Girls Sports

Male Athlete Wins Three Girls California Track and Field Titles — Again

A male athlete took three state titles at the California girls track and field championships last weekend, leaving female athletes behind for the second year in a row.

AB Hernandez, a boy who “identifies” as a girl, took first place in the girls high jump and triple jump on Saturday, the same events he won in last year’s championship. He also took third in the girls long jump. Last year, he placed second.

Female athletes displaced by Hernandez shared the podium with him.

The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) instituted this policy days before last year’s track and field finals to ward off a federal lawsuit. President Donald Trump had threatened to withhold federal funding to the California Department of Education for allowing Hernandez, a boy, to participate in the competition.

“This is not fair and totally demeaning to women and girls,” the president wrote on social media after Hernandez qualified for state in May 2025.

“This is a totally ridiculous situation!!!”

CIF’s split-podium solution did not satisfy the Department of Justice, which filed a scathing lawsuit against the California Department of Education for “illegal sex discrimination” last July.

But some, like the opinion writer who decried the “pathetic right-wing crusade against a high school track athlete” in the Orange County Register this weekend, argue it works well enough.

Hernandez gets to compete with girls. Girls don’t lose their rightful spots. What more could female athletes ask for?

Sigh.

First and foremost, CIF did not start allowing displaced female athletes to stand next to Hernandez until the last three competitions of the season. Prior to that, he competed in nine regular season meets and two post-season meets, where he jumped a total of thirty times.

He placed first in 28 of them.

If CIF acknowledges biology matters in its most important competitions of the year, why would it fail to implement a split-podium strategy in all its competitions?

I suspect CIF doesn’t care for female athletes or biology at all but, rather, its image, which becomes exponentially more visible during the finals.

But it wouldn’t matter if CIF proposed adopting a split-podium strategy all year. It’s still a woefully inadequate solution to a problem with an obvious fix — separating sports by sex.

Just as female athletes should have equal opportunity to compete in sports, they should have an equal opportunity to celebrate hard-won victories. That includes relishing standing atop of the podium, alone, in the space they earned.

Adults should not expect girls to sacrifice their experience of achievement to ease the discomfort of boys with sexual identity issues. Boys with sexual identity confusion should not feel entitled to spaces created specifically for female athletes who win.

Adults who belittle girls for being too “selfish” to relinquish their winning moment to transgender-identified boys are engaging in misogyny.

Allowing male athletes to share podiums with female athletes doesn’t address the significant safety issues associated with allowing boys to play in girls sports.

One recurring problem is forcing members of the opposite sex to share bathrooms and locker rooms. Hernandez’ use of the girls’ locker room while he played girls volleyball is part of an ongoing Title IX suit against Jurupa Valley Unified School District.

Hadeel Hazimeh and Madison McPherson, who played volleyball with Hernandez, sued the district last fall for forcing them to play volleyball and share a locker room with a male teammate — Hernandez. The duo left the team over concerns about modesty and their physical safety.

“Over the year, I witnessed the boy go through puberty,” McPherson spoke at a press conference held by California Family Council in February. “No girl on the volleyball team grew in strength and agility like he did.”

When she raised concerns with her school, McPherson said administrators “treated [her] as if [she] was the problem.”

“I witnessed many girls get hurt, including my sister, and the school did nothing,” she recalled.

Adults who sympathize with Hernandez often drown out the experiences of victims like McPherson and Hazimeh.

Some, like the Orange County Register columnist, characterize criticism of Hernandez as “picking on high schoolers.”

“It’s all pretty pathetic,” he writes.

Others go out of their way to lift Hernandez up. California gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer publicly wished Hernandez would do “very well” at state in a video posted to X.

Supporters of Hernandez seem to view him as one person against the world. His copious victims, in their minds, do not count against him, but make him an underdog — one offender bullied by a mass of people he offended against.

Outside this narrative, in reality, Hernandez is not the victim. He made choices which injured hundreds of girls in California — every single one he ever competed against.

His choices secured him dozens of accolades meant for girls. But they also make him a justified target of censure for his treatment of female athletes.

The Daily Citizen will not apologize for defending women’s sports and biological reality. Christian believers shouldn’t either.

