An Oregon high school track final erupted in boos as the winner crossed the finish line. The winner was Aayden Gallagher of McDaniel High School, a biological male who identifies as a female and competed in the Oregon Girls’ 6A finals. As Gallagher crossed the finish line for the 200-meter race, ahead by two-tenths of a second, the crowd responded by booing. The crowd booed again when Gallagher stood on the podium to receive the first-place award. Gallagher also competed in the 400-meter race and placed second. The crowd’s displeasure highlights the growing tensions between transgender individuals, particularly men identifying as women, and the biological females who compete against them.

The Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA), however, permits transgender students to participate in sports events that align with their gender identity. “…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 an activity, the student may not participate during that same season on a team of the other gender,” reads the policy. However, there have been many debates about the unfair advantage biological males have over biological females when competing in sports. Multiple incidents have been shared across social media and the news of biological males winning first place in state and national competitions. President Biden’s changes to Title IX, to include gender identity as a protected class, has further heightened concerns that biological women will be pushed out of women’s sports.

Riley Gaines, an outspoken critic of biological men competing in female sports, shared video of Gallagher being booed and lauded the reaction. “Another proud moment for women’s sports!” she wrote, “Aayden Gallagher (male) just placed 1st in the Oregon state championship in the women’s 200m after placing 2nd in the 400m. Just listen to the audible BOOS. People are over this…& it’s about time.” Writing an op-ed for The New York Post, Piers Morgan agreed. He compared Gallagher competing against high school girls to “watching Usain Bolt compete in the women’s 200 meters and annihilating current world champion Shericka Jackson.” He called Gallagher competing in the girls’ track meet unfair due to the biological differences of men and women. He called out the OSAA’s policy on transgender competitors as a “farce.” He stated that while transgender athletes deserved to be treated with respect and that he was fine with using Gallagher’s preferred pronouns of “she/her,” “what’s not fine with me is when trans rights erode or destroy the rights of women to fairness and equality, as we’re seeing happen more and more in women’s sports.” He called for Gallagher to either compete with men or for a different category to be made for transgender athletes. “What happened at Heyward Field in Oregon on Saturday cannot be allowed to keep happening,” wrote Morgan “or the hopes and dreams of every athletic young girl in the country will be shattered on the altar of morally bankrupt virtue-signaling garbage.”