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Luce Allen, a senior transgender girl, defeated a freshman biological female by less than two-tenths of a second in a 200-meter race at a Pennsylvania high school track meet over the weekend.
Allen, of Plymouth-Whitemarsh High School, set a personal record of 25.20 seconds in the race at the SOL American meet.
Allen now has six victories on the season, including in the liberty girls’ 4×400-meter relay in the same meet.
Allen’s time would have been the fourth-slowest time among male 200-meter runners, including preliminary heats. The winning times for the boys were 21.72 and 21.96 seconds.
According to athletic.net, Allen has competed against girls since 2023, when Allen was a sophomore. No one with the last name “Allen” was listed on either the boys’ or girls’ roster in 2022, Allen’s freshman year.
A lawyer read a statement from Allen at a Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association board of directors meeting back in March, saying that forcing transgender individuals to compete against those who share a biological gender will hurt their development.
“If you remove the ability of trans people to compete with a team that corresponds with their gender, then you’ll strip them of their opportunity to develop as people,” Allen said, via the Philadelphia Inquirer. “Trans athletes, like any other high school athlete, are just kids who want to compete.”
Allen’s mother, Sarah Hansen, said at that meeting that she and her family have been on a journey for her to transition to the girl that she always has been, and having Allen compete against boys “would be cruel.”
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“My child is a female in her heart and soul, and according to her medical labs,” Hansen said.
“Luce’s presence on the team fosters a spirit of unity, sportsmanship, and inclusivity,”team head coach Christopher Jackson said at that same meeting. “They are admired for their bravery, work ethic, and unwavering commitment to the sport they love.”
Hansen said that Allen is “not a male who wants to play against girls, not a predator who wants to find a way into the female locker room, and not a male who isn’t good enough to be a boy. She is a girl.”
The state of Pennsylvania arguably put biological males competing against girls and women on the map, when UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas won a Division I national championship in 2022.
Amid his executive order to keep biological males out of girls’ and women’s sports, President Donald Trump’s administration began a Title IX investigation into the Ivy League School.
Schools in Pennsylvania have defied the order that was signed in February. California, Maine and other states have also ignored the order.
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