Girls Sports

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

California played a high stakes game of chicken with the federal government over Title IX enforcement last week, culminating in a boy winning two girls state track and field titles on Saturday.

Now, California officials’ commitment to “inclusivity” could cost the state billions in federal funding.

California planted itself on the Department of Education’s (DOE) radar in February after the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) publicly vowed to defy “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” — an executive order prohibiting boys from playing girls sports in programs that receive federal funding.

President Trump signed the order on February 6. One day later, CIF told Fox it would follow California Education Code Section 221.5(f), which reads:

A pupil shall be permitted to participate in sex-segregated school programs and activities, including athletic teams and competitions, and use facilities consistent with his or her gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the pupil’s records.

The Department of Education launched an investigation into CIF in February for its statements. After months with no news, the conflict drifted out of public focus.

It exploded back into the media in mid-May, when AB Hernandez, a boy, began dominating girls high school track and field events in California ahead of the state championship.

As of May 13, Hernandez led the state in girls triple and long jump. In regional championships, he won the triple jump by “nearly seven feet,” according to Sports Illustrated, the long jump by more than three feet and the high jump by a foot.

Not surprisingly, Hernandez won state titles in the women’s high jump and triple jump at the championship on May 31, 2025. He took second place in the long jump.

Sophia Lorey is the outreach director at California Family Council, a Focus on the Family-allied family policy council. CIF officials escorted Lorey out of the state championships for passing out “Save Girls Sports” wristbands to fans.

“What I witnessed at the California State Track and Field Championships was not progress, it was the erasure of girls sports,” Lorey told the Daily Citizen of her experience.

“Watching two girls share one of the biggest moments of their athletic careers with a male competitor was a painful reminder of how far we’ve strayed from truth and fairness.”

But CIF didn’t just wreck female competitors’ athletic ambitions by allowing Hernandez to compete — it played fast and loose with the state’s federal education funding.

On May 27, just days before the competition, President Donald Trump weighed in on social media.

“California … continues to illegally allow men to play in women’s sports,” he wrote, citing Hernandez’s qualification for state finals.

The president continued:

This is not fair and totally demeaning to women and girls. Please be hereby advised that large scale funding will be held back, maybe permanently, if the executive order on this subject matter is not adhered to.

“This is a totally ridiculous situation!!!” he emphatically concluded.

CIF clearly thought the President meant some kind of business. It expeditiously issued a rule change bumping girls who competed against Hernandez to the place, or medal, they would have received in a race without boys. CIF also invited girls that had been bumped out of contention by Hernandez to participate in the championship.

But Hernandez still competed. He still beat his female peers. Rightful winners shared the podium with him at award ceremonies.

On May 28, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced it would be joining DOE’s investigation against CIF for violating Title IX.

“My office has found reasonable cause to believe that CIF… is engaging in a pattern or practice of discrimination against female athletes,” Harmeet K. Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s Department of Civil Rights Investigations, wrote in a letter to the organization.

Dhillon cites CIF Bylaw 300.D, which reads:

All students should have the opportunity to participate in CIF activities in a manner that is consistent with their gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on a student’s records.

“As a result of CIF’s policy,” she continues, “California’s top-ranked girls triple jumper, and second-ranked girls long jumper [AB Hernandez] is a boy.”

CIF wasn’t the only group Dhillon implicated. In the same letter, she announced her office would also investigate whether CIF, the California Department of Education, Jurupa Union School District (Hernandez’ district) and “any applicable state laws” had violated girls’ constitutional right to equal protection under the law

The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads, in part:

No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States … nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of laws.

A press release from Dhillon’s office helps contextualize the DOJ’s Fourteenth Amendment investigation. In August 2013, then-Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 1266, which created the California Education Code allowing students to participate in sports according to their “gender identity,” rather than their sex.

Dhillon’s probe indicates the DOJ is exploring whether to challenge AB 1266, and all its resulting codes and bylaws, in court as unconstitutional.

