Boys have enjoyed plenty of success in girls' gymnastics in Massachusetts in recent years.

Boys have won 11 state championships in girls' high school gymnastics in the Bay State in the past decade.

These state title wins all came at the annual Massachusetts High School Gymnastics Coaches Association girls' gymnastics State Individual Championship meet. And if not for the fact that the meet wasn't held in 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, boys might have won one or two more state titles in that stretch.

Here are the five gymnasts who won those recent state titles:

Darren LePage — The former Sharon High School gymnast took first place on the floor at the state individual championship meet in 2016. His winning score was 9.40.

Daniel Barsley — The former Winchester High School gymnast won three straight individual state titles on the vault. Barsley won these titles in 2017 (9.40), 2018 (9.85), and 2019 (9.675).

Kevin Theodoro — The former Framingham High School gymnast won the vault individual state title as a freshman in 2020 (9.50).

Divier Ramos — The 2025 Methuen High School grad was the most successful gymnast of the bunch, capturing five girls' state titles in high school. Ramos won the individual vault state championships in 2022 (9.70), 2023 (9.90), and 2025 (9.85). He also won the floor state titles in 2022 (9.425) and 2025 (9.60).

Ramos is now an NCAA Division 1 athlete. He is a member of the Stanford University men's gymnastics team.

Andrew Znoj — The 2025 Mansfield High School grad won the vault (9.70) state title in 2024 as Ramos wasn't present at the meet.

Why It Happens

Massachusetts is the lone state in the country where boys who identify as boys can play on girls' sports teams. They do so every year, and some make significant impacts on their respective teams.

The state allows boys to play girls' sports as a result of the 1979 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision in Attorney General v. Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association. The court ruled that the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association's policy of the time, which stated "No boy may play on a girls' team," was unlawful. The court's view was that it violated the Equal Rights Amendment of the Massachusetts Constitution.

Here is what the Equal Rights Amendment of the Massachusetts Constitution states:

All people are born free and equal and have certain natural, essential and unalienable rights; among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties; that of acquiring, possessing and protecting property; in fine, that of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness. Equality under the law shall not be denied or abridged because of sex, race, color, creed or national origin.

 

The Equal Rights Amendment was only a few years old at the time of that decision. It passed via referendum in the November 1976 general election; 60.4 percent of voters supported it, and 39.6 percent opposed it, according to the Secretary of the Commonwealth's office. Every Bay State county supported the proposed amendment.