Whereas transgender athletes make up a minuscule share of school and highschool athletes, the problem grew to become a nationwide hot-button matter in the course of the presidential election final fall when a San Jose State volleyball participant sued the varsity over a transgender participant on her personal staff. When Trump took workplace, he signed an govt order entitled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” that enabled federal companies, together with the Justice and Training departments, to research states’ insurance policies on transgender athletes in any respect ranges of sports activities.
In contrast to a lot of Trump’s positions geared towards his conservative MAGA base, his elementary opposition to transgender athletes competing in girls’s sports activities discovered assist amongst many Democrats as effectively.
In the course of the qualifying monitor meet in Ventura County final weekend, protests erupted over the “unlevel playing field” with the participation of AB Hernandez, an outspoken transathlete and junior on the Jurupa Valley Excessive Faculty monitor and area staff. Hernandez gained the women lengthy bounce and triple bounce on the Southern Part finals and is the one recognized transgender athlete competing within the upcoming meet at Buchanan Excessive Faculty in Clovis beginning Friday.
Two Bay Space athletes are contending with Hernandez for the championship within the triple bounce this weekend: Kira Gant Hatcher from St. Mary’s in Berkeley and Santia Ali from Clayton Valley Constitution in Harmony. Hatcher stays the highest seed, with Hernandez as second and Ali as third.
“This is another example of the president trying to pick a political fight in an area where his position may be popular, even if what he’s doing — having the federal government micromanage high school athletics and threatening a universal cut in a wide range of grants — is without any due process or deliberation about a specific instance,” mentioned UC San Diego political science professor Thad Kousser.
“In many ways, he is trying to drastically expand the power that the federal government would have to intercede in a matter that is really something for the California CIF to decide upon,” Kousser mentioned.
The California Interscholastic Federation that governs highschool sports activities determined earlier than Trump’s put up Tuesday that the athletes who barely missed the finals eligibility cutoff final weekend due to Hernandez’s efficiency will be capable to compete within the finals in any case.
The “pilot process,” because the CIF known as it, is meant to create a path for displaced athletes, but it surely solely applies to this weekend’s meet.
Critics pounced on it, nonetheless.
“This pilot program is an admission that opportunities are being stolen from female athletes,” mentioned state Assemblyman David Tangipa. “This decision doesn’t effect a select few athletes, but rather every female competitor in the state.”
Jorge Reyes of Equality California, a statewide LGBTQ activist group, described Trump’s threats as a “blatant abuse of power.” He emphasised that transgender athletes should meet sure standards to compete in girls’s sports activities, together with a restrict on testosterone stage.
“It’s important for people to know that California has had these guidelines in place for over 10 years to ensure inclusion and safety and science,” Reyes mentioned.
The White Home didn’t reply Tuesday to questions on Trump’s risk to chop federal funding, “maybe permanently,” or whether or not he intends to comply with by means of with threats for any direct confrontation between federal brokers and {the teenager}.
After the controversy at San Jose State final fall and Trump’s govt order in February, the Nationwide Collegiate Athletic Affiliation introduced it was limiting competitors in girls’s faculty sports activities to athletes assigned feminine at start solely after beforehand permitting transgender athletes to play.
“President Trump’s order provides a clear, national standard,” NCAA President Charlie Baker mentioned on the time.
Though it wasn’t as seen as Trump’s efforts to take away transgender athletes from the collegiate stage, highschool sports activities additionally had been placed on discover.
U.S. Legal professional Common Pam Bondi despatched letters to highschool athletic directors throughout the nation, together with on the California Interscholastic Federation.
California is one in all 22 states with legal guidelines permitting transgender college students to take part in sports activities in line with their gender identification. It was signed into regulation in 2013 by Gov. Jerry Brown. No less than 24 states, nonetheless, outlaw transgender athletes from competing in girls and ladies sports activities, though a few of the insurance policies have been blocked in court docket.
Initially Revealed: Might 27, 2025 at 5:13 PM PDT
