By Dan Hart
The Washington Stand
A high school girls’ field hockey team in Massachusetts announced earlier this week that it will forfeit a game against a team with a boy on the roster in the wake of a severe injury sustained by a female player less than a year ago as a result of being hit in the face by a shot from a male player. The announcement comes amid a growing pattern of males (who do not identify as transgender females) being allowed to play on girls’ teams as a result of a loophole in high school sports rules in states like Massachusetts that allow males to play on female teams.
In a press release announcing the decision, Bill Runey, Dighton-Rehoboth Regional School District superintendent, stated, “We understand this forfeit will impact our chances for a league championship and possibly playoff eligibility, but we remain hopeful that other schools consider following suit to achieve safety and promote fair competition for female athletes.”
During a playoff game in November 2023, a male Swampscott player fired a shot that struck a female Dighton-Rehoboth player in the face, causing “significant facial and dental injuries” including the loss of two teeth.
“This has been something that has traumatized [the Dighton-Rehoboth team] since November of last year, so it was not a difficult decision [to forfeit],” Runey remarked.
Dighton-Rehoboth’s forfeiture to Somerset Berkley involves the second instance of a high school field hockey team in Massachusetts allowing a boy to play on the girls’ team. The situation is the result of a Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) guideline that allows boys to play on girls’ teams if the same sport is not offered for boys, and vice versa. The MIAA has cited the Massachusetts Equal Rights Amendment as the legal basis for the guidelines, which bans discrimination based on sex.
But Runey argues that the physical differences between males and females heighten the potential for injury. “Injuries can happen in athletics. But when you take 16, 17 and 18-year-old old boys and allow them to compete against 16, 17 and 18-year-old girls, as much respect as I have for female student-athletes, most people are going to know that there is going to be a size and power advantage there,” he pointed out.
Multiple women’s advocacy organizations such as the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS) and activists like Riley Gaines have also blasted the MIAA rule, citing the physical dangers to female athletes.
The controversy over the MIAA rule adds another layer to the ongoing dispute over whether biological males who identify as transgender females should be allowed to participate in girls’ and women’s sports. In the last two decades, males have claimed victory in female sporting events over 350 times.
In addition, instances of girls being injured by biological males is on the rise. In February, a girls high school basketball team in Massachusetts forfeited after a 6-foot trans-identifying biological male on the opposing team injured multiple players. In September 2022, North Carolina high school volleyball player Payton McNabb suffered extensive head and neck injuries as a result of being struck by a ball spiked by a trans-identifying biological male, rendering her unconscious for 30 seconds. McNabb’s injuries included “a concussion, vision problems, and partial paralysis to the right side of her body.”
The pattern is also reaching into professional sports, with dozens of women leaving an Australian women’s soccer league in March over a growing amount of injuries at the hands of biological males.
Mary Szoch, a former NCAA Division I athlete and director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council, expressed dismay over the MIAA guidelines.
“Because of biological differences, at equivalent levels, biological males have a distinct advantage over biological females,” she told The Washington Stand. “Certainly not every man is a better athlete than every woman, but men are generally faster, stronger, and quicker than women. As a result, allowing men to compete in women’s sports is both unfair and unsafe. The law allowing this in Massachusetts demonstrates what happens when government officials fail to acknowledge that treating men and women with equal dignity requires a recognizing that men and women are different.”
“When we treat men and women as if they are the same, we not only risk losing the beautiful complementarity of the two sexes, but even worse, we put women’s lives and futures at risk,” Szoch concluded.
Originally published at The Washington Stand!
