More transgender sports insanity has reared its head, this time in Maine. Maine Coast Waldorf School sophomore Soren Stark-Chessa competed as a male last year, but now calls himself a girl and competes as a female.
Switching genders has done a lot for Stark-Chessa’s athletic career. After ranking in the 170s as a male, the cross-country athlete now ranks 4th in the state as a female. At the Maine XC Festival of Champions in Belfast on September 30, Stark-Chessa placed 5th in the girls’ 5,000-meter competition. His time of 18:11:35 would have placed him 143rd in the boys’ competition.
Stark-Chessa’s father, Frank Chessa, is the director of clinical ethics at Maine Medical Center, which prescribes sex-change hormones and puberty blockers to children through the Gender Clinic at Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital in Portland.
To make matters worse for the confused young man, his mother, Susan Stark, is a professor at nearby Bates College whose focus appears to be on so-called “woke” issues such as reparations, anti-racism, and inclusion issues.
Stark’s list of published works includes: “Overcoming a Puzzle about Inclusion and Anti-Racism”; “Taking Responsibility for Oppression: Affirmative Action and Racial Injustice”; and “A Change of Heart: Moral Emotions, transformation and moral virtue.”
Some parents in the cross-country and track community are outraged at the unfairness of allowing a boy to compete against their daughters.
“It’s all a matter of unfairness,” Katherine Collins, one of those parents told Fox News. “The men are bigger, stronger and faster than women.”
“Obviously, there is an unfair advantage, but they’ve allowed this,” Collins added.
The “they” Collins refers to is the Maine Principals’ Association (MPA), whose rules allow students to compete in whatever gender category they’re most comfortable with. However, the MPA’s own rules would seem to prohibit Stark-Chessa’s participation in the girls’ competition.
Article II, Section 12 of the MPA’s handbook states:
The MPA is committed to maximizing the opportunities for all students to participate in interscholastic activities and athletics, regardless of their gender identity or expression. At the same time, the MPA is committed to ensuring fair competition and adequate protection of student athletes. Consistent with its principles, the MPA believes that all students should have the opportunity to participate in MPA activities in a manner that is consistent with their gender identity, unless such participation would result in an unfair athletic advantage or would present an unacceptable risk of injury to other student athletes. [Emphasis added.]
Going from a ranking of 172 as a boy to a ranking of 4 as a female would appear to signal that such an unfair advantage exists in this case.
According to Collins, female athletes have already lost opportunities to biological males due to the MPA’s policies.
“Last year, in outdoor track, in the Class-C state meet, two boys participated. One podiumed and was moved on to the New England track meet. So a girl was put aside and not allowed to medal and not allowed to participate in a higher level because of this boy,” Collins said.
According to Collins, the only reason that Stark-Chessa finished fifth instead of first in the Belfast event was the high caliber of the competition.
“The only reason that this boy did not win the meet on Saturday is because Greene has some of the strongest female athletes in the nation,” Collins explained. “The first two girls who finished the race on Saturday…the first-place winner ranks number 8th in the country and the second-place winner ranks number 15th in the country. If it wasn’t for these top-ranked girls who are faster than most girls in the whole United States, this boy would have won the entire girls’ cross-country meet.”
The athletic director of Stark-Chessa’s school, Susan Sonntag, claims that the school is following a Maine law that prohibits “unlawful educational discrimination.”
“We support all our students at Maine Coast Waldorf School, and are proud that our students are given the opportunity to participate in all of our school programs,” Sonntag added.
Unfortunately, in this case, the school is supporting a male athlete by taking away opportunities from its female athletes and, potentially, female athletes from other schools. The school’s “support all our students” mantra should end the moment that another student’s opportunities are trampled on.
