The so-called Equal Rights Amendment is on the ballot this November in New York, and advocates, including Planned Parenthood, claim it will protect abortion and “LGBTQIA+ people.” On those subjects, it’s a solution in search of a problem. New York legalized elective abortion in 1970, and it has never had a law prohibiting transgender-identifying residents from using their preferred bathrooms, for example.
When it comes to women’s sports, however, the ERA would create problems for women and girls. The Equal Rights Amendment would enshrine gender identity as a protected class, strengthening the rights of transgender athletes to compete in girls’ sports, but it is much worse than that.
In neighboring Massachusetts, the Supreme Judicial Court determined that, thanks to the state-level Equal Rights Amendment, boys who identify as boys can play on girls’ sports teams if their school does not offer an equivalent boys’ team. This happens most often in sports such as girls’ field hockey, volleyball, swimming, and gymnastics, but it has even happened in girls’ soccer.
In recent years, Massachusetts has seen boys win state titles in girls’ sports, win league MVP, lead teams to undefeated regular seasons, set school records in girls’ sports, and injure girls.
The Somerset Berkley Regional High School girls’ field hockey team won state championships in 2018 and 2019 in seasons where two of its best players, Lucas Crook and Alex Millar, were boys. Crook is the school’s all-time leading scorer in field hockey. He also scored the game-winning goal in overtime in the 2018 state title game.
Crook’s younger brother, Ryan, is a sophomore at Somerset Berkley. He helped the girls’ field hockey team to an undefeated regular season last year, and the team is 11-1 this fall.
Meanwhile, a nearby school, Dighton-Reboboth Regional High School, refuses to play against boys’ field hockey teams because, during a playoff game last year, a girl on the team took a line-drive shot to the face from a boy that sent her to the hospital. The boy who took the shot, Sawyer Groothuis, was a Northeast Conference all-star that season. Other school districts are working on similar opt-out policies due to safety concerns.
The Greater Boston League has given its girls’ field hockey most valuable player award to boys the past couple of seasons: Omar Marshall and Jonathan Scioletti, both from Everett High School, in 2022 and 2023, respectively. Scioletti is on the team again this year, meaning he could win the award in back-to-back seasons.
Mansfield High School senior Andrew Znoj, a boy, won a girls’ gymnastics state championship in the vault as a junior last winter and came in second on the floor, meaning he’s likely to win at least one more state title this season if not more. He was the third boy to win the state championship in this event in recent years — Daniel Barsley of Winchester High School won the state championship in the vault in 2019, while Kevin Theodoro of Framingham High School won it a year later.
Similarly, the Milton High School girls’ swim team is 6-1 this season and likely on its way to winning at least a share of the Bay State Conference title. Nine of the 21 swimmers on the team are boys, including several who have set all-time school records with their strong performances.
Boys have also performed well in girls’ volleyball. Ethan Guarachi at Norwell High School was a South Shore League all-star and a runner-up for the league MVP award two years ago.
All of that is on top of the impact transgender athletes have on girls’ sports. Massachusetts also had a biological male, Chloe Barnes, help Brookline High School win a girls’ indoor track and field state championship in 2023.
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This past winter, Lazuli Clark, a male with facial hair who identifies as female, played a role in injuring three girls in one half of a girls’ basketball game — the opposing team forfeited the game over safety concerns. Clark was also a league all-star in girls’ volleyball who set multiple records in the Lynn, Massachusetts, all-city girls’ outdoor track and field meet.
If New Yorkers want to prevent this from happening in their state, they should oppose the Equal Rights Amendment. New Yorkers already have the rights the advocates claim they want to protect. To protect fairness and safety in women’s sports, New Yorkers must recognize the ERA’s far-reaching consequences and vote no this November.
Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a political reporter for the New Boston Post in Massachusetts.