Onlookers watched in disbelief at a Maine high school spring track meet as a biological male competing in the girls’ division coasted to victory in the 800-meter and 1600-meter races. 

Junior Soren Stark-Chessa, who was born male, came in first place while running for North Yarmouth Academy at an event in Hiram, Maine, on May 2nd, but behind them trailed a field of young women, including Yarmouth High’s Lilah Connor, who finished second in the 800m race.

As she crossed the finish line, a heartbroken Connor shook her head at the defeat – a small, silent gesture that captured the pain she felt at losing to a trans competitor. 

Those commenting online seemed appalled at the unfair result. 

‘She knows how deeply unfair this is, but can’t do anything about it if she doesn’t want to be punished. I feel so terribly sorry for these girls forced to compete against big fat cheating males,’ wrote one X user.

‘The look of dejection on the part of the girl who is the rightful winner is palpable. Shame on everybody who allowed this to happen,’ added another.

‘The really sad part is that I could tell even from that distance, and even with the video small on my screen, who was the boy from the very beginning. It was the muscle mass and the way he held himself. Those poor girls, so incredibly unfair,’ tweeted a third. 

One person writing an opinion piece in The College Fix about the event suggested Stark-Chessa had in fact deliberately slowed their pace down so as not to win by so large a margin. 

‘Given that the meet appeared to have been a local one between three schools, I had a sneaky suspicion he did “just enough” to win … without making it look lopsided,’ the writer stated.

Fueling the debate further is the background of Stark-Chessa’s parents, who are not just any Maine residents but academic elites with powerful institutional roles.

Soren’s father, Dr. Frank Chessa, is director of clinical ethics at Maine Medical Center and a professor of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. 

He plays a senior role at the hospital’s Gender Care Clinic, which provides ‘gender-affirming’ care and surgical consultations for patients, including adolescents.

Soren’s mother, Susan Stark, is a professor of philosophy at Bates College, where her academic work focuses on reparations, white supremacy, and reproductive ethics. 

Maine has been at the epicenter of controversy after President Trump signed an executive order aimed at ‘Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports’. It came after years of controversy involving athletes such as Blaire Fleming and Lia Thomas.

Back in February, Mills had a now-infamous run-in with the president during a White House meeting, when she told Trump ‘see you in court’ over his threat to withdraw federal funding if Maine did not comply with his ban.

The feud has continued, with Maine currently being sued by the Department of Justice over its refusal to ban transgender athletes.

But last week the board of the Maine Region School Unit voted to ditch a policy that states: ‘Students shall be able to participate in accordance with the gender identity asserted at school.’

Stark-Chessa’s athletic rise has been swift – and controversial. 

Just eighteen months ago, as a freshman, Stark-Chessa competed on the boys’ team but since beginning to identify as female, the runner has dominated girls’ sports across cross country, track and field, and Nordic skiing.

In the fall of 2023, Stark-Chessa placed third in the Class C girls’ cross country state championship and was later named to the all-state team by the Maine Trust for Local News.

‘I hugged three girls crying after that race,’ said Chantal Mincey speaking in 2023, a mother from Houlton to the Daily Signal. 

‘They love this sport, but what’s the point if they’re just going to lose every time to someone who has a male advantage? It’s crushing their confidence.

‘I have to reassure them: It’s your mom and dad’s fight, and we will protect you, and we will support you in this, and we’ll do the best we can, and we won’t give up,’ she said. 

‘We will do our best to protect these female athletes.’ 

‘These girls are in a lose-lose situation,’ said Cathy Ross in 2023, a mother of two runners to the Daily Signal. ‘They don’t want to pretend Stark-Chessa is a girl and congratulate him, but if they don’t, they’re labeled hateful or bad sports. It’s humiliating.’

At a recent Festival of Champions cross-country meet, Stark-Chessa placed fifth among girls – but their time would have ranked 162nd in the boys’ division. 

Some parents believe Soren’s upbringing may have influenced their shift in identity. 

‘You can see this kid from 200 meters away,’ said Katherine Collins, a mother from Winterport told the Maine Wire. 

