the elite women out-performed the very mediocre trans-identified males, the researchers concluded, absurdly, that trans-identified males have no advantage over women. It should also be pointed out that the trans-identified men in the study reduced their testosterone to average female levels; most high schoolers do not. They simply identify as a girl, and compete as is. Which is male.

Tucker continued: “Point being that we can sometimes, like in the video, SEE male advantage very obviously. But if we can't, we shouldn't conclude that male advantage is absent. All it means is that we've compared relative mediocrity to relative exceptionalism. Deliberately or otherwise.”

The OSAA, with kind words like “fair” and “safe,” and nice-sounding platitudes like “inclusion,” disguise the fact that they have, in fact, chosen to guarantee unfairness and risk for girls. And by framing it as a human right for a boy to self-identify into girls’ sports, any pushback on that obvious unfairness and risk is a personal attack, malicious and bigoted. I don’t hate Gallagher, girls don’t hate Gallagher either. So, not only has OSAA chosen to discriminate against girls, they shame and silence them into accepting the unfairness. Is that kind to girls? Is that respectful of their rights? How exactly should they speak up for their right to fairness, to safety, to opportunity, to dignity, without being a bigot? Or is it assumed that they just shouldn’t?

With regard to sports, Gallagher is male. He competes with his male body. It doesn’t matter if he wins, or is last—he’s male. When he self-identifies into girls’ sports, the girls’ category becomes a mixed sex category. Then there is a boys’ category and a mixed sex category. There is no longer a girls’ category. Is that fair? If it’s called girls’ sports, girls have the right to compete against only females. If we’re going to include boys who identify as girls, we need to be honest and stop gaslighting girls, and call it the mixed sex category. Girls should know that adults have deemed them unworthy of having their own category.

We often hear, Well, it’s only one trans kid. But Gallagher, a male, displaced many girls from their own sport. Just on Gallagher’s team, there are limited varsity spots and even fewer spots from each school for championship meets. If he runs the 200m, the 400m, and the 4x400 relay in each of seven meets in the season, Gallagher displaced 21 girls just from his team. By taking a lane on an eight-lane track, a girl from another school did not compete. When he qualified for the finals, a girl did not. When he stood on the podium, a girl did not. School records set by a male might never be broken by girls.

That’s the fallacy of “inclusion.” Girls’ sports is an inclusion strategy for girls. It’s a way to include the maximum number of girls of all abilities, and celebrate girls’ excellence. If we didn’t have girls’ sports and only had mixed sex track, for example, the top three places would always be boys, and probably top ten. By including even one boy, there are fewer varsity spots, podium spots, and opportunities to compete for girls. “Inclusion” excludes girls from their own sport.

Discomfort with their bodies, periods—these are challenges girls face on top of the challenges of being an athlete. They need and deserve privacy away from boys in locker rooms. “Trans-identified boys just want to pee?” It’s not up to girls to concede their right to privacy, their spaces. A serious choice like changing your gender identity has serious consequences. The adults who enabled a teenage boy to claim a female identity need to help him sort that out. Demanding that girls give up their rights is not the solution.

And finally, there is absolutely nothing stopping Gallagher from competing in the boys’ category. He’s male! His identity is irrelevant to sports performance. The vast majority of high schoolers have not altered their hormones, but if they have, again, that’s a choice that will have consequences. Adults need to be honest with them about these consequences. A female identity and puberty blockers do not make a boy a girl. Trans-identified male high schooler Jacques Maelle has claimed competing as a boy “was not an option” because of the bullying he received from boys, and that he felt uncomfortable using the boys’ locker room. This is a boy problem, and adults need to help boys sort it out. Instead, he unfairly competed against girls, took their right to girls-only competition, and absolutely unironically, made girls feel uncomfortable in their locker room. Girls’ sports are not the backup plan for trans-identified boys.

Girls sports are for girls. To allow girls to make friends, have fun, challenge themselves, and celebrate their unique abilities. It should not be a validation exercise for a boy who identifies as a girl.