Top California conservatives target transgender high school student for playing sports
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CALIFORNIA CONSERVATIVES TARGET TRANSGENDER HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT FOR PLAYING SPORTS
A transgender girl wanted to join her high school cross-country team. Now, her school district is embroiled in a lawsuit being promoted by Fox News and two Republican California lawmakers are demanding that her district superintendent resign.
The conservative firestorm — the latest front in a GOP-led culture war in which transgender people are the target — started in November, when two girls who attend school in the Riverside Unified School District sued the district over a trans girl being allowed to join the varsity cross-country team.
They alleged that letting the trans girl join the varsity team led to them losing a spot. They also alleged that when they wore T-shirts to school with the anti-transgender slogan “Save Girls’ Sports,” they were chastised by a school official for doing so. According to the Los Angeles Times, they were told that wearing those shirts in front of transgender students was akin to wearing a swastika in front of Jewish students.
A slew of conservative figures have since weighed in, broadcasting anti-transgender remarks to their tens of thousands of social media followers.
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, who is openly weighing a GOP run for the governor’s mansion, posted on Instagram that he “applauds” the two girls for suing the school district. He also made a series of anti-transgender remarks about trans girls playing in sports.
Sophia Lorey, an anti-transgender podcaster and an associate of the California Family Council (a Southern Poverty Law Center-designated anti-LGBTQ hate group) has also posted on social media in support of the girls.
Two California GOP lawmakers have joined the fray, Assembly members Bill Essayli, R-Corona, and Leticia Castillo, R-Corona. Castillo just joined the Legislature after defeating Democrat Clarissa Cervantes in November.
Essayli and Castillo on Wednesday issued a joint statement demanding that Riverside Unified School District Superintendent Renee Hill step down over her district’s policy of affirming transgender girls by allowing them to access gender-segregated school activities (namely sports) and bathrooms.
“Riverside USD has failed to protect young girls on campus, most recently at King High School in my district,” Essayli said in a statement, excluding trans girls from his statement.
He went on to say “it is time for Superintendent Renee Hill to resign and put common sense student safety over radical gender identity politics.”
Castillo said in a statement that Hill “has been derelict in her duty to ensure the safety of female students through RUSD,” also excluding trans female students in that reference.
“It is inappropriate to compare vulnerable young women to Nazis simply because they do not agree with a radical agenda that compromises their safety in order to appease well-funded and influential groups that have inserted themselves into public education,” Castillo said.
Both lawmakers said they intend to attend the school board’s meeting Thursday.
Tony Hoang, executive director of the LGBTQ advocacy group Equality California, said in a statement to The Bee that “all students, including transgender students, should be able to learn and thrive in a safe school environment.”
Hoang also condemned Essayli and Castillo “for their dangerous and cynical efforts to politicize students.”
According to SoCal Extremism Watch, a watchdog that tracks extremist activity in Southern California, the lawsuit has triggered a coordinated and far-reaching harassment campaign against two transgender students in the district, as well as school board members and administrators who have been supportive of them.
“We are extremely concerned about these well-funded and highly coordinated efforts to target and harass individual LGBTQ+ students and the districts and administrators following state law. The minor students’ safety is at risk as is the safety of the school and district as a whole,” the group said in a statement.
Neither Hill nor the school district responded to The Bee’s request for comment by deadline.
However, in a November statement to ABC 7 Eyewitness News, the district said that it is “bound to follow California law which requires that students be permitted to participate in sex-segregated school programs and activities, including athletic teams and competitions consistent with his or her gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the pupil’s records.”
A previous version of this story incorrectly labeled Sophia Lorey’s organization; it’s the California Family Council.
NEWSOM LEADS THE DEMOCRATIC PACK IN NEW EMERSON POLL
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is among the most-favored possible 2028 presidential candidates among Democrats surveyed, according to a recent Emerson College poll.
The survey found that half of Democrats have a favorable view of the governor, who terms out of office in 2026. Only Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg (57%) and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (54%) had higher favorable ratings. Trailing Newsom were Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (46%) and billionaire Mark Cuban (44%).
Notably, Cuban had the highest favorability among independents (33%).
Of course, it’s still very early and none of the above people have stated they intend to run.
On the Republican side, Vice President-elect JD Vance (a possible 2028 contender, since President-elect Donald Trump will be term-limited) has a 41% favorability and a 41% unfavorability, showing voters are split. Billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk, who cannot run for president as he was not born a U.S. citizen, drew similarly mixed views, with 43% favoring him and 43% having an unfavorable view.
The national poll also surveyed a number of other questions.
A plurality of voters (40%) supported the U.S. government’s impending ban on the social media platform TikTok, while 30% opposed it and 30% were undecided. Among voters 18 to 29, half opposed the ban.
Finally, and controversially, young people were far more likely to find the recent assassination of a health insurance CEO to be somewhat or completely acceptable — the survey found 41% of those aged 18 to 29 felt the killing was acceptable. Another 19% were neutral, while 40% said it was either somewhat or completely unacceptable.
That was the only age group where a plurality was in favor of the killing.
Emerson College surveyed 1,000 registered voters in English via phone and internet between Dec. 11 and Dec. 13. The poll has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
CALIFORNIA SENATE DELEGATION SPLIT ON NDAA VOTE
Via David Lightman...
Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., was one of 14 senators Wednesday who voted against the massive bill that sets defense policy for the near future.
Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., voted for the $895 billion bill.
Schiff explained that the defense bill has traditionally been a nonpartisan measure.
But this time, he said, “Partisan efforts to introduce policy riders to the bill that withhold make-or-break funds from our ally Ukraine or undermine access to lifesaving health care for military families are unacceptable.”
The bill says the Pentagon has to give Congress an evaluation of how Ukraine’s war against Russia is proceeding and what could happen if the United States ends its support.
It also bars the military health program from covering transgender health care for children of military personnel.
The defense bill, Schiff said, “should focus on protecting American troops and ensuring we have the resources to support our allies – not serve as a vehicle for the ideological issues of the day.
“I will always do everything I can to support our service members, our military readiness and might, and our national security. Inserting divisive policy riders into our defense authorization undermines that – and for that reason, I voted no.”
Padilla supported the bill, noting that his proposal to boost the program that uses military satellites to help fight wildfires was included in the bill.
The program uses Pentagon satellites to find wildfires, notify authorities, and create products to help firefighters around the country.
His office said the plan “gives the Pentagon authority to enter into contracts or cooperative agreements with other government agencies or outside entities to support and sustain the FireGuard program.”
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Trump knows his lawsuit against the Des Moines Register — based on a poll underestimating his support — has no basis. He knows he’ll lose. That’s not the point. The point is to intimidate all media outlets into not criticizing him & falling in line. That’s why it’s so dangerous.”
- Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, discussing Trump’s recent lawsuit over a poll showing him underwater with Iowa voters ahead of the election, via Bluesky.
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This story was originally published December 19, 2024 at 4:55 AM.