When her name was announced for the long jump, she waved to the crowd.
When she was announced for the high jump, she smiled.
Recent polls, including one conducted by The Times last year, have shown that many Americans support transgender rights, but a majority oppose transgender girls participating in youth sports.
But, the playing field has shifted in California for transgender athletes since Trump started talking about Hernandez.
Critics of transgender athletes rejected it as insufficient and demanded a full ban on transgender athletes.
16-year-old AB Hernandez soared past many of her peers to win multiple gold medals at California’s high school track and field championships on Saturday, defying overwhelming pressure to resign from President Trump, dozens of local protesters, and other well-known opponents of transgender athletes in girls’ sports.
Despite a directive from Trump to prohibit her from competing, the transgender junior from Jurupa Valley High School won state titles in the girls’ triple jump and high jump and placed second in the long jump competition.
Hernandez’s triumph at the 2025 CIF State Track and Field Championships in Clovis occurred in the midst of intense heat, with temperatures rising above 100 degrees for the majority of the day, and under close scrutiny.
Earlier in the week, Trump inaccurately claimed Hernandez had won “everything” in a previous meet and described her as “practically unbeatable” on social media, saying he was “ordering local authorities, if necessary, to not allow” her to compete. Both Friday and Saturday, protesters gathered outside the event to voice their disapproval of her inclusion and the state laws that support LGBTQ+ rights.
Hernandez competed calmly and focusedly in spite of everything. She waved to the audience when her long jump name was called. She grinned when she heard the high jump announcement.
Hernandez outperformed every other competitor in the triple jump, but when the California Interscholastic Federation instituted new regulations following Trump’s threats, the runner-up was also given first place.
Hernandez shared the gold medal in the high jump with two other girls after they all cleared the same height.
“As your mother, I cannot fully express how PROUD I am of you,” Hernandez’s mother, Nereyda Hernandez, said in a statement given to The Times following the incident. “.”.
Her mother remarked, “I am in awe of your strength after witnessing you overcome months of being singled out, misinterpreted, and condemned—not by peers, but by adults who ought to have known better.”. “You maintained your focus in spite of everything.”. You continued to train and to show up, and now you’re bringing the gold home!
Authorities from the California Interscholastic Federation prohibited protest signs inside Buchanan High School, but protesters outside displayed a variety of them, including ones that read “No Child Is Born in the Wrong Body,” “Trans Girls Are Boys: CIF Do Better,” and “She Trains to Win.” During some of Hernandez’s jumps, a protester outside the stadium could be heard yelling, “No boys in girls’ sports!” on a bullhorn. Does he accept the award?
Living close to the stadium, Josh Fulfer, a 46-year-old father and conservative internet influencer, claimed to be the person using the bullhorn to protest. No matter how she performed, he said Hernandez shouldn’t have been competing because her presence had a detrimental “psychological effect” on her cisgender competitors.
“I support truth,” he declared. It is unacceptable for men to compete against female athletes and to pose as women. “.”.
Loren Webster, a senior at Wilson High School in Long Beach who defeated Hernandez in the long jump, claimed she wasn’t thinking much about Hernandez and was instead concentrating on her own performance.
“I wasn’t concerned about anyone else. “I was aware of my abilities,” Webster remarked. “The uncontrollable is beyond my power. “.”.
Despite making up a very small percentage of competitors, the growing conservative outrage over transgender girls participating in athletic events across the country was mirrored in Hernandez’s intense focus during the two days of competition on Friday and Saturday. Additionally, it demonstrated a deliberate attempt by Trump and other well-known conservative leaders to single Hernandez out as an unintentional poster child for these issues.
Although most Americans are against transgender girls playing youth sports, recent polls, such as one published by The Times last year, have revealed that many Americans support transgender rights. While other states are increasingly taking steps to restrict or eliminate transgender children’s rights to play youth sports, California has long supported these rights.
Trump spent millions of dollars on anti-transgender political advertisements during his presidential campaign, first embracing transgender issues with fervor. He has implemented numerous executive orders and other measures since taking office with the intention of rescinding the rights and protections afforded to transgender people.
Hernandez has been singled out in that conversation time and again.
Trump mentioned Hernandez in a social media post earlier this week, threatening to withhold federal funding from California unless it prevented Hernandez from competing in this weekend’s state finals and more generally aligned with his executive order that allegedly forbids transgender youth from playing school sports across the country.
