Latest news with #ReeseEckard
Epoch Times
24-07-2025
- Politics
- Epoch Times
Oregon High School Athletes File First Amendment Lawsuit Over Podium Protest
The America First Policy Institute (AFPI) filed a lawsuit on July 23 on behalf of two Oregon high school athletes, alleging that the Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) violated their First Amendment rights by punishing their peaceful protest of a boy competing in a girls' high jump event. Alexa Anderson and Reese Eckard earned medals in the women's high jump at the 2025 Oregon State high school track and field championships.
Fox News
05-06-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Oregon girls open up on 'traumatic' trans athlete experiences that pushed them to fight back
Oregon high school senior Alexa Anderson is now a budding conservative heroine, but she comes from a family of Democrats. When the Tigard High School track and field star refused to stand on the same podium as a trans athlete at the state championship on Saturday, alongside fellow medalist Reese Eckard, Anderson learned right away the treatment an act like that prompted from the political side her family traditionally aligned with. "When me and Reese stepped down there was definitely some confusion, there was definitely some anger and just a lot of people who didn't understand why were were doing this, and it was scary. Everyone was looking at us," Anderson told Fox News Digital. "There was a lot of people on and off the field. I heard shouts of them telling us to get out of the way." The backlash did not end on the field. "There has also been a handful of people that just really don't understand that are reaching out and are calling me a bad person," she added. "When I received one of the first hate comments I kind of just brushed it off, I responded saying 'thank you for sharing your opinion, I respect your opinion, this is mine and this is what I stood for' but it didn't really bother me too much because I was prepared for it, I knew this was going to happen, and I have so many people behind me, supporting me and that number greatly outweighs the people who have been hateful toward me." Anderson was warned by friends, coaches and family about what would happen if she took the stand she took. However, she felt she had to do something as soon as she found out she would be competing against the trans athlete last week. The teen considered withdrawing from the competition altogether, but could not bring herself to waste all of her hard work to get to that point. So she and Eckard came up with the podium idea. Anderson had never even competed against a trans athlete herself in competition prior to that point, but she felt compelled to demonstrate her opposition for the sake of the other girls across the country, especially in her state, who have been impacted by trans inclusion. One of those girls is Glencoe High School junior Lily Hammond. As a sophomore in the winter of 2023-24, Hammond said she unknowingly competed against and shared a locker room with a biological male opponent on another team. She said she competed against the athlete multiple times, assuming the athlete was a biological female. "It wasn't until the last meet that I realized 'oh, that is a trans person,' and by that point it was too late," Hammond told Fox News Digital. "The shock that came was the mistrust and the lying, I felt very betrayed, I felt betrayed by the adults and the coaches on the other team that let it happen without my consent and my knowledge. My team didn't know, my coach didn't know… I felt very violated knowing that a man could have seen me changing." Hammond said she already had to deal with transgender students at her high school entering the girls' restrooms on a regular basis, but she called the experience with her swim team "traumatic." "At the time it was overwhelming and felt traumatic since I was kept in the dark," she said. Hammond is not the only Oregon girl "traumatized" by the issue either. Forest Grove High School senior Maddie Eischen and Newberg High School junior Sophia Carpenter were faced with the prospect of competing against a trans athlete in a state competition called the Chehalem Classic back on April 18. So both of them refused to compete. "I found out the day before, which led to me feeling the need to scratch myself from the meet. The whole day I had anxiety," Eischen told Fox News Digital. "My experience at the Chehalem track meet and scratching myself from the meet was traumatic, something I never imagined ever having to do." Carpenter said she found herself so overwhelmed with emotion from the experience, that she cried on the ride home after the meet. "It was emotionally traumatic trying to know what I should do and how I should respond to competing with [the trans athlete]," Carpenter said. The experience pushed Carpenter to make a visible point when she competed at the state championships this weekend. She showed up to her high jump competition sporting a T-shirt from the activist sportswear brand XX-XY Athletics. Now, beyond just speaking up against the state's