Shocking Field Hockey Injury Sparks Fight Over Transgender Athletes

Social media users were outraged on Friday after claims that a male athlete on a girls' high school field hockey team injured an opposing player in Massachusetts.

During a game between Swampscott and Dighton-Rehoboth high schools on Thursday, a player lifted the ball into the air while taking a shot on goal. The ball hit a player on the opposing team in the face, prompting the girl to scream out. A video of the injury circulated online, fueling arguments about transgender athletes competing in girls' sports.

Riley Gaines, former swimmer for the University of Kentucky, shared the video online, and Charlie Kirk, founder of TPUSA, expressed sympathy with the injured player. Kirk also claimed that the player is a male but "identifies as a female." Amy E. Sousa, who advocates against transgender people using women's bathrooms and playing on girls' sports teams, called policies that allow transgender athletes to play on girls' teams "abusive."

"These abusive policies must be stopped. Stop making a mockery of our foremothers' work to instill Title IX protections for women and girls on the basis of SEX," Sousa said.

Other social media users said they wouldn't allow their children to play on teams with males and criticized the school for purportedly allowing the player to join the team.

"In our [Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA)] Tournament field hockey game Thursday, a player on the visiting team suffered an unfortunate injury on a legal play after being struck by a shot that deflected off her teammate's stick. We are sorry to see any player get hurt and wish the Dighton-Rehoboth player a speedy recovery," Swampscott High School Athletic Director Kelly Wolff told Newsweek. "The Swampscott player who took the shot is a 4-year varsity player and co-captain who, per MIAA rules, has the exact same right to participate as any player on any team."

Newsweek could not verify that the athlete is a male who identifies as a female.

The claims and criticism on social media come amid ongoing arguments over the inclusion of transgender women into female sports categories across the nation. In August, the International Powerlifting Federation announced a change to its gender policy requiring transgender athletes to declare they are transgender before a competition or face disqualification.

In July, Monuments of Cycling, which runs the Belgian Waffle Ride race, announced a change to its gender classification policy after a transgender cyclist won a race.

Gaines has also argued against allowing transgender women into female sports after she competed against Lia Thomas, who in 2022 became the first transgender athlete to win a national championship.

In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis previously signed legislation prohibiting transgender women from competing in female sports categories.

However, the MIAA states that "Massachusetts schools must also comply with the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which is part of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights and Constitution. The ERA states that 'equality under the law shall not be abridged because of sex, race, color, creed or national origin.'"

According to the MIAA handbook, in 1979, the organization was required to change its rules to state "A girl may play on a boys' team if that sport is not offered in the school for the girl, and a boy may play on a girls' team if that sport is not offered in the school for the boy."

In a statement to Newsweek, a spokesperson for the MIAA further cited the organization's handbook for rules allowing the specific student to compete on a girl's team and said, "Massachusetts General Law was originally enacted to protect students from discrimination based on sex, and later expanded to protect students based on gender identification."

"We respect and understand the complexity and concerns that exist regarding student safety. However, student safety has not been a successful defense to excluding students of one gender from participating on teams of the opposite gender. The arguments generally fail due to the lack of correlation between injuries and mixed-gender teams," the spokesperson told Newsweek.

Despite criticism from some, other social media users reacted differently, such as @KirstiMiller30, who said on X, formerly Twitter: "My arm was broken in 3 places in my first year of playing women's soccer. My cisgender wife had her four front teeth knocked out during a game of Australian rules football. Trans women as a population have lower bone miner density than cisgender women even pre HRT."

Uncommon Knowledge

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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