But that’s later down the line. Right now, California and the feds seem preoccupied with the state’s apparent violations of “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.”

If guilty, the state’s federal education funding, which totaled $10 billion in FY 2024, could be on the line.

President Trump certainly seems to think so. On Monday, he promised “large-scale fines would be imposed [on California]” via Truth Social.

California State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tony Thurmond, seems equally convinced financial consequences aren’t imminent.

“Let’s be clear: sending a letter does not change the law,” Thurmond told ABC7 News on Tuesday. “The DOJ’s letter to school districts does not announce any new federal law, and the state law on this issue has remained unchanged since 2013.”

In the meantime, advocates like Lorey and California Family Council will continue whipping up support for women and girls.

“This isn’t just about sports,” Lorey emphasized. “It’s about truth, safety and the future of female opportunity.”

“If we don’t stand up now, we risk losing what generations of women fought to earn.”

Additional Articles and Resources

Girls Shouldn’t Apologize for Protesting Boys in Girls Sports

Supreme Court Protects Maine Rep’s Right to Vote, Defend Girls Sports

Education Department Finds UPenn Violated Title IX & Women’s Rights

Minnesota Lawsuit Advances Shocking Poor Attacks on Title IX

Attorney General Pam Bondi Sues Maine for Title IX Violations

Department of Education Launches Multiple Investigations Into Title IX Violations

Department of Justice Launches Title IX Task Force to Protect Women’s Sports

Maine Schools Violated Title IX, Must Apologize, Feds Say

On 50th Anniversary of Title IX, Groups Fight to Protect Women’s Sports

Poll Finds Majority of Americans Want Transgender Athletes to Play on Team of Birth Sex

Trump Signs Executive Order Protecting Women’s Sports and Spaces

Girls Shouldn’t Apologize for Protesting Boys in Girls Sports

If you’re losing track (no pun intended) of the stories of boys and men pretending to be girls and women and stealing awards and qualifying spots in various girls sports, you wouldn’t be alone.

This past weekend at the California high school track and field championship, two boys stole gold medals in the high jump and the triple jump.

Against a backdrop of a banner that proclaimed, “No Boys in Girls Sports!”, 16-year-old male athlete AB Hernandez shared the first-place podium with Jillene Wetteland and Lelani Laruelle.

Faced with a growing backlash and the threat of losing federal funds for allowing boys to infiltrate girls athletics, California approved an incoherent and illogical policy of allowing boys and girls to share top honors.

Sound familiar, King Solomon?

Sophia Lorey, who serves as outreach director with the California Family Policy Council, attended Saturday’s events and was thrown out of the stadium for handing out bracelets and flyers that advocated for the preservation of women’s sports. Organizers weren’t able to show what policy she was allegedly violating.

A former athlete, Lorey offered to toss the materials in exchange for staying at the meet to support the girls. That gesture was denied, and she received a police escort out of a back exit of the stadium and was forced to walk a mile to her car.

In Oregon, Alexa Anderson and Reese Exchard protested the inclusion of a male athlete in the girls’ high jump by stepping off the winners’ platform.

Alexa, who finished third, felt compelled to explain their actions.

“We didn’t refuse to stand on the podium out of hate,” she said. ‘We did it because someone has to say this isn’t right. In order to protect the integrity and fairness of girls sports we must stand up for what is right.”

In Tacoma, Washington, a male student cheated to win the Girls 400-meter dash at the Washington State Track and Field Championships. Lauren Matthew was the real champion.

Spectators understandably booed the male runner and cheered the girls.

In Minnesota last week, Champlin Park High School’s girls’ softball team defeated Rogers High School twice, all behind the pitching of a boy who is pretending to be a girl.

Minnesota, like California and several other states, is ignoring President Trump’s executive order that bans boys from competing in girls sports and vice versa. Rogers High School is the defending state champion.

The male pitcher threw fourteen shutout innings to lead Champlin High to its first state tournament next week.

