برچسب: athlete

A lone boo. A jeering yell of “That’s a boy.” Rhythmic clapping cheering on her and others. A scream of “let’s go” from the crowd. A nation watching. 

Unrattled by the controversy around her participation in girls’ track and field events, AB Hernandez, an openly transgender student-athlete, achieved two first-place victories and a second-place win in the state championship on Saturday. She shared the podium and recognition with cisgender females as a result of new rules hurriedly adopted last week.

Sparked by threats from the federal government, just days ahead of this past weekend’s Track and Field State Championship, the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) changed its rules regarding the number of girls who could qualify for and would win in events with a transgender athlete.

The state faced backlash over Hernandez’s participation with President Donald Trump threatening to cut federal funding to California and demanding that the state bar her inclusion. In response, California officials tweaked the rules to expand the number of cisgender girls who could qualify if a trans athlete was participating. Under the changed rules, a cisgender girl displaced by a transgender competitor was awarded whichever medal she would have claimed had the transgender athlete not been competing.

Local leaders in the conservative-leaning Clovis, which hosted the championship, called it unfair to include a transgender female in sports with cisgender females, The Fresno Bee reported.

Hernandez, a junior at Jurupa Valley High in Southern California, was unflappable in the Veterans Memorial Stadium at Buchanan High School, even when insulted or met with silence in the packed venue. 

She has “consistently displayed more dignity, maturity, and grace than the many adults, from the president on down, who chose to attack and bully her to score political points,” said Tony Hoang, executive director of Equality California, the state’s LGBTQ+ civil rights organization. “We could not be prouder of the way this brave student-athlete conducted herself on and off the track.” 

Hernandez qualified as the top competitor in the long jump and triple jump Friday, outperforming others by 6.25 inches and 9.75 inches, respectively, and in high jump, scoring the same as five other athletes. 

During the championship round Saturday, she was outperformed in the long jump and continued to tie with other athletes in the high jump. 

Even though she is not ranked as a top athlete nationally, she held on to California’s top marks in the triple jump. 

This past weekend’s championship revealed conflicting stances on the issue of transgender females competing in women’s sports that point to unresolved questions about what should be done to ensure fairness and inclusion. 

Friday’s qualifier featured a “Free Speech Area” outside of the stadium that remained empty most of the day. No signs were allowed in the event, but a plane flew a “No boys in girls’ sports!” banner.

Lasherica Thornton/ EdSource

Also outside the event, along the roads or in other areas, small groups protested Friday and Saturday — much smaller crowds than the dozens who questioned Hernandez’s participation at the southern region qualifier events over the last couple of weeks. 

Donning a “Make America Great Again” hat and American flag-themed attire, Mimi Israelah, a self-proclaimed activist from Long Beach, traveled more than four hours to witness Hernandez, whom she referred to as “the trans,” compete in the girls’ field events. 

“I don’t know why they’re allowing that because women’s sports is supposed to be for women,” Israelah said, often referring to Hernandez as “he.” She said transgender athletes should have their own division if they wish to compete. 

Including transgender athletes 

So far, research on the fairness of transgender athletes, published by the Journal of the Endocrine Society, finds that testosterone is the “only established” advantage men have over women. 

More specifically, males who have gone through puberty reportedly have 15 times the amount of circulating testosterone than females who’ve gone through puberty, equaling at least a 10% performance advantage in running and swimming and a 20% advantage in jumping events, according to a 2018 Endocrine Review. 

“He might be transitioned, but he is still a male,” Israelah said. “It’s not fair for the women, and it is destroying women’s sports.”

Until late 2021, the Olympics required transgender women to reduce their testosterone levels to below a certain threshold to compete. Under the former medical requirement, transgender women had to undergo gender-affirming care, such as testosterone-reducing medication. The Olympics have since eliminated the requirement related to testosterone levels, leading to polarizing debates even in professional sports.

California’s high school athletics guidelines, outlined by CIF, allow athletes to participate in sports aligned with their gender identity, even if it’s different from their assigned sex at birth, including transgender athletes. 

‘Her own competition’ 

Trump has criticized Hernandez for being “less than average competitor” as a male but “practically unbeatable” as a female. 

“Her numbers are not unbeatable,” said Sabrina Gomez, whose daughter Jazmaine Stewart, a Redwood High junior from Visalia, competed against Hernandez in long and triple jumps. 

Stewart finished seventh in Friday’s qualifier for the long and triple jump. She earned a fifth-place spot in the long jump and a sixth-place position in the triple jump for the championship, rankings that are one spot higher since Hernandez shared the podium for her wins. 

“For my daughter, doing track has always been an individual sport for her, so she’s her own competition,” Gomez said. Even so, with the state championship as a goal, they’d long been aware of and prepared to face off against Hernandez’s numbers. 

