President Donald Trump early Tuesday doubled down on his warning that California will face “large scale fines” for allowing a transgender athlete to compete — and win — in the state’s high school track and field championship over the weekend.
“A Biological Male competed in California Girls State Finals, WINNING BIG, despite the fact that they were warned by me not to do so,” Trump posted on his Truth Social page shortly after midnight. “As Governor Gavin Newscum fully understands, large scale fines will be imposed!!!”
Saturday, transgender athlete AB Hernandez, 16, won gold in the girls’ high jump and triple jump events at the state championships, reports Sports Illustrated.
Last week, after Trump initially threatened to pull federal funding from the state, the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), which governs state high school sports, changed rules to allow more girls to compete and medal in the events in which Hernandez was competing.
Under the new rules, athletes assigned as female at birth receive medals based on where they would have finished if a transgender athlete did not compete in the same event. The rule also allowed at least two competitors to be added to the starting lists of Hernandez’s events.
On Saturday, Hernandez won the high jump with a top mark of 5 feet, 7 inches and the triple jump with a leap of 42 feet, 2.75 inches, while finishing second in the long jump, at 20 feet, 8.75 inches, according to Sports Illustrated.
Under the new rules, Hernandez shared the first-place podium for high jump with Lelani Laruelle of Monta Vista and Jillene Wetteland of Long Beach Poly.
In triple jump, Hernandez had the longest jump and shared the 1st-place podium with Kira Grant Hatcher of St. Mary’s, who landed her jump at 40 feet, 5 inches.
“She’s super nice,” Grant Hatcher said of Hernandez. “We see the same people at all the meets, so you form friendships.”
The long jump was won by Long Beach Wilson’s Loren Webster, at 21 inches, 0.25 inches, leaving Hernandez to share the second-place finish with River City’s Brooke White.
White told The San Francisco Chronicle, when talking about sharing the podium with Hernandez, ??that the other athletes “all have her back. … It’s emotional, it gets people heated from all sides of the argument. But when I got here and I talked to AB Hernandez … I learned to knock out all of the negativity. … The negativity: It affects us, too.”
California passed a law in 2013 allowing transgender athletes the right to participate in school sports matching their gender identity.
The Department of Justice has opened an investigation into whether the law, passed by former Gov. Jerry Brown, violates Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in education programs and activities receiving federal funding.
Last week, Trump warned that “large scale Federal Funding will be held back, maybe permanently,” if his executive order against transgender participation in girls’ sports was not obeyed.
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