SAN FRANCISCO—A women’s rights group spoke out against the upcoming California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) policy allowing transgender athletes who are biological males to compete with girls, at a CIF San Francisco regional meeting on Sept. 7.
Feminist group members, parents, and other community members rallied in front of a San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) building.
Protesters chanted “Stand up for women” while holding banners saying things such as “Fight 4 Females” and “Speak Up 4 Girls.”
Julie Lane, leader of Women Are Real, told The Epoch Times, “We’re here to use our citizens’ rights … to say that we don’t agree with their policies.”
The draft of the CIF policy read: “All students should have the opportunity to participate in CIF activities in a manner that is consistent with their gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on a student’s records.”
In a more detailed gender diversity toolkit document, CIF states that sex discrimination protection under Title IX also applies to gender identity.
Ms. Lane called it a “rollback.”
“Now girls don’t have their own sporting events anymore; it’s mixed with transgenders,” she said. “It’s not safe; it’s not fair; we did not consent to this.”
Cynthia Cravens, who identified herself as “a lifelong liberal and a long-term Democrat,” spoke during the public comments in front of the CIF San Francisco commissioner and principals from 14 high schools in SFUSD.
“I imagine that compassion for boys’ dysmorphia, their distress around their own sex bodies, is what drives you to insist that they be permitted to participate in girls’ sports not in accordance with their biological sex,” Ms. Cravens said. “But compassion untethered from reality is not kindness. It is not a societal good, especially when it’s accompanied by a complete lack of compassion for another constituency, girls, young human females.”
Richard Wharton, a cycling coach with 30 years of experience, said during the public comments at the meeting, “When we have biological, genetic, physiological males in women’s space, what I am specifically seeing in my sport of cycling is that biological women are being displaced from participation.”
“The CIF has a responsibility to half of its biological, genetic, physiological pool of talent to keep women in women’s space for their performance ability so they can compete amongst their peers, without the explosive power disparity, without the stamina disparity, without the hematocrit disparity,” Mr. Wharton added.
One recent example is former women’s cyclocross champion rider Hannah Arensman, who decided to end her career early this year after losing to a transgender athlete in the UCI Cyclocross National Championships in late December 2022.
“It breaks your heart, because this individual is a national-caliber athlete with room for development,” Mr. Wharton told The Epoch Times after the public comments.
Beth Bourne, a mother of two children, told The Epoch Times that the Gender Diverse Youth Sport Inclusivity Toolkit is not fair to girls.
“If you go to college on a scholarship, you have a financial advantage for working hard [in sports]. And so when girls find out that someone can identify with their sport and take away their place on the JV team or the varsity team, or on a scholarship, I think we’re going to lose girls wanting to participate,” Ms. Bourne said.
Protesters hope to have an opportunity to talk with CIF about the upcoming policy change, rather than just attending public hearings.
“This should be a half-day discussion on really how this impacts girls and all children,” Ms. Lane said.
In May this year, CIF issued a statement after two transgender student athletes withdrew from state track and field preliminaries.
“The CIF strongly denounces discriminatory or harassing behaviors that impact our student-athletes’ opportunities to participate in interscholastic competitions,” CIF wrote in the statement.
Different organizations have various policies on the controversial issue of allowing transgender athletes in women’s competitions. For example, World Athletics, the international body governing international track and field, prohibits “male-to-female transgender athletes who have been through male puberty” from participating in female world rankings competitions.