‘You look at his thighs, his build – it’s obvious he’s a boy. I wonder if his parents had a hand in all this.’

Despite growing opposition, Maine’s governing bodies have done little to change course.

In 2021, Maine’s Human Rights Act was revised to bar discrimination in school athletics on the basis of gender identity. 

The Maine Principals’ Association (MPA) followed suit in 2023, repealing a prior rule that barred athletes from competing in girls’ sports if they had an ‘unfair athletic advantage.’

Under current MPA rules, no medical records or gender reassignment documentation is required. 

A school alone can verify an athlete’s declared gender for purposes of competition.

Mike Burnham, executive director of the MPA, told WMTW, ‘The MPA, and its member schools, don’t make state law, but are required to follow it.’

Parents like Chris Boyington believe the consequences are nothing short of catastrophic.

‘My daughter trains every day,’ he said to the Daily Signal. ‘She has potential. But the moment a biological male enters the field, her future is jeopardized. And I fear this is just the beginning.’

Boyington is far from alone. Across Maine, parents are sounding alarms about what they see as the erosion of hard-fought opportunities for girls.

‘Eventually,’ Ross warned, ‘if more boys get the idea, you’ll have the top 10 in a girls’ race all be biological males. And then what do you have left? You don’t have girls’ sports anymore.’

Laws once meant to protect women’s access to athletics appear to be enabling biological boys to claim championships, medals, and scholarships, often at the expense of the very girls those laws were written to protect.

Biological males have reportedly claimed more than 30 girls’ and women’s titles across the US in the past 19 years – with most of that surge occurring in the past three reports the Washington Stand.

Last month, the Trump administration sued Maine for not complying with the government’s push to ban transgender athletes in girls and women’s sports, escalating a dispute over whether the state is abiding by a federal law that bars discrimination in education based on sex.

The lawsuit came after weeks of feuding between the Republican administration and Democratic Governor Janet Mills that had led to threats to cut off crucial federal funding and a clash at the White House when she told President Donald Trump: ‘We’ll see you in court.’

The political overtones of the moment were clear, with Attorney General Pam Bondi – and one of the athletes who joined her on stage at the Justice Department – citing the matter as a priority for Trump. 

‘President Trump, before he was elected, this has been a huge issue for him,’ Bondi said. ‘Pretty simple: girls play in girls’ sports, boys play in boys’ sports. Men play in men’s sports, women play in women’s sports.’

Trump campaigned against the participation of transgender athletes in sports in his 2024 race. 

As president, he has signed executive orders to prohibit that and to use a rigid definition of the sexes, rather than gender, for federal government purposes. The orders are being challenged in court.

Trump’s departments of Education and Health and Human Services have said Maine’s education agency is violating the federal Title IX antidiscrimination law by allowing transgender girls to participate on girls teams. 

The Justice Department is asking the court to order the state to direct all schools to prohibit the participation of males in athletic competition designated for females.

Maine officials have refused to agree with a settlement that would have banned transgender students from sports, arguing that the law does not prevent schools from letting transgender athletes participate. 

Mills has said there is a pressure campaign by Washington to force Maine to ignore its own human rights laws.

‘This matter has never been about school sports or the protection of women and girls, as has been claimed, it is about states rights and defending the rule of law against a federal government bent on imposing its will, instead of upholding the law,’ Mills said in a statement.

Under President Joe Biden, the government tried to extend civil rights policies to protect transgender people. 

In 2016, the Justice Department, then led by Attorney General Loretta Lynch, sued North Carolina over a law that required transgender people to use public restrooms and showers that corresponded the gender on their birth certificate.

Trump signed an executive order in February, ‘Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,’ that gave federal agencies wide latitude to ensure entities that receive federal funding abide by Title IX in alignment with his administration’s interpretation of ‘sex’ as the gender someone was assigned at birth.

Questions over the rights of transgender people have become a major political issue in the past five years.

Twenty-six states have laws or policies barring transgender girls from girls school sports. GOP-controlled states have also been banning gender-affirming health care for transgender minors and restricting bathroom use in schools and sometimes other public buildings.