As reported on Fox News, AB Hernandez from Jurupa Valley High School is a transgender athlete who won first place in two events in the girls’ track and field state championship. Along with taking the state championship titles in the high jump and the triple jump, Hernandez placed second in the long jump after Loren Webster of Woodrow Wilson High School.
Before the meet, Trump threatened to cut off funding to California if they allowed a trans-athlete to compete; however, California continued to ignore Trump’s executive order.
Instead, the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) changed the rules in order to “accommodate” the female-born athletes. Those who finished behind the trans-gender athlete would be placed in the individual standings and awarded the medal they would have earned if the event was all biological females.
California is not alone. At least 24 states have laws on the books barring biological males from competing with females. That means roughly 26 states do not have those laws.
The female competitors who placed right behind Hernandez stood side-by-side with him on the podium during the awards ceremony.
The whole event was surrounded with controversy as both pro-female protestors and pro-LGBTQ protesters arrived on the scene.
Attorney Kim Hermann of Southeastern Legal Foundation says the issue of males in female sports has to stop.
"We all thought that this would really start to end when President Trump signed his executive order banning men from women's sports, but we have blue states that are just absolutely digging in, putting girls in danger, taking away their trophies, and taking away their scholarships," says Hermann.
People advocating for males in female sports say it is about inclusivity, adding that the males that identify as female and should be allowed to compete against females.
Hermann is not in that category.
"These are boys, these are men, they are not girls, and they need to stop competing in girls' sports," says Hermann. "The law is on our side, and lawsuits need to be brought to stop this."
The law is Title IX, which was enacted in 1972 to provide females things such as greater access to sports.
Even in a world where people are told that 'it's just a game,' Hermann says that it matters that females are having to compete against males.
"We want our 5,6,7-year-old to learn how to play the game, but when you're talking about athletes at a high school level, you're talking about scholarships that are on the line," says Hermann. "Scholarships are based off of winning and losing and off of people's records. So when boys compete in girls' sports and they take these championships, take them, they're cheating."
