California Quietly Resumes Discriminatory Policy For Trans Track and Field Athlete
With the championships on the horizon this month, parents and activists have launched a campaign to protect A.B. Hernandez—and all trans athletes—from state-sanctioned discrimination.
When A.B. Hernandez, the 17-year-old track and field superstar of California, won at her Section finals this past weekend, it was bittersweet. On the one hand, it’s her senior year of high school—these last few events are the culmination of four years and innumerable hours of hard work.
On the other hand, her victory is yet another reminder that the California Interscholastic Federation, or CIF, doesn’t treat her like the other girls.
CIF is the governing body for high school sports in California. A.B. is a transgender student athlete. That means if A.B. wins a medal, she shares it with a presumed-cis athlete. If she stands on the podium, she shares that, too. And if an athlete is one of the top nine scorers, they get to advance to the next round, as per CIF regulations—unless A.B. is among them, in which case, ten will go through. In other words, CIF will bump every presumed-cisgender girl up one spot, as if A.B. hadn’t been in the competition to begin with. Just like last year.
“I’m like a ghost,” A.B. told Erin in the Morning from her Riverside County bedroom, sitting with her mother, Nereyda.
“Some people believe in ghosts,” A.B. said. “But it’s like they can just walk right through you, as if you’re not there.”
It was a far cry from the usual joviality of the aspiring model, who adores Alex Consani (a world-famous runway model who is also trans) and who has been known to show up to track meets in full-glam make-up. Last year, the teenager was forcibly outed, stalked, and harassed in an attempt to whip-up national right-wing fervor over transgender girls. It attracted the attention of California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who invited anti-trans extremist Charlie Kirk onto his podcast to have a debate about trans kids, wherein Kirk called out Hernandez by name.
Instead of fighting back against Kirk’s hateful rhetoric, or correcting Kirk when he repeatedly and intentionally misgendered his constituent, Newsom said he “totally agree[d]” with Kirk’s upset about Hernandez’s participation in high school sports. Then, President Donald Trump posted a hate-fueled tirade about Hernandez on Truth Social.
“The Governor, himself, said it is ‘UNFAIR,’” Trump wrote. He used this as fodder to threaten federal funding for California educational institutions if CIF continued to host trans-inclusive events, which were necessary under state equal rights laws.
So, CIF introduced a “pilot” policy, wherein A.B. would share her awards, her podium spot, and her honors with presumed-cis athletes who had scored below her. Appeasement didn’t work, though, and the Trump regime has continued to attack the state in court.
“In the moment it just felt like, whatever, because it was last minute,” A.B. said. “But now it’s like, you guys have had a whole year to figure something out.”
The Hernandezes and other families of trans kids who spoke to Erin in the Morning—many on the condition of anonymity, as to not out their child—argue CIF’s policy violates state law, that it flies in the face of CIF’s own rule-making procedures, and that it puts youth of all genders in danger. Anti-trans athlete policies are just “the tip of the spear,” said Ari, a parent-activist with Rainbow Families Action and PFLAG, whose child is also transgender.
“First, they come for sports, and then they come for locker rooms, and then they come for bathrooms,” Ari said. “Then they make it so that there are no spaces for our trans kids in public education.”
They also said it emboldens other districts and athletic leagues to follow suit. “There don’t seem to be any consequences for a school district that hosts an event and publicly outs a trans student.”
A.B. and her mother, on their part, had thought—or at least hoped—the policy would be retired this year. And in some competitions, it apparently was. However, seemingly at random, other events would advance an extra athlete in A.B.’s category without any formal announcement or immediately discernible reason.
It wasn’t until Saturday, May 16, after countless emails from parent-activists and probes by Erin in the Morning, that CIF made any sort of acknowledgement of the ongoing situation. A CIF spokesperson declined to comment for this piece “due to pending litigation,” but as coaches gathered at Moorpark High School the day of the Southern Section Finals, they were discreetly slipped a sheet of white paper.
“Under the pilot entry process, any cisgender female student-athlete who would have earned the next qualifying mark for one of the CIF-Southern Section’s qualifying entries is extended an opportunity to participate in the next stage,” the memo read. “Additionally, any cisgender female student-athlete who would have earned a specific placement on the podium will also be awarded the medal for that place.”
