Trump administration jumps in after Oregon girls sue over transgender athlete

Two Oregon track athletes who were muzzled for protesting a transgender competitor at the girls’ state championships have drawn the support of the Trump administration.

The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights launched an investigation into whether the Oregon Department of Education has violated Title IX by allowing biological males in girls’ sports, citing a complaint from the America First Policy Institute.

The institute filed a federal lawsuit two days earlier on behalf of the girls, Alexa Anderson and Reese Eckard, against the Oregon School Activities Association.

“If Oregon is permitting males to compete in women’s sports, it is allowing these males to steal the accolades and opportunities that female competitors have rightfully earned through hard work and grit, while callously disregarding women’s and girls’ safety, dignity, and privacy,” said acting Assistant Secretary Craig Trainor.

“Title IX does not permit that shameful arrangement, and we will not tolerate it,” he said in a Friday statement.

The institute’s lawsuit accused the OSAA of engaging in viewpoint discrimination and retaliation against the two female track athletes in violation of their First Amendment rights.

“These young women earned their place on the podium — and the right to express themselves,” said Jessica Hart Steinmann, AFPI executive general counsel. “Instead of respecting their viewpoint that girls’ sports should be for girls only, Oregon officials sidelined them. The First Amendment protects the right to dissent — school officials don’t get to reprimand students who refuse to agree with their beliefs.”

Anderson and Eckard were both high school seniors when they placed third and fourth, respectively, in the high jump at the OSAA State Track and Field Championships held May 29-31 at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field.

Tying for fifth was Liaa Rose, a sophomore at Ida B. Wells High School, who had placed first in eight out of nine regular-season meets leading up to the championships. The athlete reportedly competed as Zachary Rose in boys’ track in 2023.

After the finish, Anderson and Eckard approached the podium wearing “Save Women’s Sports” shirts, but were told by an official to remove them because “athletes could only wear school-issued apparel at the podium,” the lawsuit said.

“Alexa and Reese were not previously aware of this purported OSAA rule, and on information and belief, no written OSAA rule explicitly mandates only school-issued attire at podium ceremonies,” the complaint said.

In fact, the lawsuit said that other school athletes had been allowed to wear personal attire at previous award ceremonies “without issue.”

The girls complied by removing the shirts. They took their places on the podium, but then decided that “standing alongside a biological male would implicitly endorse OSAA’s viewpoint that biological males competing in female athletics is fair and appropriate.”

Moments later, they stepped down from the podium and stood beside it on the grass to express “a conscientious objection to a policy they viewed as unfair.”

Their protest caused no disruption, the lawsuit said, but even so, OSAA officials hustled them away from the podium, excluding them from photographs and the presenting of medals. Anderson has still not received her medal.

“Alexa and Reese were humiliated by OSAA’s actions at the 2025 State Championships as it appeared for all to see that they were being punished by OSAA for their beliefs,” the complaint said. “Being publicly removed from the awards podium, excluded from official event photographs, and denied their medals undermined their achievement and stigmatized them publicly.”

The lawsuit argued that OSAA does allow athletes to express some viewpoints, just not those conveyed by Anderson and Eckard.

For example, an OSAA official said in 2019 that the organization does not forbid kneeling during the national anthem. The group’s website includes a link to a module called ’Sports as a Vehicle for Social Change” that lauds athletes who convey a social-justice message through their apparel, such as cleats.

The OSAA allows students to compete in sports based on their “consistently asserted gender identity.”

The Washington Times has reached out to the organization for comment.

The OSAA is already facing a federal Title IX investigation stemming from a March 19 track meet in Portland at which another transgender athlete, Ada Gallagher, won the girls’ 200-meter and 400-meter races.