News that a Southern California high school transgender athlete is advancing to the girls’ state track and field championship this weekend triggered President Trump on Tuesday to threaten “large scale” funding cuts to the state and to order local authorities to block the athlete “if necessary” from competing in the Clovis meet.
Trump’s Truth Social post early Tuesday also blasted Gov. Gavin Newsom, who stunned many in his party in March by telling conservative commentator Charlie Kirk that while the issue is nuanced, he agreed transgender players on girls’ teams is “deeply unfair.”
While transgender athletes make up a minuscule percentage of college and high school athletes, the issue became a national hot-button topic during the presidential election last fall when a San Jose State volleyball player sued the school over a transgender player on her own team. When Trump took office, he signed an executive order entitled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” that enabled federal agencies, including the Justice and Education departments, to investigate states’ policies on transgender athletes at all levels of sports.
Unlike many of Trump’s positions geared toward his conservative MAGA base, his fundamental opposition to transgender athletes competing in women’s sports found support among many Democrats as well.
In his social media post Tuesday, Trump said he planned to speak to Newsom on Tuesday “to find out which way he wants to go???” and that, “In the meantime I am ordering local authorities, if necessary, to not allow the transitioned person to compete in the State Finals. This is a totally ridiculous situation!!!”
During the qualifying track meet in Ventura County last weekend, protests erupted over the “unlevel playing field” with the participation of AB Hernandez, an outspoken transathlete and junior on the Jurupa Valley High School track and field team. Hernandez won the girls long jump and triple jump at the Southern Section finals and is the only known transgender athlete competing in the upcoming meet at Buchanan High School in Clovis starting Friday.
Two Bay Area athletes are contending with Hernandez for the championship in the triple jump this weekend: Kira Gant Hatcher from St. Mary’s in Berkeley and Santia Ali from Clayton Valley Charter in Concord. Hatcher remains the top seed, with Hernandez as second and Ali as third.
“I leave the controversy out at the meet,” Hernandez, 16, told City News Service at the qualifying meet at Moorpark High School Saturday. “I just relax and … do what I can do, hone in, and leave it all out on the (field) and just focus.”
How well that might go this weekend in Clovis remains to be seen. Whether Trump and Newsom spoke Tuesday remained unclear, or whether the possibility remains of a direct confrontation between local authorities and Hernandez somewhere on a track northeast of Fresno, where students and parents and sign-carrying protesters are expected to gather.
“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,” said 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 said.
The California Interscholastic Federation that governs high school sports decided before Trump’s post Tuesday that the athletes who barely missed the finals eligibility cutoff last weekend because of Hernandez’s performance will be able to compete in the finals after all.
The “pilot process,” as the CIF called it, is intended to create a path for displaced athletes, but it only applies to this weekend’s meet.
Critics pounced on it, however.
“This pilot program is an admission that opportunities are being stolen from female athletes,” said 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 emphasized that transgender athletes must meet certain criteria to compete in women’s sports, including a limit on testosterone level.
“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 said.
Newsom’s office on Tuesday didn’t say whether he received a call from Trump. But spokesperson Izzy Gardon said that “CIF’s proposed pilot is a reasonable, respectful way to navigate a complex issue without compromising competitive fairness — a model worth pursuing.”
She said that Newsom is “encouraged by this thoughtful approach.”
During a news conference in April, Newsom again addressed the complexity of the issue, saying he’s “open” to a discussion about a law restricting transathletes from women’s sports if it can be done “in a way that’s respectful and responsible and could find a kind of balance.”
The White House did not respond Tuesday to questions about Trump’s threat to cut federal funding, “maybe permanently,” or whether he intends to follow through with threats for any direct confrontation between federal agents and the teenager.
After the controversy at San Jose State last fall and Trump’s executive order in February, the National Collegiate Athletic Association announced it was limiting competition in women’s college sports to athletes assigned female at birth only after previously allowing transgender athletes to play.
“President Trump’s order provides a clear, national standard,” NCAA President Charlie Baker said at the time.
Although it wasn’t as visible as Trump’s efforts to remove transgender athletes from the collegiate level, high school sports also were put on notice.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi sent letters to high school athletic administrators across the country, including at the California Interscholastic Federation.
California is one of 22 states with laws allowing transgender students to participate in sports consistent with their gender identity. It was signed into law in 2013 by Gov. Jerry Brown. At least 24 states, however, outlaw transgender athletes from competing in women and girls sports, although some of the policies have been blocked in court.
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