Parents, coaches and student-athletes are calling for a policy change on a high school track and field competition in Connecticut after two transgender athletes took the top spots at the state championship for girls.
Terry Miller, a sophomore from Bulkeley High School in Hartford, came in first place during the 100-meter and 200-meter dash at the State Open Finals on June 4.
In the 100-meter race, Andraya Yearwood, a sophomore at Cromwell High School in Cromwell, Connecticut, won second place.
Some parents and student-athletes have complained that the two athletes, who were both born male but now identify as female, had a competitive advantage over the other racers.
"I think it's unfair to the girls who work really hard to do well and qualify for Opens and New Englands [competitions]," Selina Soule, who came in sixth in the 100-meter dash, told Hartford Courant. "These girls, they're just coming in and beating everyone. I have no problem with them wanting to be a girl," she added.
Miller had reportedly competed in the boys team during the last winter indoor season, before the teen athlete joined the girl's competition this season.
Yearwood sparked controversy last year when the Cromwell athlete took the top spot in the girls 100- and 200-meter races in the Class M championships.
Soule's mother, Bianca Stanescu, had started a petition at the time calling for a change in the competition's policy.
"Sports are set up for fairness. Biologically male and female are different," she told the CT Post. "The great majority is being sacrificed for the minority," she added.
Jarmaine Lee, whose two sons are competing for the boys team in Plainville, has launched a separate petition that has been sent to all of the high school directors in the state, according to the Hartford Courant.
Some athletes have said that they do not have a problem with transgenders competing with the girls.
"To be honest, I think it's great they get a chance to compete and as long as they're happy, I guess, there's not that much I can do," said Bridget Lalonde, who came in third place in the 100-meter dash, according to the Daily Mail.
"The rules are the rules. The only competition is the clock. You can only run as fast as you can," she added.
The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC), which oversees high school sporting events in the state, has contended that its policy is consistent with state law. It claimed that the state law would have to be amended before changes could be made to its policy.
