California would do anything rather than exclude trans-identifying men from women's sports.

[Another2Cats]

I follow an American woman on Twitter/X by the name of Riley Gaines. She posted about a story from California that was published yesterday.

The back story to this is that there is a trans-identifying male high school student in California who goes by the name of AB Hernandez.

He has been entering and winning athletics track and field events in the girls' category for the last couple of years.

Basically, as you would expect, he beats all the girls by some way.

Last year, President Trump put pressure on California to exclude trans-identifying boys from the girls' category but they refused to do that. As I understand it, there is now a legal case against California.

Instead, they came up with a rule that said that if a trans-identifying boy competes then that boy still gets his first place, or whatever, but that any girl behind him is promoted by one place.

It all seems unnecessarily complicated.

So, it means that there are two first places. The trans-identifying boy is awarded first place and the second placed girl is promoted so that she also shares first place. All the other girls are similarly promoted by one place.

There was an athletics meeting yesterday in California. The attached photo shows the medallists from the girls high jump.

You will notice that there are two people standing on the podium in first position. AB Hernandez on the left and a girl on the right (flanked by three other girls).

AB Hernandez jumped the highest by two inches and shares the podium with the girl who jumped highest after him.

Riley Gaines said in her tweet:

"If you have to create a shared podium for the boy competing in the girls’ event, you’ve already admitted you know he isn’t a girl and that his participation is unfair.

At that point, you're just seeking a public humiliation ritual for the girls."

Which I rather agree with.

https://x.com/Riley_Gaines_/status/2055982828731478302

I've mentioned this before, but as an adult in a competitive sport on a non-professional level, I quit because it was too demoralizing when TW overtook both the women's and coed teams. That was when I still identified as trans myself (non-medicalized), and so did several other women in our league. None of us played for the men's team in our city.

Even the people who buy into this know that there's an advantage. It's so unfair. And it's also unfair that it calls undue attention to the schools doing this. Every set of minors is going to be targeted by weirdos online, and I don't feel a huge amount of sympathy towards most of these boys, but they also don't deserve the shit talking they receive from people who are genuinely weird and don't approach the debate in good faith. Which will then be baited for sympathy and proof that he deserves to ruin his own life before the age of majority as well as use any female space he feels entitled to.

So, what’s going to happen when two mediocre boys beat the girls? The girls who actually came 1st and 2nd will each be required to share her podium with a cheat?

Or even three boys, like in the race where all three podium places were filled by Semenya and two other men.

Such hypocrisy.

Anything to avoid telling a male no.

Last year a girl called Reese Hogan was 'beaten' by Hernandez in the long jump. When he stepped down from the podium she stepped up onto her rightful place and the crowd cheered wildly for her. People know it's wrong.

https://archive.ph/Gtjd2

"If you have to create a shared podium for the boy competing in the girls’ event, you’ve already admitted you know he isn’t a girl and that his participation is unfair.
At that point, you're just seeking a public humiliation ritual for the girls."

Turn this around & surely its a public humiliation ritual for the boy? It shows him up for the cheat that he is.

Also, how does this "solution" apply to team sports like volleyball, softball, or football (soccer)? Do teams with a boy have to have an extra spot to make up for the girl who didn't make the team bc of him? And does the entire second place team get elevated to first etc if the opposing team has one trans player? How is that fair to the other female players on his team who are now not only forced to accept him being on the team but have their own accomplishments watered down to accommodate his feelings?

What about contact sports like rugby, boxing, etc. when allowing males to compete against females poses a serious safety threat?

If you can't apply the same "solution" across sports it's blatant discrimination. This is the reason males don't compete against females!!!

It’s such a ridiculous solution because it presumably pleases no one. Those who want trans girls to compete would surely think this is treating them differently, which is unfair. And they would dislike the implicit message that they have an unfair advantage, because why else would you bump up the results of the other competitors. Plus it presumably requires disclosure of trans status, which again wouldn’t be what they’d want.

And those who do not want trans girls to compete would take issue with it with the arguments made by PPs.

So who is this for? It must be a small subset of people who think that this is a good solution.

I think they're not trying to please all the participants so much as they're trying to comply with California law and Trump's executive order “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.”

California Education Code Section 221.5(f) says
(f) A pupil shall be permitted to participate in sex-segregated school programs and activities, including athletic teams and competitions, and use facilities consistent with his or her gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the pupil’s records.

They also need to comply with California's Unruh Act, which is a broad anti-discrimination law that covers gender identity and gender expression as well as many other protected characteristics like race, age, religion, disability, and sex.

https://calcivilrights.ca.gov/unruh/#whoBody

If California wants to comply with the executive order, they'll need to amend these two laws. That's not likely in California, where the legislature is controlled by Democrats from Los Angeles and the SF Bay Area.

Trump's Executive Order authorises the US Education Department to penalise schools that allow transgender athletes to compete. Any school found in violation could potentially be ineligible for federal funding.

It's important to remember that Trump's executive order does not disallow trans kids from joining any school sports. They can play on team appropriate for their sex.

Good point. I got the summary of Trump's executive order from a news site.

It still conflicts with California law so the impasse is not likely to be resolved without litigation.

I'm not sure what will happen. Federal law is supposed to supersede state law. I don't expect they'll give in easily.

Federal law sometimes supersedes state law. There are numerous cases on whether federal law preempts state law and the answer, as with most legal questions, is "it depends".

https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/preemption

There is almost always an argument that the Tenth Amendment reserves X issue to the states, especially in matters relating to education, which was traditionally a state or local matter.

In addition to the preemption question, there is a question about a president's authority to issue executive orders with respect to different issues. Here is a good summary.

https://news.uchicago.edu/story/trumps-executive-orders-how-do-they-work-and-whats-their-legal-basis

I don't think Rob Bonta, or whoever becomes California AG in 2026 (probably Bonta), will give in without litigation, if for no other reason than he is a politician. It's possible that California will elect a Republican governor. If that happens, California may comply.

It also didn’t stop schools and sports doing what they want from a gender perspective. They just can’t receive any money under Title IX.

Wow! The Democrats are really doing their best to lose California aren’t they… As Gaines says, this compromise demonstrates clearly that they understand the facts. Yet they still pretend they think TWAW 🙄