Under pressure from the Trump administration, the organization that governs high school sports in California has expanded qualification standards for the girls track and field state championships because a transgender-identifying male is competing there. 

The male, AB Hernandez, a junior, last weekend qualified for the state championships this weekend in the high jump, triple jump, and long jump. The program describes Hernandez as the “clear favorite” to win the triple jump during the meet, which takes place Friday and Saturday in Clovis, California. 

Field qualifying events are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Eastern time (3 p.m. Pacific time) on Friday. 

The California Interscholastic Federation made two unusual announcements earlier this week, just days before the state championship. The first, on Tuesday, May 27, said that “biological female student-athletes” who would have qualified for the state championship meet in the absence of the male student-athlete would be advanced to the state championship. 

On Wednesday, May 28, the federation announced that if the male competitor qualifies on Friday for the finals on Saturday in high jump, triple jump, or long jump, then “a biological female student-athlete who would have earned the next qualifying mark will also be advanced to the finals.” 

The federation’s announcements came shortly after threats issued by President Donald Trump. 

On Tuesday morning, President Trump said on Truth Social that “large scale Federal Funding will be held back, maybe permanently” from California if the state doesn’t follow his executive order Feb. 5 seeking to ban males from competing in female sports. 

On Wednesday, the Trump administration’s Justice Department announced it is opening an investigation over whether a 2013 California state statute that requires that males who identify as females be allowed to participate in girls’ sports violates Title IX protection of female athletes in federal civil rights law. 

“Title IX exists to protect women and girls in education.  It is perverse to allow males to compete against girls, invade their private spaces, and take their trophies. This Division will aggressively defend women’s hard-fought rights to equal educational opportunities,” aid Harmeet Dhillon, assistant U.S. Attorney General for Civil Rights, in a press release. 

The state statute took effect in 2014, before the current governor, Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, took office. But supporters of the law considered Newsom an ally until this past March, when he unexpectedly came out against males playing in female sports during an episode of his podcast. 

“It is an issue of fairness. It’s deeply unfair,” Newsom said of transgender-identifying males competing in girls sports, as the Register reported at the time. 

Newsom also said during that podcast that Trump’s ads during the 2024 campaign depicting Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris as an extremist on gender identity were “devastating.” 

This week, a spokesman for Newsom, Izzy Gardon, said the governor supports the state high school sports federation’s changes to expand access to female competitors while still allowing a transgender-identifying male athlete to compete. 

Gardon said that the federation’s new pilot policy “is a reasonable, respectful way to navigate a complex issue without compromising competitive fairness” and that Newsom “is encouraged by this thoughtful approach.” 

Some critics say the new pilot policy in California doesn’t go far enough. 

Diane Pearce, mayor pro tem of Clovis, where the girls state track and field championships are taking place, said during a press conference Thursday that the integrity of girls sports is undermined by the presence of male competitors. 

"Because the CIF, Governor Newsom, and the state legislature have failed our female athletes, there is a distraction that hangs like a cloud over this weekend's events," said Pearce, a Republican. "It's time we stand up and demand a level playing field. Let's stand together for fairness, for opportunity, and especially for our girls." 

On the other side, some have argued that expanding the field stigmatizes transgender-identifying male athletes, feeding a narrative that they aren’t girls. 

The issue has drawn statements from Catholic organizations this year. 

Earlier in May, JSerra Catholic High School in San Juan Capistrano joined two Lutheran high schools in protesting the state high school sports federation’s policy allowing transgender-identifying male athletes to compete with girls. 

In February, shortly after President Trump issued his executive order seeking to ban males from female sports, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a written statement from two bishops supporting the president’s directive. 

“We welcome the President’s Executive Order that protects opportunities for women and girls to compete in sports safely and fairly,” said the prelates — Bishop Robert Barron, of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota and chairman of the bishops conference’s Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth; and Bishop David M. O’Connell, of the Diocese of Trenton, New Jersey and chairman of the bishops conference’s Committee on Catholic Education. 

The bishops condemned what they called “unjust discrimination” against “those who experience gender discordance,” but said separating males and females in competitive sports is a must. 

“Consistent with the Catholic Church’s clear teaching on the equality of men and women, we reaffirm that, in education and in sports as elsewhere, policies must uphold human dignity. This includes equal treatment between women and men and affirmation of the goodness of a person’s body, which is genetically and biologically female or male,” the bishops said.