To learn more about male incursions into female sports, and what you can do to help, read the Daily Citizen’s article, “‘Save Girls Sports’ on the November Ballot”

Additional Articles and Resources

Boys Atop Girls’ Podiums: Where Are the Dads?

Female Athletes Beg California Interscholastic Federation to Keep Boys Out of Girls Sports and Locker Rooms

Girls Volleyball Team Forfeits Game to Avoid Playing Boy

DOJ Lawsuit Describes California Department of Education’s Infuriating Treatment of Girls

Feds Pressure California After Boy Wins in Girls Track and Field Championship

Feds Sue California Department of Education, Interscholastic Federation for ‘Illegal Sex Discrimination’

The California Interscholastic Federation ‘Gender Diversity Toolkit’ Reveals Extent of Radical Transgender Participation Policies

California Sues DOJ Over ‘Transgender’ Athlete Ban

Washington School District Buries Female Wrestler’s Sexual Assault Complaint Against Male Opponent

Feds Open Yet Another Title IX Investigation Into Loudoun County Schools

Photo Credit: Kirby Lee/Getty Images

Boys Atop Girls’ Podiums: Where Are the Dads?

We have seen it far too often across the country. But especially in California, just like we did this weekend.

AB Hernandez is infamous in California high school sports, a young man who has been allowed by the California Interscholastic Federation to compete against teenage girls in track and field events. He wins championships, of course. This means girls lose. Last Saturday, he swept first place in the high, long and triple jump girls field events in Moorpark, California. This is the new progressive patriarchy.

Officials further mocked this violation when they made the young woman whom Hernandez stole first place from stand next to him on the winner’s podium. School officials assume it is equitable to let the girl who actually won share the top podium spot with the boy who stole her gold medal. That infuriating travesty looks just like this:

This shared-podium rule is the state of California admitting that girls and boys are indeed different and boys are stealing girls’ glory. Their shallow virtue signaling is their admission of guilt.

But the big question is this: Where are the fathers here?

In over 19,000 sports events around the world, male athletes have stolen more than 6,250 first place finishes and 10,700 top three prizes from female athletes. 

These thousands of displaced female athletes have fathers, many of them sitting right in the stands, as they watch their daughters’ hard work taken from them by boys.

This is precisely the time fathers should be standing up, with absolute righteous anger. Any man dutifully sitting through such a scandal is not acting like a man. Every father should be telling school and state officials that no one will take away what their hard-working daughters have rightfully earned. Every dad should let everyone know that his daughter will only compete fairly against other girls and that no boy will steal what is hers. This should happen at the events. And loudly, with great conviction and moral clarity. Men should give words to the injustices happening to their daughters and call other men to stand up in the same way.

Just like the child in the Emperor’s New Suit, all fathers must stand up and speak truth to the lie of transgenderism, for trans ideology is the new male patriarchy. Fathers must explain that what’sgoing on in girls sports is a deceptive fiction, a violation to the dignity, worth and hard work of their daughters.

We men have left this battle to bold women like J.K. Rowling, Riley Gaines, Chloe Cole, Erin Friday, Jennifer Sey, Erin Lee and so many others for far too long. That must now end.

It is time all fathers stand up for their daughters and call on other men to make a strong, principled stand for every girl’s rights and protection.

Ron Nocetti is the head of the California Interscholastic Federation which is allowing this travesty in the Golden State. He is the father of four young athletes, three of them daughters. Nocetti should be called out by all fathers for his flagrant passivity.

Protection is what fathers offer and provide, especially to their girls. No man should look back on this era of cultural insanity and ask, “Why did I cower to trans ideology when girls in my community were being cheated out of their victories by boys?”

I Corinthians 16:13 calls us to “act like men, be strong.” This is expected of all fathers, everywhere. Now is the time to act like men.

Related articles and resources: 

‘Save Girls Sports’ on the November Ballot — Here’s How You Can Help

Where Are the Dads Protecting Their Daughters from Dangerous Male Athletes?

Female Athletes Beg California Interscholastic Federation to Keep Boys Out of Girls Sports and Locker Rooms

Feds Pressure California After Boy Wins in Girls Track and Field Championship

Girls Shouldn’t Apologize for Protesting Boys in Girls Sports

Protect Kids Colorado

#SaveGirlsSports – New Campaign Launched by Family Policy Alliance

Top 5 Moments From Supreme Court Arguments Over Girls Sports

‘Save Girls Sports’ on the November Ballot — Here’s How You Can Help

Voters in Colorado, Maine and Washington will have the opportunity to protect girls and women’s sports from male athletes this November. Two more states, Nebraska and Nevada, are also looking to qualify similar measures for the fall ballot. 

