Trans athletes have been dominating high school girls’ sports in the US — and dominating the news, with more than a dozen cases making headlines this school year.
Over the weekend, biologically male athletes placed in track and field championships in Oregon, Washington and California, despite President Trump’s February executive order banning trans athletes in women’s sports.
Participation continues in many states where ongoing legal challenges and state-level policies contradict the federal directive. Maine Governor Janet Mills’s pledge to defy the order resulted in several months of frozen federal funding, and California’s defiance of the order triggered a DOJ investigation into whether its state law violates Title IX.
“THIS IS NOT FAIR, AND TOTALLY DEMEANING TO WOMEN AND GIRLS,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on May 27. “Please be hereby advised that large scale Federal Funding will be held back, maybe permanently, if the Executive Order on this subject matter is not totally adhered to.”
A February poll from Pew found that 66% of Americans believe they should compete according to their birth sex — up from 58% in 2022.
Here are the most cases that have shaken up the high-school sports world during the 2024-25 school year.
Jurupa Valley, California
Trans athlete AB Hernandez, 16, took first place in the girls high and triple jump events at California’s high-school championship Saturday and placed second in the long jump.
Hernandez shared the top podium spot with the biologically female athlete who finished “second,” thanks to a change to the California Interscholastic Federation rules — made last week after President Trump publicly criticized the state for allowing trans athletes to continue to compete.
In May, Reese Hogan, the 16-year-old who came second to Hernandez in the triple jump at the CIF Southern Section Finals, momentarily posed for photos at the top of the podium after Hernandez climbed off — eliciting cheers from the crowd.
Shirley, NY
A 6-foot, 14-year-old freshman trans athlete stirred controversy by joining the varsity track team at William Floyd High School on Lon Island in March, despite not being on hormone replacement treatment.
A group of female student athletes told the South Shore Press they would feel uncomfortable if they had to share a locker room with a biologically male competitor.
Portland, Oregon
At Saturday’s state track championship in Eugene, Oregon, two female athletes — third and fourth place champions Alexa Anderson and Reese Eckard, both seniors — refused to stand on the podium with Lia Rose, a trans athlete who took fifth place. Rose, also a senior, competed as a male for Ida B. Wells High School last year.
And Ada Gallagher, a transgender junior at McDaniel High School, finished more than seven seconds ahead of the runner-up in the 400M Portland Interscholastic League meet and also won the 200M race in February.
Tecoma, Washington
That same day Veronica Garcia, a transgender 17-year-old representing Mount Tahoma High School in Tacoma, Washington, won the class 2A 400-meter dash state title for the second consecutive time.
Garcia told the Seattle Times that boos from the crowd acted as fuel: “It made me angry, but not angry as in, I wanted to give up, but angry as in, I’m going to push… I hope they get a life.”
Concord, NH
In October of 2024, female soccer players at Bishop Brady Catholic High School pulled out of a game against Kearsarge Regional High School in protest over a transgender competitor.
Shelton, Washington
In February, a basketball game between Tumwater and Shelton High Schools triggered a civil rights complaint over a transgender player on Shelton’s team.
“Anyone that invades my privacy and protection as a girl, that is not okay,” Frances Saudt, the 15-year-old female athlete who filed the complaint, told a local news outlet.
San Francisco, California
A transgender basketball player scored 29 points for San Francisco Waldorf High School’s girls team in January — leading to a 59-33 win over Jewish Community High School.
When that athlete, whose name has not been made public, missed a playoff game in February following Trump’s executive order, Waldorf’s team lost by 26 points.
Bridgeport, West Virginia
Transgender athlete Becky Pepper-Jackson, a freshman at Bridgeport High School in Bridgeport, West Virginia, was the first transgender athlete to compete in her state’s track championships in May.
Pepper-Jackson won bronze in the Class AAA girls discus event, securing a spot on the medal podium.
Plymouth, New Hampshire
At the beginning of the school year, a federal judge temporarily overruled former New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu’s ban — barring trans athletes in grades 5-12 from teams that align with their chosen gender identity — so that soccer player Parker Tirrell, now 16, could participate on Plymouth Regional High School’s team by emergency order.
Tirrell and 15-year-old tennis player Iris Turmelle, who is also trans and attends Pembroke Academy, became the first student athletes to challenge Trump’s order in March, expanding on a lawsuit they had filed against their state.
Champlin, Minnesota
In May, reigning state softball champions Rogers High School were defeated by Champlin Park High School in May, after their transgender pitcher threw fourteen shutout innings.
Riverside, California
A female track co-captain at Martin Luther King High School alleged that she lost her varsity spot to a transgender athlete who transferred to the school.
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