current laws that enable males in their sports, Anderson, Hammond and Carpenter suggested the issue will play heavily into how they vote in future political elections. "Just this last election, looking at the different beliefs between the two candidates, you had one candidate who openly believes biological men should be allowed in women's restrooms and women's sports, and was not doing anything, and then you had another candidate who said 'this will be one of the first things I change,' and that's what Donald Trump did," Hammond said. "In the future, that's something I'm going to look for." Carpenter added, "I've always believed in voting based on the constitution… and while Title IX was not one of the first things that was brought up when our country was created, it goes back to the first amendment and basic human rights, and women deserve these rights too, and right now they're being given to men who feel a certain way." Additionally, while the trans athletes that each of the girls faced played into their trauma, their stand against the state's liberal laws on the issue is not directed at those individuals. It is directed at the lawmakers and education officials who have enabled the males to get to that point. "I feel that they've just been misled," Hammond said. "The faculty at my school is feeding this, the faculty at other schools are feeding this saying 'it's okay if you want to be another person.'" In the last few days, Oregon has become one of the nation's heated battlegrounds on the issues, as the state represents symbolic significance in the sport of track and field. Eugene, Oregon, nicknamed "TrackTown USA," often hosts the World Athletics Championships, U.S. Olympic Trials and NCAA Championships. Now, Anderson's stunt at the high school state championship has put the state under a national microscope and a legal firm has already taken steps to bring federal action against the state. While the Trump administration has focused much of its attention on the issues in Maine and California, launching federal investigations and even a Department of Justice lawsuit against Maine, the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) filed a civil rights complaint calling for federal intervention. "Our investigation into Title IX and First Amendment violations in Oregon is about standing up for girls and women sidelined, silenced, and stripped of the fairness and freedom they're guaranteed under federal law," AFPI senior legal strategy attorney Leigh Ann O'Neill told Fox News Digital. "When young women are told to compete against male athletes or stay quiet—or, worse, are punished for speaking the truth—we have to act. Because no one is above the Constitution—not even state sports officials." Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
Fox News
05-06-2025
- General
- Fox News
Oregon track star wages legal battle against trans athlete policy after medal ceremony protest
An Oregon high school track star is speaking out after refusing to stand on the podium with a transgender athlete, saying her protest was about fairness – not hate. "I just didn't think that it's fair to biological females to allow and encourage biological males to compete among us, not only for myself and the other girl that stepped down, but the girl who should have been on the podium and the girl who didn't even get to go to state because she was beaten by a biological male at districts," athlete Alexa Anderson said on "Fox & Friends." "It is not about hate or transphobia at all. It's about protecting women's rights and their right to fair and equal competition within sports." Anderson and another athlete named Reese Eckard, who finished in third and fourth place in the Oregon State Athletic Association's Girls High Jump finale, respectively, stood behind the podium during the ceremony because they refused to stand next to the transgender student, Liaa Rose, who placed fifth, according to the New York Post. An official behind the event allegedly told those protesting to "step aside" and "get out" of the photos. "I was very shocked and kind of stressed with all the eyes and attention on us, so I complied with what he said, but I am a little bit frustrated that people were angry with us rather than supportive of our movement," Anderson continued. During the "Fox & Friends" appearance, Anderson's attorney Jessica Steinmann spelled out the legal action currently in motion, sharing that America First Policy Institute filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education to request that they investigate the Oregon Department of Education. "The law that was meant to protect our girls, Title IX, is now being weaponized against them. On top of that, they are now being sidelined and there's clear First Amendment issues as well," she shared. Steinmann said female athletes today are losing medal access, scholarships and economic opportunities to biological males allegedly stealing their thunder. The incident came on the heels of a controversy in neighboring California, where trans athlete AB Hernandez won two state titles against female competitors.
