A controversial transgender athlete in California has caused another backlash after winning a girls’ track championship on Saturday.
AB Hernandez, a boy who identifies as a girl, won a medal at the CIF State Track & Field Championships being held at Veterans Memorial Stadium at Buchanan High School in Clovis, California, this weekend, according to the New York Post.
Hernandez, who competes for Jurupa Valley High School, was participating in the girls’ long jump. But this is not the athlete’s first time stirring controversy. All year, Hernandez has been at the center of protests by parents who want to protect girls’ sports from the incursion by boys identifying as girls.
Even as Hernandez was winning events inside, parents had gathered outside the venue to protest transgender athletes in girls’ sports.
Parents held signs blasting the ruination of girls’ sports. Signs included, “No boys. No bias. Just fairness, and “Save Girl’s Sports.”
Parents also accused event officials of allowing boys to compete and said males winning means the events have been “stolen from our daughters.”
Hernandez did not win the long jump event, but did come in third with a mark of 20 feet, 2 1/4 inches.
Ellie McCuskey-Hay of St. Ignatius High School and Gianna Gonzalez of Moorpark High School, who each jumped 20 feet, 3 1/2 inches, shared first place.
Corinne Jones from St. Mary’s High School achieved the fourth best jump but was still awarded third place, which she shared with Hernandez. This occurred due to a change in state rules.
The new rule, put in place last year, states that when a trans athlete places in a postseason event, the next-closest “cisgender” girl will share the placement.
Despite the rule being made to mollify parents, Hernandez’s mom was less than pleased with it. Early in May, Nereyda Hernandez ripped the new rule.
“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.
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