Proposed bill would encourage same-sex teams at school, supporters target ‘safety’ as main reason

BOSTON — Whether it comes to grip, or upper or lower body strength, adolescent boys, on average, beat their female counterparts in every category.

That is the finding of a CDC study from several years ago, and there’s no reason to believe that will ever change. Once boys enter puberty, around the age of 10, testosterone begins driving the enormous growth in muscle and bone mass that turns them into men.

Those simple biological facts are behind an effort by some Massachusetts lawmakers to encourage same-sex athletic competition in schools by making it easier for teams to turn down contests with coed counterparts. The bill would allow such forfeits to take place without penalty and further ramifications for players or coaches.

“Boys have significant physical advantages over girls, such as greater muscle mass, bone density, and cardiovascular strength,” said Michael King, acting chief executive officer of the Massachusetts Family Institute, which supports the legislation. “Choosing to participate in school sports should never mean consenting to severe injuries.”

While rare, severe injuries have happened with coed play. In the fall of 2023, a Dighton-Rehoboth female field hockey player suffered severe dental injuries when a biological male on the opposing team fired a ball that hit her in the face. He played on a girl’s team because there was no boy’s field hockey team at the school -- something Massachusetts allows.

That accident led the district’s school committee to pass a local version of the proposed state legislation.

“We needed to do something,” said Katie Aubin, DR school committee member. “The player was traumatized but the student-athletes that witnessed this were also traumatized.”

Twice this past season under the rule, DR girls field hockey forfeited games to Somerset-Berkeley, Aubin said, because that team featured, as a top player, another boy with no male team to play on. She said that boy went on to score numerous goals during the season and even wound up as conference MVP.

“That is taking away from a female athlete,” she said.

But Henry Robertson said supporters of the bill have it all wrong and he should know. Robertson began transitioning from female to male in college, but by his senior year in high school, said he identified as male.

“In high school, I played varsity soccer every fall,” he said. “Three years on the girl’s team and one year with the boys after I began my social transition. I was a female student-athlete, the kind this bill claims to want to protect.”

Robertson said the girls he played with -- and against -- were tough and driven, so injuries happened on occasion, as with any sport. He worried things might be different once he joined the boy’s team.

“I worried I wouldn’t measure up against my cis-gendered teammates -- that they would overpower me and I would get trampled on trying to match their strength and skill,” he said.

That, fortunately, did not happen.

“There was no noticeable difference in their abilities, their intensity nor in safety during games,” said Robertson. “As a transgender individual, it is my belief that this bill is offensive and harmful to the trans community and for student-athletes in particular and represents an outdated view that does not belong in our legislature.”

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