Violence erupts over trans athlete AB Hernandez in California with supporter arrested for smashing car with Pride flag

The Sun

2 days ago

VIOLENT protests have erupted in California after a trans athlete served a crushing defeat to female rivals at the state championship.
AB Hernandez, 16, came first in the women's long jump and triple jump heats at the sporting event - in defiance of Donald Trump's executive order to ban trans athletes from women's sports.
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She will compete today at the finals of the Interscholastic Federation Southern Section Masters Meet.
But a crowd of angry parents confronted her mother at the event to complain that a trans girl was competing against their daughters.
It has now turned into a heated row with dozens of protestors carrying out demonstrations to 'save girls sports".
Protesters were seen carrying placards and boards outside the Veterans' Memorial Stadium, where the sporting event took place.
A banner reading "NO BOYS IN GIRLS' SPORTS!" was flown above the sporting venue during the high school track-and-field championships.
The protests quickly turned violent after one person was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, Clovis police Sgt. Chris Hutchison told the Chronicle.
He said the person - understood to be an LGBTQ activist - allegedly used a Pride flag to smash a car window, leaving a person injured.
More fiery protests are expected to take off as Hernandez prepares to take on her female rivals during the finals today.
Yesterday, furious high school parents berated the mother of the trans athlete after her dominant victory.
The video, which has now gone viral on TikTok, shows the parents hounding Hernandez's mother for allowing her to compete.
One of the parents can be heard yelling at her mother: "What a coward of a woman you are allowing that."
Hernandez's story previously made headlines after another teenage girl that she beat to first place in a separate contest waited for her to descend from the podium before moving to pose in the top spot.
In the TikTok, the parent can also be heard shouting: "Your mental illness is on your son, coward."
But more than half of US states have implemented bans on trans youth athletes participating since 2020.
In an Instagram post, Hernandez's mother said: "It takes immense bravery to show up, compete, and be visible in a world that often questions your very right to exist, let alone to participate."
Hernandez's case was thrust into national attention after Donald Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from California over her sporting participation.
Her successes prompted the California Interscholastic Federation to change its rules to allow "biological female" student athletes who would have made the qualifying mark without a trans contestant in the race to compete in the finals.
A spokesperson for California Governor Gavin Newsom's office called the proposed pilot "reasonable".
California state law allows the participation of trans women and girls in women's sports.
Trump posted on Truth Social: "Please be hereby advised that large scale Federal Funding will be held back, maybe permanently, if the Executive Order on this subject matter is not adhered to."
His message refers to an Executive Order from February titled "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports".
In an interview with Capital & Main, Hernandez, from Jurupa Valley, California, said: "There's nothing I can do about people's actions, just focus on my own.
"I'm still a child. You're an adult, and for you to act like a child shows how you are as a person."
She faced heckling and protesters in the crowd at a track meet earlier this month and was accompanied by campus security and Sheriff's Department deputies, CNN has reported.
"Girls were just shocked that people would actually come to do that, and really bully a child," she said.
"I've trained so hard. I mean, hours of conditioning every day, five days a week.
"Every day since November, three hours after school. And then all of summer, no summer break for me."
Her mother added that those who have "doxed, harassed and violated my daughter AB's privacy" have created a "hostile and unsafe environment for a minor".