California girl cries while recounting trans athlete experience, school board president says 'wrap it up'
A school board meeting in California featured emotional debate over transgender athletes being allowed to share locker rooms with high-school girls. One girl who cried during a speech was told to "wrap it up" by the board president.
During the Lucia Mar Unified School District (LMUSD) board meeting on Wednesday, a high-school junior girls' track athlete at Arroyo Grande High School named Celeste Diest took the podium to recount her experience of having to change in front of a biologically male trans athlete before practice, while that athlete allegedly watched her undress.
"I went into the women's locker room to change for track practice where I saw, at the end of my row, a biological male watching not only myself, but the other young women undress. This experience was beyond traumatizing," Diest said, as she began to choke up and cry.
"Adults like yourself make me and my peers feel like our own comfort was invalid, even though our privacy was and still is completely violated."
Diest then fought through her tears to argue that the trans athlete's XY chromosomes define the person as a male, adding, "That is basic biology."
But Diest was then interrupted by LMUSD board president Colleen Martin.
"Okay, please wrap it up," Martin said, gesturing to Diest to finish her point.
The teen then sniffled and continued speaking.
"I just want to ask ‘what about us?’ We can not sit around and allow our rights to be given up to cater to an individual that is a man, who watches women undress and is stripping away female opportunity that once was fought for us. Sadly we have to try and regain our rights back. I hope you put effort into the restoration of our school safety."
Diest then walked away from the podium to a roaring applause from the audience before Martin tried to silence the cheers.
Martin even began slamming her gavel down to try and temper the growing applause, but the cheers only got louder after that.
"No!" Martin yelled when the cheers got louder.
Then, Martin just sat there silently as the applause continued for several more seconds, before it finally tempered, and the next speaker gave another speech opposing trans inclusion.
Prior to Diest's speech, one of the other speakers, a woman named Shannon Kessler, who was scheduled to go after the teen, asked Martin whether she could give her speaking time to Diest. But Martin denied that request.
"We're not doing that," Martin said.
Several other parents gave speeches in opposition of trans athletes in attendance, while other community members spoke in support of trans inclusion.
California has been one of the many blue states in the nation to defy President Donald Trump's "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports" executive order, and has allowed trans athletes to compete with girls for over a decade.
A law called AB 1266 has been in effect since 2014, and gives California students at scholastic and collegiate levels the right 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."
California Code of Regulations section 4910(k) defines gender as: "A person’s actual sex or perceived sex and includes a person’s perceived identity, appearance or behavior, whether or not that identity, appearance, or behavior is different from that traditionally associated with a person’s sex at birth."
CIF Bylaw 300.D. mirrors the Education Code, stating, "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."
These laws and the subsequent enabling of trans athletes to compete with girls and women in the state has resulted in multiple controversies over the issue over the last year alone.
The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) said it will continue to follow the state's law that allows athletes to participate as whichever gender they identify as, a spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
"The CIF provides students with the opportunity to belong, connect, and compete in education-based experiences in compliance with California law [Education Code section 221.5. (f)] which permits students to participate in school programs and activities, including athletic teams and competitions, consistent with the student’s gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the student’s records," a CIF statement said.
The California state legislature's Democrat majority rejected two bills that would have changed state law to ban trans athletes from girls' sports on April 1.
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