Males infiltrating girls sports is a farce. It’s also an outrage. No girl should have to apologize or defend gestures of protest. They shouldn’t feel obliged to assure critics their actions aren’t hateful.

In reality, officials who step back and allow the fraud, theft and corruption of girls sports are guilty of dereliction of their duty. They’re surrendering to the mobs, caving to the bullies, and enabling either deception, deceit or mental illness and sexual confusion.

Image from Riley Gaines.

Supreme Court Protects Maine Rep’s Right to Vote, Defend Girls Sports

Maine’s House of Representatives must temporarily allow Representative Laurel Libby to vote again, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a preliminary injunction issued Tuesday.

The 7-2 decision comes almost three months after a slim majority of Maine representatives barred Libby from voting or speaking on legislation — unless she publicly apologized for criticizing boys’ participation in girls’ sports.

“This is a victory not just for my constituents, but for the Constitution itself,” Libby wrote of the ruling on X, continuing:

The Supreme Court has affirmed what should NEVER have been in question — that no state legislature has the power to silence an elected official simply for speaking truthfully about issues that matter.

The Supreme Court’s brief ruling contains no information from the majority. Justice Sotomayor wrote she would not grant Libby an injunction, but did not explain why. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson authored a five-page dissent criticizing the court for offering emergency relief in cases that aren’t true emergencies.

Libby filed an emergency petition with SCOTUS on April 28 after a whirlwind legal battle that began with a simple Facebook post:

Less than ten days after the post went live, Libby’s colleagues voted to censure her for violating Maine’s Legislative Code of Ethics “in an effort to advance her political agenda.”

The resolution, which passed 75-70 in a party line vote, claimed the mother of five had endangered the male athlete’s safety by “[naming him] and [using] photos of [him] in a post without [his] consent.” This despite the fact the boy competed publicly. His podium photo was featured in media and on social media accounts across the nation.

The resolution suspended Libby’s right to vote and speak on legislation unless she publicly apologized for her conduct.

The punishment illegally deprived the representative’s more than 9,000 constituents of representation. The Editorial Board at The Wall Street Journal pointedly noted:

Under the Maine constitution, expelling a member requires a two-thirds majority, but state lawmakers have used the censure as a backdoor to silence Ms. Libby by a simple majority vote.

The House put a steep price on Libby’s participation — if she wanted to vote again, she would have to publicly betray the women and girls she was defending.

“[The mandated apology] would be an apology for speaking up on behalf of Maine women and girls,” she told IWF. “And the message I’ve heard loudly and clearly since all of this has occurred is that these girls have felt very betrayed, and alone and unsure.”

She continued:

The authorities in [these girls’] lives are not standing up for them. So to apologize would be a betrayal.

Not to mention she would reportedly have to run her mea culpa past Maine Speaker Ryan Fecteau, who supported her censure.

“At a certain point, I just had enough and told him the meeting was over, and he would go down as the speaker who silenced a woman for speaking up for girls,” Libby remembered for IWF.

Libby’s plight received sympathetic media attention, even among national, legacy outlets like the Journal and The Boston Globe, which wrote:

The Maine House resolution to censure Libby stated that she violated the Legislature’s code of ethics. But those rules are not a model of clarity…
Such broad language can too easily be used to justify punishing a lawmaker in the minority party for saying almost anything that the majority party dislikes, even if that speech is protected by the First Amendment.

Though Libby experienced favor in the press, two federal courts initially denied her a preliminary injunction restoring her right to vote.

On April 18, the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island called the censure “an internal Maine House affair,” ruling Libby’s situation was “not of such extraordinary character” as to warrant federal action.

Libby’s subsequent appeal failed on April 25 in the First Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Daily Citizen applauds Representative Libby for hanging tough and defending her right to speak biological truth and advocate for women and girls.

We are similarly grateful to the Supreme Court for upholding legislators’ right to free speech, without which representatives like Libby cannot confront injustices like boys participation in girls sports.

