Protestors gathered in Clovis to advocate for women’s athletic rights during the California high school track and field finals, where a transgender athlete identifying as male was competing alongside female participants.
Holding placards with messages such as “Save Girls’ Sports” and “California, Obey The Law,” the protestors assembled outside Veterans Memorial Stadium to back the female athletes who were up against a biologically male competitor.
Rachel Isengerg told RedState that she was out there holding a sign that read “XX does not equal XY” because “we need fairness in girls’ sports.”
“We can’t compete against biological boys,” Isenberg added. “We can’t win, and it’s not fair to the women that [sic] have fought for fairness.”
We also spoke to Angie, who requested to use only her first name. She mentioned that she knew some of the female athletes and wanted to be present to express her support for them.
“I think it’s absurd that so many people have gone along with the lie that boys can be girls and men can be women,” Angie said. “And the other way around. It’s just a lie, and I won’t go along with it.”
The protest comes after the state’s high school sports governing body, California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), refused to ban AB Hernandez, the top-ranked girls’ triple jumper and second-ranked girls’ long jumper, heading into the finals, from this week’s CIF Track & Field Championship being held in the city.
Hernandez continued to compete against female athletes Friday, despite President Donald Trump’s threat to yank federal funding from the state for violating Title IX for allowing the biological boy to compete against girls. In response to Trump’s threat, CIF attempted to put a Band-Aid on the problem and announced its “pilot program” allowing female student-athletes whose medals and spots were taken by biological boys to compete in the finals.
RedState then reported that:
CIF later issued a clarification because its new policy was as clear as mud. It read that:
Additionally, if necessary, in the high jump, triple jump and long jump events at the 2025 CIF State Track and Field Championships, a biological female student-athlete who would have earned a specific placement on the podium will also be awarded the medal for that place and the results will be reflected in the recording of the event.
As we spoke to protestors and supporters of girls’ sports, a plane circled overhead with a giant banner that read, “No Boys in Girls Sports.”
Later, we spoke to Mary Davis, who drove six-plus hours to stand out in the 100-degree heat, wearing a long-sleeve shirt that read, “XX”; on the back was a message mocking CIF that read, “Can’t Identify Females.”
She said she was there because she’d been following this insanity for the past few months, and she knew she had to “take a stand for girls.”
Davis said her grievance is with the CIF, and she just can’t abandon this group of girls.
At the Save Our Girls Sports rally in Clovis on Thursday, leaders, including Clovis Mayor Pro Tem Diane Pearce, called on Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and the CIF to do what is right and protect female sports, as RedState reported.
Pearce added that CIF’s so-called fix “only underscores their knowledge that biological girls have been cheated out of the opportunities they earned.” Later, she continued, telling RedState, “So, again, they are recognizing the problem that they have and that what they are doing isn’t right or fair to biological girls.”
California Family Council Women’s Sports Advocate Sophia Lorey, a former four-year varsity CIF athlete, called out CIF for allowing AB Hernandez to compete against females.
“California is failing our girls,” Lorey told RedState. “That’s not equality, that’s not inclusion, this is the erasure of female athletics. President Trump just threatened that federal funds will be pulled from CA schools if CIF allows this injustice to continue. And he’s right.”
Lorey went on to tell us that the girls competing on Friday were “not okay” with competing against a biological boy, and explained why they chose to and what comes next.
“I have received texts and calls from these athletes and their parents that this is not okay,” Lorey said. “They don’t want to have to compete against a boy, but they have trained so hard to make it to this spot and CIF Finals. And so they want a change from CIF, and they are wondering why the group won’t protect them.”
