A middle school in San Diego has been thrust into local controversy because of a transgender student using the girls’ locker room.
The San Diego County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted against a measure to carry out the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, which would prevent trans athletes from competing in girls’ sports or entering girls’ locker rooms.
Vice Chair of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors Jim Desmond brought forth the proposal at a San Diego Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday. However, the measure did not get any votes from other supervisors outside of Desmond.
“People came into the meeting with their minds already made up on the issue,” Desmond told Fox News Digital.
“The rest were mothers who just didn’t think it was fair or safe for males to be playing in girls’ or women’s safe. So the room was probably 60-40 in favor of letting them play, but I think that’s just the turnout of who was able to take the day off and come down here. I think the vast majority of the people in San Diego County agree that males should not be playing in women’s and girls’ sports.”
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Tuesday’s meeting featured several arguments from concerned parents who expressed their concern over their daughters being forced to share locker rooms with biological males.
The middle school where this controversy is taking place, San Elijo Middle School, provided a statement to Fox News Digital, crediting its enabling of the transgender student to access the girls’ locker room to the school’s obligation of following state law.
“Public school districts in California are governed by, and must act in accordance with, California state law and the California Education Code,” San Elijo Middle School’s statement reads.
“As a California public school district, we will continue to follow state law and guidance from the California Department of Education to ensure that all students are treated with dignity, respect, and fairness. Our district remains committed to upholding policies that support all students, in accordance with state protections and anti-discrimination laws.”
President Donald Trump signed the “No Men in Women’s Sports” executive order last Wednesday, which cuts federal funding for any educational institution that allows biological males to compete with girls and women.
However, multiple states, including California, have insisted they will not comply with Trump’s order. According to USA Facts, California public schools receive about $16.8 billion per year, which is 13.9% or one in every seven dollars of public school funding, which is well above the national average.
The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) said it will continue to follow the state’s law that allows athletes to participate as whichever gender they identify as, a spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
“The CIF provides students with the opportunity to belong, connect, and compete in education-based experiences in compliance with California law [Education Code section 221.5. (f)] which permits students to participate in school programs and activities, including athletic teams and competitions, consistent with the student’s gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the student’s records,” a CIF statement said.
Desmond said that many of his local constituents reached out to him expressing concern and disbelief about the state’s handling of the situation.
“They think it’s crazy, and I’ve heard questions of ‘is it even legal?’” Desmond said.
For Desmond, as a Republican, he sees the Democrat refusal to comply with Trump’s order as an issue that will continue to harm support for the party in his state.
“These people didn’t get the message in the last election and they’re just digging the hole deeper. They’re doubling down, digging their heels in the ground, ‘yes we’re right,’” Desmond said, adding that he thinks and hopes the trans athlete debate will strengthen Republican support in California.
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“I think it’s empowering us with the new administration to stand up and do what’s right. And that’s all we’re trying to do, we’re not trying to discriminate against anybody. If you want to be trans, if you want to identify as another [gender], fine, go for it, you have that right, but where do your rights end and somebody else’s begin? You can’t have one boy cause 30 girls to have to leave and go change some place else, that’s not right, we need a better system.”
The decision by California not to comply with Trump’s order has recently prompted backlash and even protests and threats of lawsuits by the state’s residents.
On Friday, residents gathered in Long Beach, California, to protest outside a CIF federated board meeting. The protesters then spoke at the board meeting, pleading with the CIF officials to follow the president’s order and threatening civil lawsuits against the CIF and state.
Currently, there is one lawsuit against the CIF and the state’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, over a situation at Martin Luther King High School involving a trans athlete on the girls’ cross-country team.
A recent school board meeting by the Riverside Unified School District on Dec. 19 featured a parade of parents berating the board for allowing a trans athlete on the Martin Luther King girls’ cross-country team. A lawsuit filed by two girls on the team alleges that their T-shirts in protest of that player were compared to swastikas simply because they said “Save Girls Sports.”
The father of a girl who lost her varsity spot to the trans athlete previously told Fox News Digital that his daughter and other girls at the school were told “transgenders have more rights than cisgender[s]” by school administrators when they protested the athlete’s participation.
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That is just one controversy in the state that has erupted over the last year from its laws that enable trans inclusion in girls’ sports.
Stone Ridge Christian High School’s girls’ volleyball team was scheduled to face San Francisco Waldorf in the Northern California Division 6 tournament but forfeited in an announcement just before the match over the presence of a trans athlete on the team.
A transgender volleyball player was booed and harassed at an Oct. 12 match between Notre Dame Belmont in Belmont, California, against Half Moon Bay High School, according to ABC 7. Half Moon Bay rostered the transgender athlete.
California State Assembly member Kate Sanchez announced on Jan. 7 that she is introducing a bill to ban trans athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports.
Sanchez will propose the Protect Girls’ Sports Act to the state legislature. Currently, 25 states have similar laws in effect.
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Jackson Thompson is a sports writer for Fox News Digital. He previously worked for ESPN and Business Insider. Jackson has covered the Super Bowl and NBA Finals, and has interviewed iconic figures Usain Bolt, Rob Gronkowski, Jerry Rice, Troy Aikman, Mike Trout, David Ortiz and Roger Clemens.
