Federal law should prohibit it, and even California Gov. Gavin Newsom calls it unfair.
However on Saturday, AB Hernandez, a boy, swept the girls high jump, triple jump and long jump at the California Interscholastic Federation Southern Sectionals.
Hernandez’s dominant grades will likely advance him to the state championships at the end of the month.
The CIF allowed the girl who placed first in each event to share the stage with Hernandez – tacitly acknowledging two obvious facts: that Hernadez is a man, and that young women have had to unfairly compete against him for years.
The list of evicted girls is so long at this point that we have stopped breathing.
High jumper Reese Hogan is one of them; Hernandez was forced to leave the top spot on the podium again and again.
“It’s really disappointing to go into a tournament knowing you’ve lost,” Hogan said.
Everyone knows that men and women are different.
Everyone knows that women’s sports exist because men, on average, are faster, stronger and have a greater physical advantage in almost every field of athletics.
Those are simple facts – but the truth is we haven’t won.
We have had great success: By 2025, President Donald Trump’s executive order ordered federal agencies to protect women’s sports by recognizing natural gender.
The International Olympic Committee announced new rules protecting women’s events at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
Many states, 27 currently, already have protection laws.
Polls show that nearly 80% of Americans believe that women’s class should be for women only.
But despite this fact, 23 states still allow gender identity to end natural sex.
Boys continue to take titles, scholarships, records and opportunities from female athletes.
Hernandez of California is just one example; it’s happening in pools, tracks and fields across the country.
And the silent majority is responsible.
Brave girls are left losing pageants, speaking out at school board meetings and filing lawsuits, while the 80% who agree with them stand in silence.
Children carry the burden that adults should carry – but they won’t.
Why? Fear of exploitation 20%.
The upcoming decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Little v. Hecox, expected in June, we will talk.
A biological reality decision would simply allow the 27 protected states to enforce their own laws; it will not force the other 23 to change.
“Winning” will not indicate progress — it will only mean that we will not go backwards.
For Reese Hogan, who has yet to compete against Hernandez, nothing will change.
So the war is far from over.
Yes, all 50 states require laws that protect women’s sports.
Here in Colorado, I’m chairing a grassroots ballot initiative to do just that.
But legal protection, while important, is not enough: We must also change the culture.
Currently, our institutions – media, universities and corporate America – are both saturated and visible at 20%.
Look, for example, at who the media chooses to personify.
The Los Angeles Times offered a platform to empathize with Hernandez’s mother, a parent determined to keep her son competitive with girls.
It did not feature Reese Hogan, or other female athletes who have left home for years.
That’s an editorial choice — one that creates an illusion of social consensus that doesn’t exist.
It is reported that Nike imposes contractual conditions on its star female athletes, preventing them from speaking out about the protection of women’s sports.
University officials and coaches instruct female athletes not to publicly defend their sports; some who wanted to join our group in XX-XY Athletics had to bow out as a result.
Organizers of the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee threatened the athletes that if they spoke, they would risk their standing in the Olympic struggle.
That is how the transgender ideology is rooted.
If institutions designed to protect athletes silently punish those who dissent, the problem is not the law; it’s a tradition.
20% are completely comfortable when dealing with women who dare to defend themselves.
Culture only changes when the pressure to change finally outweighs the comfort of doing nothing.
And women’s sports are worth saving.
They represent opportunity, fairness and the recognition that gender differences matter.
Young girls, who know better than anyone, have shown extraordinary courage – but we can’t keep putting the burden on them.
Adults who have allowed abuse to remain silent should take courage and engage with them.
Jennifer Sey is the founder and CEO of XX-XY Athletics.
