The mother of a transgender high school athlete publicly trashed California’s policy allowing girls to share the first place podium if they came in second.
AB Hernandez came in first at three events during Saturday’s California Interscholastic Federation’s Southern Section championship final: long jump, high jump and triple jump. Despite that, girls who came in second were allowed to share the podium due to a new California policy, per Fox News.
Trans athlete AB Hernandez won first place in the high jump, long jump and triple jump at the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Southern Section finals on Saturday. So too did the girl who would have finished first, based on a rule enacted last year that awarded any female athlete that finished behind a trans athlete a higher placement.
The CIF enacted a pilot program for the state finals last May that awarded any female athlete that finished behind a trans athlete one higher spot, which resulted in girls sharing podium spots with Hernandez for the championship. The program also ensured any female athlete who finished one spot out of qualifying for the state finals in events that included a trans competitor, to compete for the title as well.
Nereyda Hernandez, the mother of AB, decried the new policy on social media when she shared a post from Rainbow Families Action.
“All these big, tough ex-athletes at CIF, and the most courage they could muster was to hand this to coaches at AB’s meet today,” the group wrote. “Not one of them was brave enough to look her or her mother in the eye and say: ‘This whole project of violating Ed Code is aimed at you. A child.’”
Hernandez also wrote that her “heart was full watching A.B compete.”
“Today at the CIF Track & Field Finals my heart was full watching A.B compete,” she wrote after her son’s competition.
“No matter how differently she may be seen by some, she continues to walk onto that field with the most beautiful smile on her face, gives EVERY event her ALL, and carries herself with grace, determination, and sportsmanship,” she wrote.