Daily Mail
03-06-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Oregon high school star reveals shocking message from officials after protesting trans athletes
Oregon track star Alexa Anderson has revealed she was ordered away from the high jump podium by angry officials after she protested the inclusion of a trans athlete. Anderson and fellow competitor Reese Eckard were filmed refusing to step onto the podium during the medal ceremony, in an apparent protest of a fifth-place finisher who is reportedly transgender. Rather than taking their spots on the podium, footage obtained by Fox News showed the girls turning their backs to the crowd before being ushered away from the ceremony by an official. Now, Anderson has revealed that the official was apparently deeply unimpressed by the gesture. She told Fox: 'We stepped off the podium in protest and, as you can see, the official kind of told us "hey, go over there, if you're not going to participate, get out of the photos". 'They asked us to move away from the medal stand, so when they took the photos, we weren't even in it at all.' Anderson had finished third in the competition while fellow protestor Eckard had just clinched fourth place. Anderson continued: 'It's unfair because biological males and biological females compete at such different levels that letting a biological male into our competition is taking up space and opportunities from all these hardworking women. 'The girl in ninth who should have came in eighth and had that podium spot taken away from her, as well as many others.' She added: 'This was my first time competing against a transgender individual and the first public stand I have taken in this issue. 'But I have privately supported all the other girls who have done the same.' Anderson insisted at the time, in a separate interview with Fox, that she was not trying to stir hatred towards the trans community. 'We didn't refuse to stand on the podium out of hate,' she said. 'We did it because someone has to say this isn't right. 'In order to protect the integrity and fairness of girls sports we must stand up for what is right.' Daily Mail has reached out to the Oregon School Activities Association for comment on the controversy. Oregon is one of several states challenging President Donald Trump's 'Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports' executive order, which threatens to deny federal funding to rogue governments. The American Medical Association and American Psychiatric Association have both stated that gender is a spectrum and not a binary structure, as the White House argued in its January 20 executive order 'defending women from gender ideology.'
Daily Mail
03-06-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
Martina Navratilova sends blistering message in defense of high jumpers who protested against a trans rival
Tennis legend Martina Navratilova has defended the two athletes at the Oregon high jump state championships who refused to step on the podium after facing a trans rival over the weekend. Reese Eckard of Sherwood High School and Alexa Anderson of Tigard High School have been praised as heroes on social media after abandoning the medal ceremony in an apparent protest of a fifth-place finisher, who is reportedly transgender. Reese finished fourth in the state final while Anderson was third. Rather than taking their spots on the podium, footage surfaced on social media that showed the girls turning their backs to the crowd before being ushered away from the ceremony by an official. Navratilova saw the clip and reposted it, saying: 'Women and girls are punished no matter what they do in this misogynistic world…' She then replied to many of her followers who offered their own views about what is becoming a major talking point in school sports. In one notable reply, Navratilova wrote: 'Feminists never asked for this. At least not the great majority of us… never.' The 68-year-old Navratilova, one of the all-time greats in tennis who won 18 major titles in her career, has been a consistent voice in calling for lawmakers to protect women's sports and stop biological men from competing. She has also been a critic of Donald Trump but has lamented hesitancy from the Democrat party in following the lead of Republicans on the issue. In April, she said on X: 'I hate that the Democrats totally failed women and girls on this very clear issue of women's sports being for females only.' Anderson, meanwhile, spoke to Fox News about her decision over the weekend. 'We didn't refuse to stand on the podium out of hate,' she said. 'We did it because someone has to say this isn't right. 'In order to protect the integrity and fairness of girls sports we must stand up for what is right.' Oregon is one of several states challenging President Donald Trump's 'Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports' executive order, which threatens to deny federal funding to rogue governments. A recent AP-NORC poll found that about 7 in 10 U.S. adults think transgender female athletes should not be allowed to participate in girls and women's sports at high school, college or professional level. That view was shared by about 9 in 10 Republicans and roughly half of Democrats.