Many conservatives think that President Donald Trump’s executive orders and the Department of Education actions have completely stopped males from competing in girls and women’s sports in public schools. But the truth is, many states are fighting the administration’s actions, and males continue to take awards, records and spots on teams from female athletes.

Earlier this month, a young man named AB Hernandez tripled at the Mt. SAC Invitational, in Walnut, California, winning the girls long jump, triple jump and high jump. This male-bodied athlete knocked high school girls off the podium and out of the record books. Hernandez also won state titles in the women’s high jump and triple jump at the championship in May 2025. 

Similar incidents have recently taken place in other states, including Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota and West Virginia. 

With so many states violating Title IX, it’s important to have laws on the books safeguarding girls in sports, locker rooms and restrooms. Twenty-six state legislatures have protected girls sports, but where legislators have failed to act, citizens are now taking action to pass “Save Girls Sports” ballot measures. 

In Colorado, an entirely grassroots effort was successful in placing the Colorado Sex Requirement for School and College Sports Initiative on the fall ballot. Protect Kids Colorado worked with more than 3,000 volunteers and hundreds of churches to gather 170,000 signatures for the citizen-initiated ballot initiative. 

The measure acknowledges the truth about male-female differences and the necessity for sex segregated sports and locker rooms:  

Physical differences between males and females have long made separate and sex-specific sports teams important so that female athletes can have equal opportunities to compete in sports while reducing the risk of physical injury.

The proposed law would define males and females based on human reproductive systems and mandates that interscholastic and intramural teams and sports designated for girls or women “shall not be open to a male student or participant.” 

A group has already formed to fight the initiative. Families Not Politics is supported by LGBT activists and their allies, including Planned Parenthood Rocky Mountains, Colorado PTA, Queer Futures, One Colorado and the League of Women Voters. 

An Act to Designate School Sports Participation and Facilities by Sex qualified for the November 3 ballot in Maine after supporters submitted more than 71,000 signatures to Maine Sec. of State Shanna Bellows. 

The initiative would designate sports teams in public schools to be for males, females or coeducational, by students’ sex as recorded at birth on their original birth certificate. The initiative would also require schools to “maintain separate restrooms, locker rooms, shower rooms and other private spaces for each sex,” guarding students’ safety and privacy. 

Protect Girls Sports in Maine sponsored the initiative, which was supported by a coalition of more than 8,000 men, Maine Girl Dads. Protect Girls Sports is protesting Sec. Bellows’ draft wording of the referendum, which focuses on the change to Maine’s laws that give special status to “gender identity”: 

Do you want to change civil rights and education laws to require public schools to restrict access to bathrooms and sports based on the gender on the child’s original birth certificate and allow students to sue the schools?

The organization says this is misleading for four reasons: 

  • The act does not “change civil rights laws” as sex is already a protected class.
  • All private spaces, not just bathrooms, are protected.
  • Designation is based on “sex,” not “gender.”
  • “Sue schools” misrepresents the intent to simply and commonly enforce civil rights.

Washington state will decide on Initiative Measure IL26-638, Protecting Fairness in Girls Sports, after Let’s Go Washington collected more than 416,000 signatures to place the initiative on November’s ballot. The state legislature had the option to pass the measure, but since legislators would not vote to keep female athletes safe, voters will now decide. 

The Family Policy Institute of Washington, a Focus on the Family ally, supports the measure. Its president, Brian Noble, told the Daily Citizen the initiative process demonstrates “how citizens in Washington can impact policy despite conservatives being significantly outnumbered in both the Washington House and Senate.” 

Let’s Go Washington explains that the ballot measure “would ban biological boys from competing in girls sports by requiring the student athlete’s doctor to note their gender during their routine sports physical.” It overturns state policies that allow “transgender and nonbinary students” to play on teams based on their “gender identity.” 

In Nebraska and Nevada, groups are working hard to place protections for female athletes on the ballot. 

