2025 Feature (Large Newsroom) Winner

About the Winner:

Casey Parks has covered transgender issues for a decade, and she knew that a trans student had never won a championship in Washington before teen Veronica Garcia did in mid-2024. Parks wondered how it felt to be the first and how it felt to be booed, both by attendees and by a growing network of right-wing influencers who regularly posted online about Garcia. Parks reached out to Garcia before the start of her senior year in fall 2024. 

Donald Trump had campaigned on promises to bar trans girls from high school sports, and Parks suspected he’d make good on it while Garcia was competing. Garcia wanted to do the story, but Parks worried about subjecting her to further fame and scrutiny, so she talked with the teenager regularly about what it might mean to be in The Washington Post. She talked to Garcia’s mother and her coach, and when Trump took office in January 2025, Parks flew to Spokane to spend time with Garcia before the start of track season.

Comments From the Judges:

“I am amazed by the access that Parks got to the subject, and the details captured as a result – from the expired power bars, to the clothing that Veronica had worn when she went to speak to her prospective coach. Parks takes readers inside Verónica’s mind, showing us not what she is experiencing in the moment, but what she thinks and feels about it.”

“I can’t see how any human being could read this piece and not come away with a new and vivid understanding of what life must be like for transgender teenagers (or adults) like Verónica. Every political actor who is drafting legislation against transgender humans needs to read this story. It has a unique power that resonates beyond the page. That power is quite simply its brilliant writing — writing that emerges from excellent and difficult, exacting reporting.”

Photo credits: Melina Mara/The Washington Post