The flier does not use the word “transgender,” leaving its wording vague and confusing unless you’re already in the know. Taken literally, it appears to suggest that all athletes in track-and-field will receive a medal, so long as they are not a trans girl. But it’s considered common understanding among parents interviewed for this piece that the policy was specifically carved out to target A.B., and it only covers her sport: track and field.
California bars discrimination based on sex and based on gender identity. But between the White House’s wild and unpredictable application of federal law, Governor Newsom’s fairweather allyship, and the many institutions involved in athletics oversight, parents trying to mobilize said they’ve been thrust into a revolving door of bureaucracy.
“That sort of creates this ‘hot potato’ thing,” Wynn, a Bay Area mom to another trans athlete, told Erin in the Morning. “The school district that hosted the state championship [...] says that they’re not responsible because CIF holds the meet. But the Education Code says that school districts are responsible for athletic events in their district. Everyone is saying, ‘It’s not us.’”
CIF, on their part, is supposed to vote on any formal rule-changes and allow for ample public comment, which parents say never happened.
Rainbow Families Action, a parent-activist group in the state, collectively authored a complaint breaking down the discriminatory practices inherent to this so-called compromise, couched in the language of “fairness.” It doesn’t just alienate trans students, RFA argues. It forcibly and publicly outs them.
“CA law and current CIF rules do not entitle CIF or the school district that hosts an event to access student-athletes’ gender identity information,” the statement says. “CIF and school districts have to violate current California law to consistently implement this policy. It also incentivizes other athletes, coaches, and parents to scrutinize and police the gender presentation of all female student athletes, eroding the safety of California’s students.”
This year’s track and field season has two weeks—and two final events—left. The next competition will be on May 23 before the state championship May 29-30. RFA has launched a campaign to pressure the California Department of Education to enforce the state’s equal rights laws, which protect transgender students, including in athletic events. They’re calling on Californians and allies to contact the state’s Superintendent Tony Thurmond and tell him to ensure CIF upholds trans rights as per the California Education Code.
“This duty is neither optional nor discretionary—it is a fundamental requirement of your office,” the campaign letter reads. “Transgender girls are girls. Period. By allowing this to proceed, the California Department of Education (CDE) is telling young people that it is the official policy of the state of California that trans girls are not ‘real girls,’ and ratifying the hate campaign aimed at AB Hernandez.”
Ahead of the May 16 meet, Hernandez had told Erin in the Morning that it no longer felt worth it to don her medals and pose for the cameras at the podium—that at this point, it was more like a humiliation ritual, satisfying no one as right-wing agitators gawked. For her first medal that day, she stayed by the sidelines and watched three other girls step up to the podium where she should have been standing.
But later that day, despite the anti-trans fanfare painting girls like A.B. as social pariahs, her competitors high-fived her for a job well-done. They were the ones who convinced her to collect her final two medals at the podium. After all, as a jumper, A.B. had quite literally soared to new heights.
“The girls encouraged her to go up,” A.B.’s mother, Nereyda, said. She was just happy to see her child shine.
 | A guest post by
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Terrific reporting, S. Baum.
It breaks my heart to read how badly the California Interscholastic Federation has treated A.B. Hernandez. The leaders of that organization don't hold a candle to the integrity and courage of A.B., her parents, and A.B.'s competitors who congratulated and supported her. As usual, some of the adults are failing the kids.
For years I believed that the best solution to this issue was a return to the pre-Trump status quo, when the various sports leagues and associations, and their coaches and parents worked out a solution. Reading this story, I think I was wrong.
The truth is that there is no real middle ground here, at least if winning is the only thing that matters. In that regard, Trans athletes are not just challenging gender norms, they are challenging a culture around athletics that prioritizes winning and the end result over participation and the process of playing what is, at the end of the day, only a game.
Making two separate classes of what it is to be a woman is exactly what patriarchal defenders want. Cis and Trans with trans being lesser. Well the patriarchy can shove it. Trans women are women, trans girls are girls and we need to loudly say this. No one should be foricbly outted and these policies should be relegated to the dustbin of history.