The Nebraska Family Alliance (NFA) announced the launch of Fairness for Girls, which would add protection for girls sports into the Nebraska Constitution. The initiative requires signatures of 10% of the state’s voters by July in order to be placed on the ballot. 

The Stand for Women Act was signed into law in 2025, but as NFA stated, “Nebraska’s current law is statutory, not constitutional, which can be modified or repealed, as opponents are promising to do.” 

“This isn’t just about sports – it’s about fairness, safety, and truth itself. No girl should ever lose her opportunity to compete for championships and scholarships to a man,” NFA added. 

The Nevada Biological Sex Requirements for School Sports Programs Amendment would amend the state Constitution to keep males out of girls sports. 

Governor Joe Lombardo announced the initiative in a press release, saying it “would amend the Equal Rights Amendment to protect fairness and integrity in girls’ athletics.” Voters approved the state’s Equal Rights Amendment in 2022, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of a variety of characteristics, including “gender identity.” 

The Protect Girls Sports political action committee was formed to collect the almost 150,000 signatures needed by June 24 to place the measure on the November ballot.  

The website She Won lists almost 3400 female athletes who have lost medals, records, scholarships or other opportunities to males. 

To help stop this unfairness, concerned citizens can volunteer, sign petitions, collect signatures, pray and support the groups listed in this article who are working to protect girls and women’s sports. 

Photo: AB Hernandez, Getty Images

Related articles and resources: 

Christian Civic League of Maine

How to Get in Touch With Your State Policy Group

Family Policy Institute of Washington

Nebraska Family Alliance

Protect Girls Sports Nevada 

Protect Kids Colorado

#SaveGirlsSports – New Campaign Launched by Family Policy Alliance

Top 5 Moments From Supreme Court Arguments Over Girls Sports

Department of Education Cracks Down on Jefferson County’s Title IX Violations

The Department of Education (ED) concluded Jefferson County Public Schools in Colorado violated federal law by allowing male students to access female-only facilities and accommodations, and to compete in girls and women’s sports.

The agency concluded Jefferson County’s policies allowing individuals to access intimate facilities and participate in sports based on their “gender identity” discriminate against females and violate Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.

The ED published its findings on March 13 and gave the district 10 days to voluntarily resolve the Title IX violations or risk imminent enforcement action.

“Today’s findings reveal sweeping Title IX violations by Jefferson County Public Schools – denying fairness and equality to female students by allowing males into their private facilities, overnight accommodations, and athletics,” said Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey.

“The District’s decision to prioritize ‘gender identity’ over ensuring equal access for its female students is unconscionable.”

The ED shared the news on X:

Education Secretary Linda McMahon welcomed the development, saying, “The Trump Administration will not relent until female athletes’ safety, opportunities, and equal protection under the law are fully restored.”

The ED issued a proposed resolution agreement requiring the district to, among other actions:

  • Rescind or revise any policies which permitted male students to access female intimate facilities, share overnight accommodations with females and compete in female sports.
  • Issue a public statement stating that it will comply with Title IX and provide instructions for how to report or file a complaint of sex discrimination under the district’s grievance policies.
  • Notify all staff, students and coaches of the district’s renewed compliance with Title IX.

Kristen Waggoner, president and CEO of Alliance Defending Freedom, noted that Jefferson County School District is the same district that ADF “sued for assigning an 11-year-old girl to sleep in a hotel room with a boy on an overnight trip – without parental notice.” That case will be heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in May.

The ED’s enforcement action is a positive development, protecting women and girls from being forced to share sex-segregated spaces and sports with males. It’s a new day at the Education Department – a far cry from the wokeness that had infected the department under the Biden administration.

Richey added,

The District must act now to end these violations and protect future generations of girls from sex discrimination. The Trump Administration will not relent until female athletes’ safety, opportunities, and equal protection under the law are fully restored.

To speak with a family help specialist or request resources, please call us at 1-800-A-FAMILY (232-6459).

If you’re concerned about what your child may be learning in school, and what helpful, practical steps you can take to protect them, check out Focus on the Family’s free resource: Equipping Parents for Back-to-School.

The FREE downloadable resource helps you be aware of what’s going on in your child’s classroom and offers guidance for how to advocate for your child in the school year ahead.

