AB Hernandez: The 16-year-old transgender girl at heart of sports row in California
The stadium in Clovis, a city in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, is dressed for the occasion.
Huge banners welcome athletes from across the state, food stalls line the concourse and teenagers sell event programmes.
"Good luck to all the athletes and their coaches," the inside of the programme reads. Many of the athletes have trained for years and, for some, receiving lucrative university scholarships rests on their performance here.
But one issue, one competitor, is dominating the chatter. "Which one is she?" I hear a group of boys asking.
They're talking about AB Hernandez, a 16-year-old transgender girl, who is now the focus of a legal, political and cultural row.
She was born a boy but has transitioned and now competes against the girls.
Hernandez is favourite to win the long jump and the triple jump and is also competing in the high jump.
Her inclusion in the girls category has become a national conversation.
Read more:
As she competes, a plane flies over the stadium trailing a banner, which reads "No boys in girls sports." It was organised and paid for by two women's advocacy groups.
A small protest is also taking place on the road outside. "Save girls sports," one poster reads. "XX does not equal XY," reads another.
Aurelia Moore is a local mum and sport fan. "These kids get up at the crack of dawn," she says.
"They work out before school, they go to school, they work out after school, the weekends they work out. And for that just to be taken away so that we can make a boy feel better is just it's wrong. It's very wrong."
Transgender inclusion is a thorny issue but a vote winner for President Trump, who campaigned with a promise to "kick out men from women's sport."
He signed an executive order seeking to ban transgender women from female sport. Trump is now threatening to withdraw federal funding from California over Hernandez's participation in this athletics event.
In a social media post he wrote: "As a Male, he was a less than average competitor. As a Female, this transitioned person is practically unbeatable."
'No special advantage'
Transgender rights activists attended the event to support Hernandez, cheering her efforts in the high jump. Jessica Schultz is a representative of the party for socialism and liberation, a communist political group.
"All girls deserve to play in girls sports and trans girls are girls," she says.
"So they don't have any extra extreme advantage than somebody who is naturally tall or has naturally wide wingspan like Michael Phelps.
"I'm surprised that the president has time to concern himself with a high school athletic competition," she added, "but it is not surprising because he has a lot of hateful ideals."
Hernandez has required security at previous events because of abuse against her. A video recently went viral showing her mother being harangued by mums of other student athletes.
One of the voices in the video is Sonja Shaw, a school board president for Chino Valley, a district of California.
"I said, boys are boys, girls are girls," she says, "And then, I turned to the stands and I'm like, 'is there anybody that's okay with a boy competing against the girls right now?'"
Girls 'can't win'
There are hundreds of thousands of high school students playing sport in California, but only a handful of publicised cases of transgender girls playing girls' sport.
I ask Sonja if the issue is being overblown? "Absolutely not because it's growing," she says.
"You have girls who should be on that first-place podium. They work their whole life. Their dream is to be a winner and they can't even win, they can't even compete against these boys."
In response to the backlash about Hernandez's participation, California is now allowing more cisgender girls to compete here.
They may also award two winners if Hernandez finishes first.
It's a messy and controversial situation and it's not going away.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNN
2 minutes ago
- CNN
California GOP lawmaker faces taunts and jeers over Trump's ‘big, beautiful bill' at town halls
GOP Rep. Doug LaMalfa drew taunts and jeers at two raucous town hall meetings Monday over his support for President Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful bill.' LaMalfa, whose district spans much of the state's northern interior, is the latest Republican to face harsh in-person criticism, as members of the party attempt to sell Trump's sweeping agenda back home during Congress' August break from Washington. Last week, Nebraska Rep. Mike Flood – who also heeded the guidance of the NRCC, the House GOP's campaign arm, to focus the district work period on the president's massive domestic policy bill – met a largely hostile crowd as he was pressed on a range of issues, including the agenda bill that Trump signed into law July 4. LaMalfa calmly address audience members throughout both town halls, even as some attendees cursed at him and railed against his support of the president, shouting 'Liar!' While the morning crowd in Chico had been much louder, the audience in Red Bluff later in the evening was at times just as vocal, especially when LaMalfa expressed skepticism about the role of carbon dioxide in climate change. At both town halls, LaMalfa was pressed over how Trump's agenda, which includes historic cuts to federal support for the social safety net, would affect rural hospitals, particularly those in his district. Other attendees asked questions about transparency around the so-called Jeffrey Epstein files. At the morning event, LaMalfa called it a 'bad look' to have Epstein-related information continue to be 'suppressed.' Still other attendees warned the president's tariffs would harm farmers in California and attacked the congressman's credibility. 'If you're not here to either announce your resignation, why aren't you here to apologize to the farmers of the north state because of your support for the Trump tariffs?' one audience members said at the Chico town hall. 'I'm not gonna do either. Thanks,' LaMalfa replied. 'Do you actually want to talk about something productive?' LaMalfa defended Trump's tariffs, insisting that the United States had been taken advantage of and that the tariffs were being used to negotiate better deals for American farmers. 'And you know, is it the ideal, perfect way to go? No, I hope these tariffs can end soon,' he said Monday evening. 'I want to believe at some point we'lll end up with very low or zero tariffs with all these countries.' LaMalfa also addressed Texas' redistricting effort, warning it is going to start 'a grass fire all across the country.' His comments come as California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has urged lawmakers to draw a new map to put before voters in a November special election. The map, as CNN previously reported, could flip five of Republicans' nine seats in the state if voters approve it in a ballot initiative and could potentially target LaMalfa's seat. For his part, LaMalfa said he didn't support either redistricting push. 'It's really ugly and no matter which side of the aisle you're on, it doesn't look good. It doesn't give you more faith in the political process if legislators draw the lines merely to have an outcome for a partisan win,' the congressman said.