Gomez said she couldn’t characterize Hernandez’s participation as unfair after researching her marks, which fall within the range of other female athletes. 

In fact, Gomez said, if not for Trump, there wouldn’t have been contention about Hernandez’s participation, which is aligned with CIF’s decade-plus-old policy. 

According to its materials on gender diversity, CIF is one of 16 state sports associations with gender-inclusive policies that facilitate the participation of transgender, nonbinary and other gender-diverse students in school athletics. 

Since February 2013, the CIF has had philosophy and eligibility rules for participation based on gender identity. 

Trump has threatened other states with cuts in federal funding if they continue to allow transgender athletes in youth and women’s sports. Trump began gutting federal education dollars from Maine, and the matter ended up in court. 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom in March agreed that it was “deeply unfair” for people born as biological men to compete in women’s sports, breaking from most Democratic leaders. 

CIF policy consistent with state law

The California Interscholastic Federation’s addition of gender identity participation and eligibility rules in 2013 followed legislation that allows students to participate on sports teams based on their gender identity. The CIF guidelines go further to state that athletes will participate in programs consistent with their gender identity or the gender they most consistently express.

The statewide policy for high schoolers does not have a legal or medical requirement, such as a documented name change or gender-confirming care, for transgender students to compete. Student participation is based solely on their gender identity or expression.  

A transgender student-athlete, according to CIF documents, has a protected right to privacy if they choose not to disclose their gender identity. 

There have been instances of teams forfeiting games due to the belief that their opponent had a transgender player.

But Hernandez is not the first openly transgender athlete to compete in California, and this isn’t her first time competing. 

Hernandez has reportedly participated on the track team for three years and told Capital & Main that this is the first year her presence has garnered controversy.

In early May, a few Christian high schools — JSerra Catholic High School, Orange Lutheran High School and Crean Lutheran High School — penned a letter, expressing “disappointment in CIF’s failure to respect and protect our female athletes and our strong opposition to CIF’s Gender Identity Policy.”

Earlier this year, Trump issued an executive order, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” to ensure women and girls can compete in safe and fair sports; much like his other orders, he threatened federal funding for noncompliance. In response, CIF at the time said it would enforce its existing policy consistent with state legislation. 

This week, as the U.S. Justice Department launched a national civil rights investigation into the policy, the CIF implemented a “pilot entry process” to allow cisgender female athletes who failed to qualify to compete in the championships in Clovis — a “reasonable, respectful way to navigate this complex issue without compromising competitive fairness,” Izzy Gardon, a spokesperson for Newsom, told The Sacramento Bee. 

Another temporary rule change said any cisgender girl who was displaced by a transgender competitor would be awarded whichever medal she would have claimed had the transgender athlete not been competing.

Based on Friday’s results and Hernandez’s participation, 13 student athletes qualified in the girls’ long, triple and high jump categories rather than the traditional 12 for Saturday’s championship.

Among the athletes who competed, there were conflicting views about the fairness of the CIF policy and rule change. 

For example, southern regional second-place long jump finisher Katie McGuinness, who placed sixth Friday behind Hernandez and four others, spoke out leading up to this past weekend’s championship. 

In an exclusive with Fox News, McGuiness, a La Cañada High senior, said she felt discouraged facing the trans athlete due to apparent “genetic” disadvantages. 

Meanwhile, other athletes and teams, including those in Clovis Unified which hosted the championship, declined EdSource interviews so that athletes could focus on their performance and not be distracted. 

At Saturday’s championship, Long Beach’s Wilson High senior Loren Webster clutched the long jump title over Hernandez. Hernandez shared the second-place honor with River City High School senior Brooke White, reflecting CIF’s rule change. McGuinness finished third instead of fourth due to the second-place title being shared. 

For the first-place triple jump medal, though Hernandez’s score beat her competitors, she shared the podium with St. Mary College High junior Kira Gant Hatcher. 

In the high jump, there was a three-way tie as Hernandez, Monta Vista High junior Lelani Laruelle, and Long Beach Polytechnic High senior Jillene Wetteland hit the same marks. 

Other states are also reckoning with transgender athletic participation – and victory. 

In Washington, a transgender athlete defied their critics after being booed on the podium. This was the second year that Veronica Garcia of East Valley of Spokane was reportedly heckled by fans. In Oregon, track and field athletes who outperformed a transgender athlete refused to take the podium next to the trans athlete.

Gomez, the parent of the Redwood High student athlete, said that how community members, coaches, parents, and others respond or react will set an example for the students looking up to them. 

“Learning how to respond,” she said, “to what the world throws at you makes a difference to the attitude that you’ll have going into a situation.”