Additional Articles and Resources

Attorney General Pam Bondi Sues Maine for Title IX Violations

Maine Schools Violated Title IX, Must Apologize, Feds Say

Department of Education Launches Multiple investigations Into Title IX Violations

Georgia Governor Signs Law Protecting Girls Sports and Privacy in Schools

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed a bill into state law Monday protecting girls sports and private spaces.

The Riley Gaines Act of 2025 (S.B. 1) clarifies the legal definition of sex to mean “a student’s biological sex based exclusively on the student’s reproductive biology at birth.”

Using this definition of “sex,” the act prohibits boys from joining girls interscholastic sports teams or using girls bathrooms, locker rooms and overnight sleeping quarters.

“As the parents of three daughters, Marty and I know just how important it is to keep our children safe and to give them the best possible start in life,” Governor Kemp wrote in a press release Monday.

He continued,

Girls should not have to share a playing field, a restroom, or a locker room with boys and vice versa, and the commonsense legislation I signed today is about what is fair and safe for our children.

The Senate first passed S.B. 1 in February with a comfortable, but far from unanimous, 35-17 vote. The House approved the bill in a 110-64 vote on March 31 — this year’s designated “Transgender Day of Remembrance.”

Riley Gaines, a passionate advocate for women’s rights and the bills namesake, released a statement lauding Georgia lawmakers for protecting women and girls.

Three years after I, and dozens of other D1 female athletes, were forced to compete against a man in a Georgia pool, the Riley Gaines Act of 2025 is now law.
It’s an honor of our lifetime to know our stories help shed light on the grave problem of rampant gender ideology that means women are victims of government-facilitated sex discrimination.

Gaines’ statement references her infamous experience swimming against — and sharing a locker room with — Lia, formerly Will, Thomas. The 6-foot-1 man spent three years competing on the University of Pennsylvania’s men’s swim team before joining the women’s team as a “trans” identified woman.

When Gaines miraculously tied with Thomas in a critical race, officials gave him the trophy for “photo purposes.”

Georgia’s ratification of the Riley Gaines Act makes it one of more than 25 states to protect girls rights in schools and interscholastic activities.

Last week, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed legislation protecting women of all ages by clarifying the meaning of “sex” in Arkansas law and preventing men from entering women’s restrooms, changing rooms and sleeping quarters in shelters, correctional facilities or public buildings.

These recent victories reflect a growing global consensus that men pretending to be women do not qualify for women’s legal protections. Unfortunately, state congressional votes on Georgia’s bill suggest protecting women’s rights and spaces is not yet a broad, bipartisan issue.

The Daily Citizen applauds Governor Kemp and Georgia legislators for protecting girls in schools. Please pray that bipartisan support for laws like this will continue to grow.

Additional Articles and Resources

Arkansas Governor Signs Bill Protecting Women’s Privacy and Spaces

Montana Governor Signs Bills protecting Women’s Privacy, Sports

West Virginia Governor Signs ‘Riley Gaines Act’ Protecting Women’s Private Spaces

NYT Poll Finds Almost 80% of Americans Oppose Men in Women’s Sports

Transgender Resources

Addressing Gender Identity with Honesty and Compassion

Mississippi, South Dakota Governors Sign Bills Protecting Women’s Spaces, Privacy

Attorney General Pam Bondi Sues Maine for Title IX Violations

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced a civil lawsuit against Maine’s Department of Education, charging the state with “discriminating against women by failing to protect women in women’s sports.”

In a news briefing, Bondi had some strong words about the Maine Department of Education for violating Title IX, part of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex in education.

The Attorney General stated,

Today, the Department of Justice is announcing a civil lawsuit against the Maine Department of Education. The state of Maine is discriminating against women by failing to protect women in women’s sports.

Pretty basic stuff. This is a violation of Title IX. The Department of Justice will not sit by when women are discriminated against in sports. This is about sports.

