New California rule for trans athletes faces criticism from all sides
SACRAMENTO — After President Donald Trump and a chorus of activists criticized California for allowing a transgender teenager to compete in a high school girls track competition, the state's governing body for high school sports announced an effort to find middle ground on the issue.
At the state track and field championships this weekend in Clovis (Fresno County), cisgender girls who did not qualify for the meet because a transgender athlete placed ahead of them will be allowed to compete, the California Interscholastic Federation announced just hours after Trump threatened the state on social media Tuesday morning.
The CIF follows rules implemented in 2013 stating that athletes 'will participate in programs consistent with their gender identity or the gender most consistently expressed.' While Tuesday's decision gained support from Gov. Gavin Newsom, it quickly sparked criticism from advocates both for and against trangender athletes' participation in girls sports. It comes after dozens of adults heckled the 16-year-old transgender girl this month at a track meet.
The girl, AB Hernandez of Jurupa Valley High School in Riverside County, told a reporter for the news outlet Capital and Main that her performance at that meet — she placed first in triple jump, eighth in high jump and third in long jump — disproved the argument that cisgender girls can't compete fairly against her.
This past weekend, AB reportedly finished first in the triple jump and long jump and fourth in the high jump at the Southern Section Masters Meet at Moorpark High School in Ventura County. The program for the state championship, scheduled for Friday and Saturday, lists her as a qualifying entrant in all three events.
In a post on his social media website Tuesday morning, Trump exaggerated Hernandez's exploits. 'This week a transitioned Male athlete, at a major event, won 'everything,' and is now qualified to compete in the 'State Finals' next weekend,' Trump wrote. 'As a Male, he was a less than average competitor. As a Female, this transitioned person is practically unbeatable.'
In a confusingly worded announcement several hours after Trump posted about Hernandez and threatened to withhold federal funding from California because of trans girls' participation in girls' sports, the CIF said it was piloting a new policy.
'Under this pilot entry process, any biological female student-athlete who would have earned the next qualifying mark for one of their Section's automatic qualifying entries in the CIF State meet, and did not achieve the CIF State at-large mark in the finals at their Section meet, was extended an opportunity to participate in the 2025 CIF State Track and Field Championships,' the organization wrote.
A spokesperson for CIF did not respond to questions about the new policy, including how the organization would determine whether an athlete is a 'biological female'
A spokesperson for Newsom praised the change. 'CIF's proposed pilot is a reasonable, respectful way to navigate a complex issue without compromising competitive fairness — a model worth pursuing,' Izzy Gardon wrote. 'The Governor is encouraged by this thoughtful approach.'
The policy change, though, did not appease Assemblyman David Tangipa, who argued that trangender girls should be barred from competing in girls sports entirely. 'This pilot program is an admission that opportunities are being stolen from female athletes,' the Clovis Republican wrote in a statement. 'This decision doesn't effect a select few athletes, but rather every female competitor in the state.'
Anna Posbergh, a sports management professor at Florida State University who studies gender in sports, said she has 'mixed feelings' about the California policy. She's glad that California officials didn't cave to Trump's demands and ban trans girls entirely. But she also said she believes that cisgender girls already have adequate opportunities to compete for spots in the championships and worries that the only way to enforce the policy will be to have girls submit to genital checks by doctors or coaches.
'What is concerning to me is that's really the only feasible way at a high school, middle school level,' she said. 'You just don't have the funding to do a chromosome check.'
Posbergh also said that the number of transgender athletes is so small that creating an entire policy around them is unnecessary. At the event this weekend, the controversy has centered on just one openly transgender girl who qualified to compete. 'From a pragmatic standpoint, there's no need for a policy,' said Posbergh, who competed in track and field as a young athlete. 'It's one trans girl.'
In his social media post, Trump also criticized Newsom, using his preferred insulting nickname. 'California, under the leadership of Radical Left Democrat Gavin Newscum, continues to ILLEGALLY allow 'MEN TO PLAY IN WOMEN'S SPORTS,'' Trump wrote. 'THIS IS NOT FAIR, AND TOTALLY DEMEANING TO WOMEN AND GIRLS. Please be hereby advised that large scale Federal Funding will be held back, maybe permanently.'
Trump previously threatened to revoke federal funding for Maine over its policies allowing transgender girls to compete in sports, though his efforts were ultimately blocked in court.
Newsom stoked speculation that he supported banning trans girls from playing on female sports teams earlier this year, when he said on his podcast that allowing transgender girls to compete with cisgender girls was 'deeply unfair.' His comments prompted calls from across the political spectrum, from his allies in the LGBT rights movement to Donald Trump's education secretary, for him to clarify his stance.
In April, Newsom said it's an issue he's grappled with for years, notably in 2023 when two girls who qualified for a state track meet were accused of being transgender and taking spots from cisgender girls.
'We literally were talking to some International Olympic Committee experts, we talked to our own state experts, we were trying to figure this out and couldn't figure it out,' Newsom said during a news conference in Modesto. 'I just couldn't figure out how to 'make this fair.''
The girls ultimately did not compete in the meet due to harassment. Newsom said it was an unfortunate outcome for everyone. He urged compassion for transgender children, whom he said 'just want to survive.'
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