A male transgender runner has been named a league all-star in girls’ high school track in Massachusetts.
Chelsea High track runner Lilly Serrano was named a Greater Boston League all-star in girls’ indoor track and field for the winter 2025-2026 season.
Serrano, a junior, posted strong results in girls’ track last winter, as NewBostonPost previously reported.
Serrano finished third in the girls’ 55-meter dash (7.26 seconds) and seventh in the 300-meter race (42.09 seconds) at the MIAA Division 3 girls’ indoor track and field state championship held Feb. 12. The runner also received an invitation to all-states.
Additionally, Serrano won the girls’ high jump at the Greater Boston League Championship on Feb. 5 with a jump of 5 feet 2 inches.
The athlete’s participation has drawn criticism.
Former Doherty Memorial High (Worcester) track coach Aidan Kearney, known as “Turtleboy,” criticized Massachusetts for allowing the male athlete to compete.
"This is such a disgrace. As a former track coach I can imagine how helpless and unfair it must feel for real high school girls to have to compete against this cheater," Kearney posted on X. "That’s what he is - a cheater. It is so wrong and so immoral to force girls to compete against boys and have no shot at beating them, no matter how hard they train. Any politician who supports this should be thrown out of office."
Former Boston Red Sox infielder Jeff Frye responded to Kearney’s post with, "🤬🤬🤬."
Massachusetts allows students to compete on school sports teams based on their gender identity under a 2011 law, “An Act Relative to Gender Identity,” which made gender identity a protected class in public schools. After former Gov. Deval Patrick signed the law, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education directed the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association to follow that policy.
Transgender-identifying athletes have since won state championships in girls’ track and girls’ basketball in Massachusetts, and have received league all-star and MVP honors in sports including girls’ volleyball, girls’ basketball, and girls’ tennis. In 2024, a transgender-identifying athlete injured three opposing players during a girls’ high school basketball game, leaving the other team unable to continue due to a lack of healthy players.
A March 2025 University of New Hampshire poll found that 63% of Bay Staters don't think transgender athletes should be allowed to compete in women's sports, while just 26% disagree.