The day after, U. S. When Justice Department officials announced the start of an investigation into whether California, its interscholastic sports federation, and the Jurupa Unified School District are violating the civil rights of cisgender girls by permitting transgender students like Hernandez to participate in sports, they continued to make reference to Hernandez.
Hernandez barely garnered attention at the meet on Friday and Saturday, frequently blending in with the hundreds of other athletes. She was much less noticeable than the demonstrators who were there to condemn her for competing.
It is heartbreaking “every time I see my child being attacked, not for a wrongdoing, but simply for being who they are,” Hernandez’s mother said in a recent plea to Trump and other adults to be compassionate toward her daughter. “”.
She claims that although her daughter “is not a threat,” the abuse she endures is “not just cruel, it’s dangerous.”. “.”.
Hernandez’s participation in girls’ events was portrayed in a very different light by local demonstrators, some of whom had connections to national conservative groups.
Wearing a hat that read, “Women’s Sports, Women Only,” Sophia Lorey, outreach director for the conservative California Family Council, strolled around the stadium on Saturday before being led away by police. As she distributed pink “Save Girls’ Sports” bracelets and flyers pointing to an online petition urging the California Interscholastic Federation to amend its rules to prohibit transgender athletes from competing, she informed the audience that Hernandez was a boy.
The Trump administration has adopted a similar position.
On Wednesday, he wrote to Ronald W., executive director of the Interscholastic Federation. The assistant attorney, Nocetti. Gen. Hernandez’s performance in recent track and field competitions was deemed “alarming” by Harmeet Dhillon, who was appointed by Trump to lead the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Additionally, she claimed that the California regulations permitting Hernandez to participate might be in violation of Title IX, the federal civil rights law from 1972 that forbids sex discrimination in educational programs and other endeavors that receive federal funding.
Dhillon added, “Gov. In a recent interview with conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Gavin Newsom said that transgender girls playing sports are “deeply unfair.”. “”.
Hernandez was also specifically mentioned in the March conversation on Newsom’s podcast.
Newsom was asked by Kirk, a co-founder of the conservative group Turning Point USA, if he would speak out against Hernandez participating in girls’ track and field competitions. While acknowledging that such circumstances were “unfair,” Newsom also criticized “the way that people talk down to vulnerable communities,” which includes transgender individuals.
Newsom once more stated that he agreed when Kirk suggested that he could say that he has “a heart for” Hernandez but still believes her competition is unfair.
Newsom hasn’t made a statement like that since. However, since Trump began discussing Hernandez, the scene has changed for transgender athletes in California.
The CIF revealed a modification to its regulations for this weekend’s championships on Wednesday. In accordance with the new regulations, a transgender athlete who disqualifies a cisgender girl from an event final will still be able to compete in the finals. Furthermore, according to the federation, any cisgender girl who loses to a transgender competitor will receive the medal that she would have won if the transgender athlete hadn’t been competing.
Although Hernandez was not specifically mentioned by the CIF when it announced the policy change, it did specifically mention the three events she was scheduled to compete in: the long jump, triple jump, and high jump.
Hernandez shared her spot on each of the event podiums with other girls under the new regulations.
A series of inquiries concerning the CIF’s new policy were not answered. Some were unimpressed with the change, while a Newsom spokesperson praised it.
It was dismissed as inadequate by opponents of transgender athletes, who called for a complete prohibition on them. Trump would undoubtedly see that the CIF was “admitting that they’ve got it wrong for a long time” while still failing to take adequate action to correct it, according to Fulfer, the protester on the bullhorn.
Fulfer expressed the hope that Donald Trump would take note of what transpired this weekend and remove California’s funding.
Though for different reasons, LGBTQ+ advocates also blasted the rule change, calling it a clumsy surrender that singled out a teenager to appease a group of bullies picking a political quarrel.
According to Kristi Hirst, co-founder of the public education advocacy group Our Schools USA, “this was never about sports or fairness, as evidenced by the fact that these same political players still bully and harass one child, even after CIF changed its policy.”.
According to Hirst, “it was just about using a child, while compromising their personal safety on a national scale, to score political points and divert attention from the serious issues that families and communities in this country are actually concerned about, such as the loss of health care, the inability to afford groceries, and the inability to access public schools with quality teachers and resources.”. “”.
Nereyda Hernandez expressed her hope that other children who feel “unseen” would find motivation in AB’s victories. “”.
“To every young person in attendance, particularly those who feel invisible or unheard, let AB serve as a reminder that bravery, resiliency, and authenticity shine BRIGHTER than hate,” she said. It will be worthwhile even though it won’t be simple. “”.