Yahoo
30 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Gov. Newsom says he'll back down from redistricting threats if Texas throws out new maps
WASHINGTON — California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he would drop threats to redraw California's congressional map if red states dropped efforts to alter the political landscape before next year's midterm elections. In a letter to President Donald Trump on Monday, Newsom warned against following through with plans to redraw congressional boundaries in red states in order to protect Republicans' slim majority in Congress, threatening to 'neutralize' any GOP gains with a new map in California. The letter comes as Texas state lawmakers plan to vote on a newly proposed map in the coming weeks that would secure up to five new Republican seats in the U.S. House next November. 'You are playing with fire, risking the destabilization of our democracy,' Newsom wrote. 'The attempt to rig congressional maps to hold onto power before a single vote is cast in the 2026 election is an affront to American democracy. This is not what the Founders envisioned, and California cannot stand idly by as this power grab unfolds.' Newsom warned Trump that if he did not 'stand down,' the California governor would be 'forced to lead an effort to redraw the maps' in the Golden State in retaliation. But, he added, if red states agreed to stand down, 'we will happily do the same.' It's unlikely that Trump would agree to reverse his calls for Texas to pass its newly unveiled map that would create new districts in areas that he carried by more than 10 percentage points in the 2024 election. Most of the new districts are in heavily Hispanic areas, a crucial demographic shift that helped secure Trump's victory in November. The Texas Legislature was originally scheduled to vote on the map last week, but those efforts have so far been delayed after Democratic lawmakers fled to blue states such as New York, Illinois and Massachusetts to block any legislative action. Newsom was the first Democratic governor to threaten retaliation, suggesting last month he would look at altering California's districts. The Texas versus California battle has since expanded into a national political war as red and blue states alike have publicly suggested they would look at major changes. However, Newsom could face challenges to changing California's maps as the state has strict laws on redistricting that could make it difficult to adjust boundaries before next November. State law restricts mid-decade redistricting, meaning the state would likely need to pass a constitutional amendment to allow for any changes. Even then, state law requires California to utilize an independent redistricting commission to draw maps, which requires a lengthy vetting process and is designed to ensure little political leverage. Meanwhile, some lawmakers in Congress have openly called for an end to the redistricting efforts — including one Republican who introduced a bill to ban any changes before next November. Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., filed the bill last week to block any new maps from being used in the 2026 midterm elections and nullify any changes that are adopted this year. Kiley introduced the ban in response to possible changes in California, which would likely put him at risk as one of just nine House Republicans from the Golden State. Rep. Blake Moore, R-Utah, said he opposes the push by Texas Republicans to redraw the state's congressional boundaries, making him the highest-ranking GOP lawmaker so far to contradict Trump's demands. 'If Texas does it, California is going to do it, Illinois is going to do it — and Illinois is going to do it worse, in favor of the Democrats, and all of a sudden it's just a free-for-all,' Moore told the Deseret News in an interview last week. 'Every two years, we're going to have redistricting going on constantly instead of the current norm of at least once every 10 years. It's not a perfect system. There's bias constantly involved in this. So yeah, I don't agree with mid-decade redistricting.' The Deseret News has contacted the White House for comment, but has yet to receive it.
Yahoo
30 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Mike Trout's two-run single
Mike Trout doubles the Angels' lead to 4-0 with a two-run single in the bottom of the 5th inning
