Grace Under Fire: Transgender Student Athlete AB Hernandez’s Winning Weekend

After months of being harassed and heckled by a group of adults, AB Hernandez, a 16-year-old transgender athlete, won first place in two events at the California Interscholastic Federation’s Track and Field Championships on Saturday amidst cheers from parents, coaches and other competitors. Hours after President Donald Trump demanded, in a May 27 post on Truth Social, that she not be allowed to compete, the U.S. Department of Justice launched an investigation into California school administrators, the CIF and the Jurupa Unified School District, where Hernandez is a student, for allowing transgender student-athletes to compete in girls’ sports. 

The California Interscholastic Federation effectively created a new category for Hernandez following Trump’s statement. Under new rules for this year’s track and field championships, the next “biological female student-athlete” that finished below Hernandez shared the place with her. Two first place medals were awarded for triple jump, and three for high jump, as the second place winners tied. Two second place medals were awarded for long jump.  

“Students participate in the gender in which they identify. I don’t have anything else,” Rebecca Brutlag, director of media at the California Interscholastic Federation, said in response to an inquiry as to how the organization defined a “biological female.”

“I may be competing with the girls, but I’m technically competing by myself,” Hernandez said during an interview with Capital & Main as she prepared for the meet. “Which is why I’m kind of like, ‘Well, just got to perform my best.’ As long as I’m happy with my results, that’s all I care about.”

AB Hernandez, center, shares the podium during the medal ceremony for the high jump at the California high school track and field championships in Clovis on Saturday.

After the championships, U.S. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon sent a letter to California public schools and to commissioners of the California Interscholastic Federation stating that the policy allowing students to participate in athletic events based on their gender identity violates federal law. Dillon warned districts they would be open to legal liability for allowing transgender students to compete, and she demanded that school leaders certify compliance in writing by 5 p.m on June 9. President Trump also posted on Truth Social that he will impose “large-scale fines” on California for allowing Hernandez to compete.

The president’s post about Hernandez was the loudest voice to join a cacophony of local elected officials, conservative influencers and random adults who have made Hernandez the poster child for an effort to ban transgender children from participating in sports and entering certain physical spaces that match their gender identity. Several of those who’ve weighed in have made the matter a central issue of platforms in their campaigns for public office. Sonja Shaw, the president of the Chino Valley Unified School District’s Board of Education, states that transgender girls “undermine fairness and safety” on the website for her campaign for superintendent of public instruction overseeing California’s public schools. 

Shaw doxxed Hernandez in February, posting her full name, high school and the fact that she is transgender online. Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, who is running for governor of California, has misgendered transgender students repeatedly on social media. Bianco also co-hosted Shaw’s kickoff campaign event in Riverside. 

Anti-trans policies have been adopted by national and local organizations backing Republican candidates as a winning strategy to push voters to the right. Members of the Council for National Policy (CNP), a secretive, well-funded group of powerful conservatives, received a tutorial on how to use public school boards and transphobia to drive voters to the polls in Republicans’ favor in 2022. The plan calls for, among other things, whipping up support at local school boards, which Shaw has spearheaded through introducing motions prohibiting transgender athletes from participating in girls’ sports that have been replicated in school districts across Southern California. Another step is creating “a visible wave of resistance through the campaign [and] social media.”

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That wave made a small showing outside of Veteran’s Memorial Stadium during both days of the 2025 California Interscholastic Federation’s Track and Field Championships, held in Clovis. A group of 10 adults stood outside of the meet carrying signs and chanting into megaphones as the event got underway. 

Beth Bourne, an employee of University of California, Davis, carried a foam board that displayed the identities of 10 transgender youth athletes whom she said she identified by looking at the children’s social media accounts. The morning of the event, Bourne posted a series of tweets about the student athletes, including AB Hernandez. “People feel like I’m stalking [the kids] because I look on the social media accounts for the trans-identified kids in our schools, and I talk to parents and I look at what’s on the teacher’s social media. I don’t know if it’s stalking or if it’s doing like…investigative journalistic work. I encourage everyone to do the same,” she said. 

A few protesters made their way into the stadium wearing shirts proclaiming “Protect Girls Sports” and “XX≠XY.” During the first day of the meet, a plane towing a banner emblazoned with “No Boys in Girls’ Sports!” circled overhead for hours. The meet was paused at one point during the finals when several adults began to heckle Hernandez as she was about to perform her jump. Sophia Lorey, who has organized past protests against Hernandez at her track meets, was escorted out of the stadium after she handed out flyers encouraging others to get involved in her efforts. Lorey is the outreach director of the California Family Council, which has been labeled an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. 

Anti-trans protesters hold signs outside of Veterans Memorial Stadium in Clovis.

The strategy of using a “visible wave of resistance” to a transgender athlete did not appear to win over many supporters at the meet. On the field, Hernandez’s competitors embraced her wholeheartedly. She spent the long, hot weekend laughing and chatting with the other girls, and exchanging direct messages on social media after the events wrapped for the day. When the time came to present medals on the podium, Hernandez stood smiling with the girls she shared the award with. 

“Sharing the podium was nothing but an honor,” Brooke White, who was awarded the second-place podium for the long jump alongside Hernandez, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “Although the publicity she’s been receiving has been pretty negative, I believe she deserves publicity because she’s a superstar, she’s a rock star, she’s representing who she is.”

Hernandez’s mother, Nereyda, was approached by dozens of people who offered their support. Some had driven for hours to attend the meet in support of AB.

“They are distracting all of the athletes they supposedly came to protect,” one coach from a San Diego team said. “I’ve been a coach for over 20 years. The kids don’t care.” 

Hernandez said all of the support was heartfelt, and made her experience much better. “It just really overtakes the hate, and it just means so much. And it makes me want to keep pushing and just keep fighting for me to continue this and leave a legacy behind.”

AB Hernandez smiles for the camera between triple jump attempts.

All photos by Lana Shaw.
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