This is also about these young women’s personal safety.

Bondi introduced several female athletes at the news briefing, “Fencer Zoe Hutchison, a Maine athlete. Cassidy Carlisle, a Maine athlete and my dear friend – you all know Riley Gaines, who has been a champion on this issue for women.”  

The announcement came after the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights investigated the Maine Department of Education for allowing males to compete in girls and women’s sports.

Also present were Secretary of Education Linda McMahon; Linnea Saltz, a track athlete and advocate for women’s sports; Stephanie Turner, who received a year-long suspension from fencing after refusing to compete against a male athlete; and  Representative Laurel Libby who is suing the Maine State House after it barred her from speaking or voting – all because she spoke out against a male athlete who won the state girls pole vaulting championship. 

The DOE found the state’s education department, along with the Maine Principal’s Association and Greely High School, had discriminated against female athletes, violating Title IX prohibitions.

The U.S. education department proposed actions that the Maine Department of Education could take to repair the damage, such as directing public schools to follow Title IX or risk losing funding, acknowledging there are only two sexes, segregating bathrooms and locker rooms based on sex, and stopping boys from competing in girls sports.

Maine refused to comply, so the DOE referred the matter to the Department of Justice.

In February, Governor Janet Mills doubled down on the state’s discrimination against girls and women.

When asked whether her state would follow President Donald Trump’s executive order protecting girls and women’s sports, the governor replied the state was “complying with state and federal laws.”

President Trump disagreed, responding, “We are the federal law. You better do it because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t.” 

Mills then replied that she would see Trump in court.

So she’s getting her wish.

Following the press conference, Education Secretary McMahon clarified for CNN’s Kasie Hunt exactly why males don’t belong in female sports,

Title IX was established to protect women, to allow them to compete in sports on a level playing field. What has happened now with transgenders, whether it‘s one or two, 22 dozen, or 100 … when you start with one, that deprives females – from getting a slot for a scholarship or a slot on the team – or getting beaten out in the competition simply because they‘re competing against a male.

She added, “It is just totally unfair, and it’s against the law. It is absolutely against federal law.”

McMahon told Hunt about the pain that girl athletes felt when, after years of pain, effort, training and practice, they lost to a male athlete. She reiterated that Title IX is a federal law that is being violated – not just a presidential executive order.

Then she explained basic biology to the CNN host, who seemed more concerned about the sexually confused males than the girls harmed by their actions,

There are two sexes. There‘s male and female. So transgender doesn‘t have a play in this. You’re born a boy, you‘re a boy. You‘re born a girl, you‘re a girl.

So even with puberty blocking hormones, etc., males are still stronger. Their structure is different. They can perform very differently in competition. We have to respect and understand that and give women the rights that they have under this title nine.

It’s unclear exactly why leftist politicians and media hosts have subscribed to gender ideology – a dogma that sexualizes and confuses girls and boys, harming them and their families.

Thankfully, there is a growing pushback against the incoherent, illogical gender theory which asserts that people can change into the opposite sex, there are an infinitude of “genders,” and bodily sex can be separated from “gender identity.”

Bondi stated strongly that she will continue to fight for girls and women, and she applauded the young women and parents who are battling injustice.

Related Articles and Resources

CNN Demonstrates Logical Incoherence in Contemporary Gender Theory

Department of Education Launches Multiple Investigations Into Title IX Violations

Department of Justice Launches Title IX Task Force to Protect Women’s Sports

Five Terrible, No-Good, Fatal Flaws of Gender Theory

Maine Schools Violated Title IX, Must Apologize, Feds Say

On 50th Anniversary of Title IX, Groups Fight to Protect Women’s Sports

Pam Bondi Pledges to End ‘Partisan Weaponization’ of Department of Justice

Poll Finds Majority of Americans Want Transgender Athletes to Play on Team of Birth Sex

Trump Signs Executive Order Protecting Women’s Sports and Spaces

What is “Gender Identity”?