As state track and field championships commenced Friday at Buchanan High School in Clovis, Calif., protesters set up across the street to take aim at transgender athletes competing in girls’ sports.
Those who spoke at the press conference in central California criticized the California Interscholastic Federation’s 13-year-old policy to allow transgender athletes born as boys to compete as girls in the statewide organization’s track and field championship events.
The CIF policy that allows transgender athletes to compete as the sex they identify as, while it is now a years-old policy, is no less unpopular among the families and community members of Clovis, which is widely known as a conservative, historically agricultural city.
“Throughout this month alone, Californians have watched three different male athletes compete in girls’ CIF track and field events,” said Sophia Laurie, outreach director for the California Family Council. “Today, at the CIF state championships, once again, a male athlete is expected to take a top spot in three girls events. The message being sent to female athletes is clear: Your opportunities, your records, your placements and hard work comes second to males.”
Laurie and other speakers at the press conference across the street from the state track and field championships said that not only do female athletes compete against other athletes who were born male, but oftentimes also share locker rooms with them.
“CIF continues to allow boys to compete against our girls,” Clovis Mayor Pro Tem Diana Pearce said at the press conference. “When our girls express how uncomfortable they are with boys in their locker rooms and in their sports, they are told they are the problem, and are bullied into silence and humiliated.”
The now 13-year-old policy, Policy 300D, allows transgender athletes to compete in sports consistent with their gender identity. The policy was adopted by the California Interscholastic Federation in 2013, according to an CIF document.
“Biological males do not belong in girls’ sports,” Sonja Shaw, chair of the Chino Unified School District board and candidate for California superintendent of public Instruction, said at the press conference. “The fact that male athletes are here at CIF state championships in the girls events is a disgrace. It’s diabolical.”
According to a 2023 study from the City University of New York, while there are noted differences between male and female athletes, there are also wide physiological variations in athletes of the same sex. The paper takes the position that excluding transgender athletes from sports and competition in their gender identity undermines the skill and talent of all athletes, whether they are transgender or not.
No one from the California Interscholastic Federation was available to speak to The Center Square on Friday. The Clovis Unified School District, which Buchanan High School is part of, did not respond to The Center Square’s request for comment. LGBTQ+ organizations also did not respond to The Center Square.
Earlier in May, the California Family Council led a protest outside Yorba Linda High School in Yorba Linda, ahead of the CIF Southern Section Division 3 Track and Field Preliminary meet. The Center Square reported on the Southern California protest.