Massachusetts allows boys who do not identify as girls to play on particular female sports teams if the sport they are pursing is not offered for males.
Tom Joyce has covered the issue for New Boston Post.
“Oliver Ames, which is a high school in Easton, Massachusetts, went 25-0 this season. Perfect record. They won the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association Division Two State Championship on Nov. 15. They beat Wayland High School 3-2."
He explained they have two boys on their team.
"And by boys, I mean XY chromosomes. Male. Don't identify as a different gender or anything like that. Because in Massachusetts, due to a 1979 Massachusetts supreme judicial court decision, there was an interpretation of our state's equal rights amendment that has said boys are allowed to play on girls' teams if they don't have an equivalent team at the school."
In other words, because no men's field hockey teams are offered, boys are legally allowed to play the sport on the girls' teams.
It's an uncommon approach.
"We're a national outlier on this issue. Because of that, you end up having boys dominate even more girls' sports than anywhere in the country. I believe there were 96 boys or so playing girls' volleyball in the fall 2024 season, which was our most recent data available, and about 55 boys playing field hockey."
Joyce said a state like Massachusetts should look at liberal states around it.
"…and maybe learn a thing or two from them because it's, it's nothing against the kids that are playing. They're simply following the rules. But the fact of the matter is that the state has allowed this to go on for nearly 50 years, and a long time ago, I believe you didn't see it as often because it's culturally a little bit taboo, as most people would think. But as a progressive state that's getting more and more liberal, you're starting to see it more and more, and we're just seeing dominance."
New Hampshire, which borders Massachusetts, bans males from participating in female sports.
Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Vermont, other states near Massachusetts, do not.
