A transgender athlete from Jurupa Valley High School has qualified in three events for Saturday’s CIF Southern Section Division 3 Girls’ Track and Field Finals at Moorpark High School.
Senior AB Hernandez won two events outright, both by large margins, and tied for first in a third at the CIF Southern Section Division 3 Preliminaries Saturday at Yorba Linda High School.
Hernandez began the day by winning the long jump, leaping 20-4 1/2, more than a foot ahead of runner-up Gianna Gonzalez of Moorpark High School, who jumped 19-1 1/2.
Hernandez was among five high jumpers to clear 5-2. Hernandez began jumping at 5-2, clearing the bar on her first attempt. The event ended when the field was reduced to 10, the number of spots in the event in the finals.
Hernandez won the triple jump, leaping 42-4, more than 2 1/2 feet farther than second-place finisher Malia Strange of Shadow Hills High School, whose best jump was 39-7 1/2.
Hernandez’s participation ignited protests for the second consecutive year.
Prior to the start of Saturday’s meet, a “Save Girls’ Sports” rally was organized outside the event by Sophia Lorey, who played soccer at Costa Mesa-based Vanguard University and says allowing biological boys to compete against biological girls is inherently unfair.
“Once again we’re here to say this will never be the new normal,” Lorey, the outreach director of California Family Council, said at the rally.
Both of California’s two leading Republican gubernatorial candidates, businessman and commentator Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, sent statements that were read at the rally.
Said Bianco: “As a dad, as a high school and middle school coach, and as a law enforcement leader, I will always stand up to protect our girls. There is no place in girls’ sports to allow boys to compete against them. It is ethically and morally wrong. It is absolutely wrong to allow them into safe spaces of locker rooms and restrooms. Supposed leaders at CIF, school districts and our schools, are failing our girls. I want to thank the girls who have had the strength to stand up for what is right and I want you to know I will always be by your side.”
Said Hilton: “What is happening is unfair to female athletes, unfair to parents and unfair to every girl who has worked hard for the chance to compete on a level playing field. Girls deserve sports that are fair, safe and protected for female athletes. That should not be controversial.”
The California Family Council describes its mission as “Advancing God’s design for life, family, & liberty through California’s church, Capitol, & culture.”
At last year’s Division 3 finals, Hernandez won the long jump with a leap of 19-2 3/4 and the triple jump, jumping 41-4, and tied for seventh in the high jump, clearing 5-2. Hernandez won the girls’ triple jump and high jump and finished second in the long jump in the CIF State Track & Field Championships.
Hernandez’s participation in a California Interscholastic Federation meet last year drew the ire of President Donald Trump, and the U.S. Justice Department later sued California for allegedly violating Title IX, warning that allowing transgender athletes to compete against biological females in high-school sports was putting billions of dollars in federal education funding at risk.
“They swear I’m like this crazy danger to society. I’m just a normal kid going to school, playing sports,” Hernandez told CBS News in an interview last year.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has come under attack from the Trump administration for California’s policy permitting trans athletes to compete in girls’ sports, but a spokesperson for the governor’s office characterized those attacks as politically motivated.
“The governor has said discussions on this issue should be guided by fairness, dignity, and respect. He rejects the right wing’s cynical attempt to weaponize this debate as an excuse to vilify individual kids,” Newsom’s office said in a statement provided to Fox News.
“The governor’s position is simple: stand with all kids and stand up to bullies.”
According to the DOJ complaint, filed in federal court in Santa Ana, California’s policies and practices “ignore undeniable biological differences between boys and girls, in favor of an amorphous `gender identity.’ The results of these illegal policies are stark: girls are displaced from podiums, denied awards, and miss out on critical visibility for college scholarships and recognition.”
The suit accuses the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation of engaging in illegal sex discrimination against female student athletes by allowing males to compete against them.
The DOJ alleges the state’s policies deprive girls of the equal education and athletic opportunities afforded to them by federal law’s Title IX prohibition against sex-based discrimination in any education program or activity that receives federal funding.
“California is on the wrong side of the law and the wrong side of history,” Bill Essayli, first assistant U.S. Attorney of the Central District of California, said in a statement last year.
“Women deserve dignity, respect, and an equal opportunity to compete on their own sports teams. The time for talk is over. California must comply with Title IX and end its civil rights violations against women. No person, no state, is above the law.”
California officials denied the state’s policy is breaking the law. The state Attorney General’s Office issued a statement saying: “Our office remains committed to defending and upholding California laws and the rights of all students, including transgender students, to be free from discrimination and harassment.”
Also last year, three female high school students who oppose the Jurupa Unified School District’s policy of permitting biological boys identifying as transgender to participate in girls’ sports filed a federal civil rights lawsuit seeking an end to the policy at the local and state levels.
The plaintiffs, Hadeel Hazameh, Alyssa McPherson and her sibling Madison McPherson, initiated their civil action based on experiences at Jurupa Valley High School