PARENTS OF TRANS ATHLETES DECRY THE BULLYING AND HARASSMENT OF THEIR CHILDREN AT SPORTING EVENTS BY ANTI-LGBTQIA HATE GROUPS.
Parents of K-12 student athletes whose children have been subjected to harassment, bullying, and death threats thanks to the anti-LGBTQIA hate groups and politicians of “Protect Girls Sports” are speaking out against the abuse directed towards their families.
Rainbow Families Action will host a press conference on 5/9/26 at 12pm, outside Yorba Linda High School where CIF Division 3 Preliminaries are taking place in Track & Field.
“Last May, at this same meet, the hate groups hunted down my child and heckled her as she tried to compete. They misgendered my kid and made comments about her genitals. She is a minor. They yelled slurs at her for over an hour then cornered me and screamed that I was a “coward” as I tried to watch my kid. The bullying and harassment must stop.” said mother, Nereyda Hernandez.
Parents of transgender athletes are requesting a meeting with elected representatives given the intensity of the abuse their children face. Trevor Norcross, Board Vice President at the Gala Pride and Diversity Center and parent to a transgender high school athlete says: “Governor Newsom, you have said that you have met with families on the other side of this issue, please respect our voices and meet with us. The lives of these kids and our families should not be discussed without our voices. No one has the knowledge or experience to fully understand this issue better than us. No one has experienced the impacts of this debate like us.”
The anti-LGBTQIA “Protect Girls Sports” campaign is co-led by the California Family Council, designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and Sonja Shaw, a far right politician who is running for CA State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Shaw presides over the Chino Valley School District, where she has passed “forced outing” policies, banned Pride flags and books and wasted over $4 million dollars on legal fees after her board was sued for refusing to follow CA state law.
Under CIF’s pilot policy aimed at the 2025 State Track Finals, trans athletes were not permitted to displace the cisgender athletes who placed after them. Trans athletes shared awards and medals with their cisgender counterparts.
As Rainbow Family Action’s Arne Johnson explained, “Despite this compromise, the anti-LGBTQIA coalition has continued to target the tiny handful of trans students who play at the high school level. This proved that this was never about sport and fairness for the anti-LGBTQ hate group in the first place.”
“Make no mistake,” Johnson continued, “The Protect Girls Sports campaign is a Trojan Horse. Behind it is a push to bar LGBTQIA people from all walks of life, including getting married and being able to access public bathrooms and spaces in California.”