Girls Protest Trans Athlete in Oregon State High School Track Championships

Zachary Rose, a male who identifies as transgender, finished fifth in the girls’ varsity high jump at the Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) high school track and field state championships in Eugene, Oregon, on May 31.

During the award ceremony, Reese Eckard of Sherwood High School and Alexa Anderson of Tigard High School, who had finished third and fourth in the event, stepped down from the medal podium and turned their backs in an apparent protest.

Rose cleared 5 feet, 1.75 inches in the meet at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field.

The results placed Rose more than two inches below the winner, Paige Schiffer, who cleared 5 feet, 4.25 inches. The mark was nearly 12 inches short of the fifth place finisher in the boys’ division, and 16.5 inches less than the division champion, Miles Baxter, at 6 feet, 9.5 inches.

Earlier in the 2025 season, Rose took first place in the girls’ varsity high jump during the Portland Interscholastic League meet on April 2.

Just two years ago, Rose, who is a senior at Portland-based Ida B. Wells High School, finished in 11th place in the boys’ JV division.

Rose isn’t the first to be the subject of debate over transgender-identifying athletes in Oregon high school sports.

In May 2024, Aayden Gallagher, a male who also identifies as transgender, took first place in the women’s 200-meter race at the 2024 OSAA track and field state championships, receiving a gold medal at Hayward Field.

This spring, boys competed in the girls’ division at track meets in other states as well, including California, Washington, Minnesota, and Maine.

The decision to allow boys in girls’ divisions has put these states squarely in the Trump administration’s crosshairs.

Title IX

On Feb. 5, President Donald Trump signed an executive order seeking to prohibit transgender-identifying males from participating in girls’ and women’s sports or using female locker rooms.

Schools allowing males to participate in girls’ sports events risk losing their federal funding.

“It is the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy,” the order reads.

“It shall also be the policy of the United States to oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.”

OSAA, the governing body for Oregon high school sports, rejected calls to change the rules well before Trump took office.

According to OSAA policy, male student athletes who identify as transgender can compete in girls’ sports.

Once a transgender-identifying student has notified their school of their preferred gender identity, the student “shall be consistently treated as that gender for purposes of eligibility for athletics and activities,” the policy reads.

“Let’s be clear—this is cheating, not inclusion,” Republican state Rep. Dwayne Yunker wrote in a statement to The Epoch Times. “Girls are being pushed off the podium so OSAA can cater to woke ideology. It’s outrageous and illegal.”

Yunker pointed out that 26 other states have banned the practice.

The U.S. Department of Education recently opened an investigation into Portland Public Schools and OSAA for violating Title IX.

A Running Battle

GOP lawmakers in the state have tried for years to ban boys from participating in girls’ sports.

In April 2024, 12 Republican women from the Oregon House and Senate sent a letter to OSAA Executive Director Peter Weber demanding that he “take immediate action to protect equal rights of women in high school sports by only allowing biological women to compete in girls’ sports.”

The legislators specifically asked that the OSAA change its Gender Identity Participation policy.

But OSAA defended its policy, noting that the organization is not allowed to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, based on policies of the Oregon Department of Education.

“The OSAA, under the guidance of our member schools, creates and implements policies that comply with federal and state laws, including laws that are intended to keep our students safe and free from discrimination,” Weber wrote.

He said the OSAA’s policies also “promote harmony and fair competition among member schools.”

But the Republican caucus said the policy isn’t working.

“Sadly, this policy has precisely the opposite of its stated effect,” the legislators wrote in their letter. “Instead of promoting harmony, it has sparked outrage. Instead of ensuring fair competition, a biological male has found a place in the female sports record books. Any girls’ title held by a male is not a girls’ title at all.”

In the 2024 legislative session, Republican Reps. Christine Godwin and David Brock Smith drafted House Bill 4054 to bar transgender-identifying individuals from competing in girls’ or women’s sports at the high school or collegiate level in Oregon. The bill did not get a hearing.

Three bills filed by Republicans in the current legislative session have proposed to limit the participation in female competitive sports of athletes who identify as transgender.

A recent AP-NORC poll found that about seven in 10 U.S. adults think transgender-identifying athletes should not be allowed to participate in girls’ sports. That view was shared by about nine in 10 Republicans and roughly half of Democrats.

It is also shared by the contingent of spectators who watched the high jump competition at Hayward Field while wearing shirts that read “Protect Girls’ Sports.”