California's girls' sports culture war amps up with massive protest, outrage over recent track and field title
The conflict over biological males in girls' sports in California re-entered the national spotlight over the weekend. The debate's flames were fanned by a large-scale protest at a state high school sports meeting and then a controversial outcome at a girls' track and field meet the next day.
The state has become the nation's biggest epicenter for the issue, and the target of a lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Justice for allegedly violating Title IX for its transgender eligibility policies.
Internally, many of the state's residents have continued to dissent from the state for those policies. That dissent culminated in a flash point on Friday when dozens of female athletes and their families rallied outside a California Interscholatic Federation (CIF) council meeting in Long Beach to protest.
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California Family Council Outreach Director Sophia Lorey told Fox News Digital it was their largest rally yet, as they've held several in recent years.
Local California girls who have been impacted by male competitors in their sports took to the podium to speak out against the CIF for not changing its policies. A total of 16 speakers, comprised of high school athletes, family members, politicians and activists spoke at the rally.
Many of the speeches have since gone viral.
Former Jurupa Valley High School student athlete Hadeel Hazameh had to graduate early after speaking out in the fall against a trans teammate on her track and field and volleyball team.
Arroyo Grande High School student athlete Celeste Duyst recalled an alleged experience of a biological male trans athlete watching her and other girls change in the locker room.
California GOP State Assemblymembers Kate Sanchez and David Tangipa showed up to give speeches in support of the girls as well.
Meanwhile, Democrat State Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal also showed up to film a Facebook video mocking the protesters, claiming the Republicans in attendance "don't actually care about women."
"We all know they don't actually care about women," Lowenthal said.
Inside the meeting, protesters on both sides of the issue spoke emotionally about the topic. But Lorey told Fox News Digital that the council members at no point addressed the issue of protecting girls' sports, or even made eye contact with the speakers.
Singer and Los Angeles mayoral candidate Tish Hyman delivered a boisterous speech condemning the CIF council members.
"Martin Luther King did not march so these trans people, or whatever they are, can use our civil rights to push trans drugs on kids!" Hyman yelled.
Crean Lutheran High School student Reese Hogan went viral last spring when she stepped onto the first place spot on a medal podium at a CIF postseason meet, right after the trans athlete who finished above her stepped off. Hogan spoke in the meeting about having to repeatedly compete against the male athlete.
"On May 4th, 2024, May 10th, 2025, May 17th, 2025, May 30th, 2025, and January 31st, 2026, I competed in meets where I lost to a male athlete competing in a girl's track and field. These are not isolated incidents, they are repeated moments where female athletes like were directly affected by policies that ignore reality" Hogan said.
Speakers in support of trans athletes in girls' sports, including a local trans student, also delivered speeches to the council members that Lorey said went unaddressed.
"This national focus to only brings extreme scrutiny and harm to these students," the trans student said. "I myself was subject to extreme protest, sometimes hundreds of students protesting against me."
ACLU of Southern California attorney Kristen Burzynski argued "sports should be for all kids," at the meeting.
"This is not about fairness. It's not about protecting girls. It's about making life harder for young people who are already being pushed to the margins," Burzynski said. "Transgender students are not trying to cheat or steal trophies. They just want to play with their friends."
The day after the meeting, a prominent transgender athlete for Jurupa Valley High School won first place in the girls’ triple jump at the VS California Winter Championships. The athlete also won second place in the girls' long jump.
Fox News Digital is not disclosing the name of the trans athlete in this specific story at the request of the athlete's mother when we reached out for comment. However, the mother and athlete have previously spoken out publicly and the athlete's name is widely reported and known.
News of the trans athlete's victory quickly spread across social media.
Activists across the country have spoken out to further condemn California leadership for enabling such incidents to occur.
New York Times bestselling author Dr. Naomi Wolfe shared news of the incident on X, writing "I just can’t stand this anymore."
Great Britain Olympic Medalist Sharron Davies wrote in response to the news on X, "Remember 95% of 15/16 boys world records are faster than elite female world records. This is just cheating."
Former U.S. gymnast and XX-XY Athletics co-founder Jennifer Sey wrote, "How many girls has this one boy pushed off the podium?"
Fox News Digital has reached out to the CIF and Jurupa Unified School District for comment.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a podcast conversation with Charlie Kirk last March that he believed males competing in girls' sports is "deeply unfair" but has not taken any action or even any verbal initiative to address the situation.
In September, Newsom's office provided a statement to Fox News Digital in response to the complaints by athletes and parents, suggesting the responsibility falls on the CIF, CDE and state legislature, but not on him.
"CIF is an independent nonprofit that governs high school sports. The California Department of Education is a separate constitutional office. Neither is under the Governor’s authority. CIF and the CDE have stated they follow existing state law — a law that was passed in 2013 and signed by Governor Jerry Brown (not Newsom) and in line with 21 other states. For the law to change, the legislature would need to send the Governor a bill. They have not," the statement read.
On April 1, the California state legislature blocked two bills that would reverse the current law which allows males in girls' sports.
Every Democrat voted against it, with Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur arguing that one of the bills "is really reminiscent to me of what happened in Nazi Germany in the 1930s. We are moving towards autocracy in this country. In Nazi Germany, transgender people were persecuted, barred from public life."
Zbur said this while in the presence of a descendant of a holocaust survivor, who had to excuse herself from the chamber, according to Sanchez.
"She stood up and left because she was just so disgusted with the comparison," Sanchez told Fox News Digital.
Newsom made no public statement at the time encouraging any of his fellow Democrats to support the bill. At that point, Newsom had already made his first public statements disputing the "fairness" of trans athletes in girls' and women's sports, in the first episode of his podcast after he was pressed on the issue by the late Charlie Kirk.
Newsom's office provided a transcript of an apparent exchange between him and a reporter on April 2, the day after the bills were blocked, in which the governor said he "didn't pay any attention" to the bills. He added that he was preoccupied with Los Angeles wildfire recovery.
"Well, I didn't pay any attention to the committee yesterday. I was, literally, spent most of the day talking about LA fire recovery with our teams. And progress is being made there, by the way, but we're starting to run up into some of those ‘abundance’ conversations around permitting that's already starting to take shape, where most of my focus was yesterday," Newsom said when asked about the failed vote and the general issue of males in girls' sports.
The U.S. Department of Education announced 19 new investigations into educational entities suspected of violating Title IX.
Jurupa Unified School District (JUSD) in Riverside, California was at the very top of investigations that the Education Department announced on Jan. 14.
Meanwhile, one of the state's largest public universities, San Jose State, was determined to have violated Title IX in its handling of transgender volleyball player Blaire Fleming from 2022-24. SJSU receives the majority of its operating budget from state appropriation, with state funding accounting for approximately 52% of its total budget, per the university.
The university has an ultimatum to comply with a series of resolution terms, or it could face a loss of federal funding and a potential lawsuit itself.
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