Trans track athletes win girls’ division state titles in WA and CA

Two male transgender athletes – AB Hernandez of California and Veronica Garcia of Washington – won girls’ outdoor track and field state championships last weekend.

Hernandez, a junior at Jurupa Valley High, won the California Interscholastic Federation girls’ outdoor track state championships in two events May 31, according to Athletic.net: the high jump (5 feet, 7 inches) and the triple jump (42 feet, 2.75 inches).

Additionally, Garcia, a senior at East Valley High School, won the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association Class 2A state championship in the 400-meter (55.70 seconds), according to the Seattle Times. This marked the second consecutive year Garcia won a girls’ outdoor track state championship. 

Fans booed Garcia both years upon winning the state title. 

“I’ll be honest, I kind of expect it,” Garcia told the Seattle Times. “But it maybe didn’t have their intended effect. It made me angry, but not angry as in, I wanted to give up, but angry as in, I’m going to push.”

Similarly, Hernandez rebuked critics of males in women’s sports, calling them “idiotic” for believing male runners like him have an unfair advantage over female competitors. 

Hernandez didn’t come in first place in the high jump and long jump this season, but finished second in the long jump at the state title meet, he noted.

“All I thought was, I don’t think you understand that this puts your idiotic claims to trash. ‘She can’t be beat because she’s biologically male.’ Now you have no proof that I can’t be beat,” the transgender athlete told Capital and Main last month. 

California and Washington allow male transgender athletes to compete on teams matching their so-called gender identity instead of their anatomical sex and both face investigations under the Trump administration. In February, Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to withhold money from states and schools that allow males to compete in girls’ sports. 

An NBC News poll released in April found 75% of Americans oppose male trans athletes competing in women’s sports; just 25% support it.