Transgender track athlete wins gold in California state championships despite Trump threat

Los Angeles Times

2 days ago

CLOVIS, Calif. — Overcoming intense pressure to quit from President Trump, dozens of local protesters and other prominent critics of transgender athletes in girls' sports, 16-year-old AB Hernandez bounded past many of her peers to win multiple gold medals at California's high school track and field championships Saturday.
The transgender junior from Jurupa Valley High School — who competed despite a directive from Trump that she be barred from doing so — won state titles in the girls' triple jump and the girl's high jump and took second place in the girls' long jump.
Hernandez's success at the 2025 CIF State Track and Field Championships in Clovis came amid high heat — with temperatures above 100 degrees for much of the day — and under an intense spotlight.
Earlier in the week, Trump had said on social media that he was 'ordering local authorities, if necessary, to not allow' Hernandez to compete, wrongly alleging she had won 'everything' in a prior meet and calling her 'practically unbeatable.' Protesters gathered outside the meet both Friday and Saturday to denounce her inclusion and the LGBTQ+-friendly state laws allowing it.
Despite all that, Hernandez appeared calm and focused as she competed. When her name was announced for the long jump, she waved to the crowd. When she was announced for the high jump, she smiled.
Hernandez beat out all other competitors in the triple jump, though the runner-up was also awarded 1st place under new rules established by the California Interscholastic Federation after Trump issued his threats.
Hernandez tied with two other girls in the high jump, with the three of them all clearing the same height and sharing the gold.
Hernandez's mother, Nereyda Hernandez, heaped praise on her after the events in a statement provided to The Times, saying, 'As your mother, I cannot fully express how PROUD I am of you.'
'Watching you rise above months of being targeted, misunderstood, and judged not by peers, but by adults who should've known better, has left me in awe of your strength,' her mother said. 'Despite it all, you stayed focused. You kept training, you kept showing up, and now you're bringing THE GOLD HOME!!!
During some of Hernandez's jumps, a protester could be heard on a bullhorn from outside the Buchanan High School stadium chanting 'No boys in girls' sports!' California Interscholastic Federation officials banned protest signs inside the facility, but outside protesters held a range of them — including ones that read 'No Child Is Born in the Wrong Body,' 'Trans Girls Are Boys: CIF Do Better,' and 'She Trains to Win. He takes the trophy?'
Josh Fulfer, a 46-year-old father and conservative online influencer who lives near the stadium, said he was the protester on the bullhorn. He said Hernandez should not have been competing — regardless of how she placed — because her presence in the competition had a negative 'psychological effect' on her cisgender competitors.
'I stand with truth,' he said. 'Males should not be pretending to be females, and they shouldn't be competing against female athletes.'
Loren Webster, a senior from Wilson High School in Long Beach who beat Hernandez in the long jump, said she wasn't giving Hernandez much thought — instead, she was focused on her own performance.
'It wasn't any other person I was worried about. I knew what I was capable of,' Webster said. 'I can't control the uncontrollable.'
The intense focus on Hernandez over two days of competition Friday and Saturday reflected a broad rise in conservative outrage over transgender girls competing in sporting events nationwide, despite their representing a tiny fraction of competitors. It also reflected a concerted effort by Trump and other prominent conservative figures to single out Hernandez, individually, as an unwitting poster child for such concerns.
Recent polls, including one conducted by The Times last year, have shown that many Americans support transgender rights, but a majority oppose transgender girls participating in youth sports. California has long defended transgender kids and their right to participate in youth athletics, but other states have increasingly moved to limit or remove such rights entirely.
Trump first latched onto transgender issues with fervor during his presidential campaign, spending millions of dollars on anti-transgender political ads. Since being elected, he has issued a wave of executive orders and other policies aimed at rolling back transgender rights and protections.
Again and again, Hernandez has been singled out in that discussion.
Earlier this week, Trump referenced Hernandez in a social media post in which he said his administration would cut federal funding to California if it didn't block her from competing in this weekend's state finals and more broadly get in line with his executive order purporting to ban transgender youth from participating in school sports nationwide.
The following day, U.S. Justice Department officials referenced Hernandez again, announcing the launch of an investigation into whether California, its interscholastic sports federation and the Jurupa Unified School District are violating the civil rights of cisgender girls by allowing transgender students such as Hernandez to compete in sports.
