A transgender athlete from Jurupa Valley High School who has drawn protests for competing against girls will compete in three events Saturday at the CIF-Southern Section Masters Meet at Moorpark High School.
Senior AB Hernandez won the girls’ long jump, high jump and triple jump at last weekend’s CIF Southern Section Division 3 Track and Field Finals, also held at Moorpark High. Hernandez won the long jump with a leap of 20-4 3/4, more than a foot farther than the runner-up, Gianna Gonzalez, a senior at Moorpark High, who jumped 19-1 3/4. She then won the high jump, clearing 5-8 on her first attempt. Gwynneth Mureika, a sophomore at Oak Park High School, finished second, clearing 5-6. Hernandez won the triple jump with a leap of 41 7 3/4. Malia Strange, a junior at Shadow Hills High School, was second, leaping 39-4.
The top six finishers in each event at Saturday’s Masters Meet qualify for the CIF State Meet, which will be held May 29-30 in Clovis.
Prior to last weekend’s meet, the CIF restored a special rule instituted last year that allows second-place finishers to earn a gold medal and share the winners’ podium with a trans athlete who finishes first.
The rule change did little to satisfy some critics of allowing trans athletes to participate in the girls’ competition, including track and field athlete Olivia Viola of Crean Lutheran High School in Irvine.
“I would say it’s nothing but a band-aid fix from the athletic governing board,” Viola told Fox News’ Dana Perino earlier this week. “It doesn’t actually undo all of the displacements that have happened throughout their entire league. It only applies to the final CIF meets. It doesn’t apply to league, it doesn’t apply to outside meets, it doesn’t apply to other sports. It doesn’t actually fix the problem; it’s just a blanket to keep us quiet.”
Hernandez’s mother, Nereyda Hernandez, told KQED that her child was disappointed to learn that the rule was put in place before last weekend’s meet.
“Because they had only mentioned it was going to be for the championships, we didn’t think we’d have to deal with it again,” she said, adding that the news “crushed [AB’s] heart.”
“She missed school on Monday. … It’s just been hard. … It’s kind of like she’s nonexistent,” she continued. “She puts in the work, she participates, but she wants to be honored. She wants to be acknowledged as the person, the athlete she is.”
Hernandez won the long jump and triple jump at last year’s Division 3 finals and tied for seventh in the high jump. Her participation has ignited protest both years, including a “Save Girls’ Sports” rally at the CIF Southern Section Division 3 Preliminaries at Yorba Linda High School earlier this month organized by the California Family Council.
“Once again we’re here to say this will never be the new normal,” Sophia Lorey, the council’s outreach director, said at the rally.
“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,” said Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, one of two Republicans running for California governor. “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.”
Businessman Steve Hilton, the other GOP gubernatorial candidate, also sent a statement that was read at the rally.
“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,” Hilton said. “Girls deserve sports that are fair, safe and protected for female athletes. That should not be controversial.”
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.”
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 opposed 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 girls should not compete with this ‘cheating man’ and his narcissistic mother.