Related articles and resources:

Transgender Resources

‘Equipping Parents For Back-To-School’ – Updated Resource Empowers Parents

Loudoun County Boys Win Settlement in Title IX Case Against School District

Trump Ends Radical Indoctrination, Promotes Education Freedom

Trump Signs Executive Order Protecting Women’s Sports and Spaces

Photo from Getty Images.

Ad Targets ACLU for Not Knowing What a Woman Is

In honor of Women’s History Month, the Alliance Defending Freedom and XX-XY Athletics created an advertisement mocking the American Civil Liberties Union for not knowing what it clearly knows: what a woman is. 

Jennifer Sey, Founder and CEO of XX-XY Athletics and an advocate for women-only sports, posted the ad, “We Knew What a Woman Was,” along with the comment: 

Up until about 5 minutes ago, we all knew what a woman was. That’s why there is a Women’s History Month.

Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal aid firm working on behalf of life, religious freedom and free speech, also posted the ad, saying: 

We knew then. We know now. We can’t go backwards.

Join us and @xx_xyathletics this Women’s History Month as we continue to advocate for fairness and equal opportunities for the next generation of women and girls.

The ad begins with audio of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Alito asking the question: 

For equal protection purposes, what does it mean to be a boy or a girl, or a man or a woman? 

Justice Alito made the query earlier this year, during oral arguments in two cases concerning Idaho and West Virginia laws prohibiting male athletes from competing in girls and women’s sports, Little v. Hecox and State of West Virginia v. BPJ. 

You would think attorneys fighting these laws would be able to define fundamental human terms. 

But, as the advertisement makes clear, the ACLU team could not do this. Attorney Kathleen Hartnett replied to Alito, saying: 

We do not have a definition for the Court. 

It’s a startling admission from an attorney fighting cases which hinge on the definition of sex – what it means to be male or female. 

The advertisement goes on to show images of historic firsts for women, saying: 

We knew what a woman was when the first one was elected to congress. 

We knew what a woman was when women gained the right to vote. …  

We know what a woman was when the first one became Vice President. 

Then comes the punch line: 

So why doesn’t the ACLU legal team know what a woman is now? 

A second question from Alito finishes off the indictment against the ACLU: 

Well, … how can a court determine whether there’s discrimination on the basis of sex without knowing what sex means for equal protection purposes?

The ACLU used to know what women are. The organization even touts its work on behalf of women since its founding in 1920: 

In the 1930s, the ACLU fought for the right of Connecticut schoolteachers on maternity leave to be reinstated in their jobs following the birth of their babies.

Throughout the 1940s, the ACLU advocated equal pay for equal work. … During this decade, the ACLU also challenged a Massachusetts law that prohibited married women from teaching in public schools. 

In the 1960s, the ACLU intensified its activism on women’s issues, attacking the exclusion of women from juries and petitioning Congress to enact and enforce laws barring discrimination against women.

Although it has always, quite wrongly, supported the evil of abortion as “women’s healthcare – at least the organization was clear about the differences between men and women. 

It even knew that women were the ones who could get pregnant and give birth! 

But that is no longer the case, thanks to gender ideology that ironically sprang from radical feminism.

For years now, the ACLU has believed and promoted a false ideology that says men can somehow magically turn into women by simply declaring it so. 

The organization works to undermine girls and women’s sports, along with their privacy and safety. 

Kudos to organizations like Alliance Defending Freedom and XX-XY Athletics for battling for truth and reminding us that we’ve always known what women are. 

Related articles and resources: 

The ACLU Unwittingly Cancels Language Itself

Athletes Rally at Supreme Court to Keep Boys Out of Girls Sports

Biologically Male Runner Decides to Compete as a Woman in College Cross Country

Celebs Lobby Against Keeping Boys Out of Women’s Sports in ACLU Ad

Idaho Governor Signs Laws Protecting Women’s Sports and Keeping Birth Certificates Based on Biology – Activists and Media Call this ‘Discriminatory’

Key Takeaways from Supreme Court Case on ‘Transgender’ Interventions

Supreme Court to Hear Title IX Girls Sports Case

Top 5 Moments From Supreme Court Arguments Over Girls Sports

U.S. Supreme Court Takes Up Cases on Boys in Girls Sports

West Virginia Passes ‘Save Girls Sports’ Act