At the meet Friday and Saturday, Hernandez often blended in with the hundreds of other athletes, hardly drawing attention. She was less conspicuous by far than the protesters there to denounce her for competing.
Hernandez's mother has pleaded with Trump and other adults in recent days to show her daughter compassion, calling it heartbreaking 'every time I see my child being attacked, not for a wrongdoing, but simply for being who they are.'
She has said her daughter 'is not a threat,' while the harassment directed at her is 'not just cruel, it's dangerous.'
Local protesters — some with ties to national conservative organizations — cast Hernandez's competing in girls' events in starkly different terms.
Before being escorted out by police, Sophia Lorey, outreach director for the conservative California Family Council, walked around the stadium Saturday wearing a hat reading, 'Women's Sports, Women Only.' She told members of the crowd that Hernandez was a boy and handed out pink 'Save Girls' Sports' bracelets and fliers directing people to an online petition calling on the California Interscholastic Federation to change its policies to bar transgender athletes from competition.
Trump administration officials have taken a similar stance.
In a letter Wednesday to interscholastic federation executive director Ronald W. Nocetti, Assistant Atty. Gen. Harmeet Dhillon, who was appointed by Trump to head the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, called Hernandez's success in recent track and field events 'alarming.' And she said the California policies allowing Hernandez to compete are a potential violation of Title IX, the 1972 federal civil rights law prohibiting sex discrimination in educational programs and other activities that receive federal funding.
Dhillon also noted Gov. Gavin Newsom's own recent remark to conservative activist Charlie Kirk that transgender girls competing in sports is 'deeply unfair.'
The remark came in a conversation on Newsom's podcast in March, in which Hernandez was also singled out.
Kirk, a co-founder of the conservative organization Turning Point USA, asked Newsom whether he would voice his opposition to Hernandez competing in girls' track and field events. Newsom said he agreed such situations were 'unfair' but that he also took issue with 'the way that people talk down to vulnerable communities,' including transgender people.
When Kirk suggested Newsom could say that he has 'a heart for' Hernandez but still thinks her competing is unfair, Newsom again said he agreed.
Newsom has issued no such statement since. But, the playing field has shifted in California for transgender athletes since Trump started talking about Hernandez.
On Wednesday, the CIF announced a change in its rules for this weekend's championships. Under the new rules, a cisgender girl who is bumped from qualifying for an event final by a transgender athlete will still advance to compete in the finals. In addition, the federation said, any cisgender girl who is beaten by a transgender competitor will be awarded whichever medal she would have claimed had the transgender athlete not been competing.
The CIF did not mention Hernandez by name in announcing its policy change, but it did make direct reference to the high jump, triple jump and long jump — the three events in which she was to compete.
Under the new rules, Hernandez shared her place on each of the event podiums with other girls.
The CIF did not respond to a list of questions about its new policy. A spokesman for Newsom applauded the change, but others were unimpressed.
Critics of transgender athletes rejected it as insufficient and demanded a full ban on transgender athletes. Fulfer, the protester on the bullhorn, said the CIF was 'admitting that they've got it wrong for a long time' while still not doing enough to fix it — which Trump would see clearly.
'I hope Donald Trump sees what happens this weekend, and I hope he pulls the funding away from California,' Fulfer said.
LGBTQ+ advocates also criticized the rule change, but for different reasons, calling it a crass capitulation that singled out a teenager to appease a crowd of bullies picking a political fight.
'The fact that these same political players continue to bully and harass one child, even after CIF changed its policy, shows this was never about sports or fairness,' said Kristi Hirst, co-founder of the public education advocacy group Our Schools USA.
'It was simply about using a child, while compromising their personal safety on a national scale, to score political points and distract from the serious issues families and communities in this country are actually concerned about,' Hirst said, 'affording groceries, the loss of health care, and access to quality teachers and resources in their public schools.'
Nereyda Hernandez said she hoped AB's wins would serve as inspiration for other kids who feel 'unseen.'
'To every young person watching, especially those who feel unseen or unheard, let AB be your reminder that authenticity, courage, and resilience shine BRIGHTER than hate,' she said. 'It won't be easy, but definitely worth it.'