When a transgender female track athlete recently placed first in a high school track meet, beating her second-place cisgender female opponent, Maine state Rep. Laurel Libby publicized it by going onto Fox News and accusing the trans athlete of “pushing many, many of our young women out of the way in their ascent to the podium.”
Now, the trans runner’s cis opponent is speaking out against Libby, saying that her “ugly” and “hateful” actions spoiled an otherwise happy occasion.
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“Libby … recently used my second-place finish in the 1,600-meter run … to malign Soren Stark-Chessa, the trans-identified athlete who finished first,” Anelise Feldman, the cis freshman student-athlete runner at Yarmouth High School, recently wrote in a letter to the Portland Press Herald.
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Feldman noted that, at the track meet in question last Friday, she ran the fastest 1,600-meter race that she had ever run in middle school or high school track, earning varsity status by her school’s standards. She added that the happiness she felt in completing her race wasn’t diminished by either her second-place finish or the fact that someone else finished in front of her.
“I don’t feel like first place was taken from me,” she wrote. “Instead, I feel like a happy day was turned ugly by a bưlly who is using children to make political points.”
No one was harmed by Soren’s participation in the girls’ track meet, but we are all harmed by the hateful rhetoric of bullies, like Rep. Libby.
Anelise Feldman, a cisgender track athlete who won second place behind her trans opponent
Libby went onto Fox News last week to complain about the trans athlete’s first-place finish. Fox News noted that Stark-Chessa, the trans athlete, placed fourth in the state for the girls’ 5,000-meter cross county race after previously finishing 172nd among boys before her social transition. The right-wing media outlet also said that Stark-Chessa won a podium spot in Maine’s High School State Nordic Skiing Championships this past February.
“This same athlete has been dominating in girls cross-country running, in Nordic skiing, and now in track,” Libby said. “We’re talking about just one athlete. Just one of these biological male athletes pushing many, many of our young women out of the way in their ascent to the podium.”
“We need the highest court in our land to address this and answer that question once and for all,” she continued, “so that Maine girls and girls across the country have a fair, safe, and level playing field.”
However, Feldman disagrees with Libby’s take.
“One of the reasons I chose to run cross-country and track is the community,” Feldman continued in her letter. “Teammates cheering each other on, athletes from different schools coming together, and the fact that personal improvement is valued as much as, if not more than, the place we finish.”
Feldman concluded that all of the athletes at the track meet that day were just “kids trying to make our way through high school,” and noted that sports are the highlight of some students’ high school years.
“No one was harmed by Soren’s participation in the girls’ track meet, but we are all harmed by the hateful rhetoric of bullies, like Rep. Libby, who want to take sports away from some kids just because of who they are,” Feldman wrote.
Maine’s legislature censured Libby for harassing a trans kid
In February, Libby was censured by the Maine state legislature for attacking a trans minor in a social media post that posted a trans student-athlete’s before- and after-transition pics, deadnamed her, and misgendered her.
Libby’s post went viral on the right and she was criticized for bringing so much negative attention to a minor in order to advance a political argument. Maine state House Speaker Ryan Fecteau (D) – who is an out gay man – asked her to take the post down, but she refused.
A resolution censuring her was then passed by the Maine House of Representatives in a 75-70 party-line vote. The resolution called her post “reprehensible” and “incompatible with her duty and responsibilities as a member of the House.” The resolution barred her from speaking or voting on the state House floor but says that she could get her privileges back if she apologizes.
Libby refused and sued, claiming that the censure violated her First Amendment rights and those of the constituents who elected her as their legislative representative. But U.S. District Court Judge Melissa DuBose, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, ruled against Libby on April 22. The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals also ruled against Libby, and now she wants the U.S. Supreme Court to hear her case.
Meanwhile, Stark-Chessa testified last week before a legislative committee hearing on a slate of bills concerning trans athletes.
Maine has become a focal point in Republicans’ national crusade against trans athletes. A judge recently ruled against the U.S. president’s attempt to freeze $3 million in government funding in response to the state’s refusal to follow the president’s order to ban transgender female athletes from female sports programs.
The settlement didn’t affect another ongoing lawsuit filed by the presidential administration against Maine’s Department of Education for allowing trans student-athletes to compete on school teams matching their gender identities.
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