California leaders called on Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state's High School Sports governing body, CIF (California Interscholastic Federation), to do what's right and protect female sports ahead of this weekend's state high school track and field finals, where a trans-identifying biological male athlete is competing against biological girls.

At the Save Our Girls Sports rally in Clovis, California, on Thursday, Clovis Mayor Pro Tem Diane Pearce referenced President Donald Trump's threat to yank federal funding from the state for violating Title IX after CIF refused to ban top-ranked girls' triple jumper, and second-ranked girls' long jumper AB Hernandez, a trans-identifying male runner, from this week's CIF Track & Field Championship being held in the city.

We’re excited to launch https://t.co/sqqbM5fxep a platform that will be exposing how females are being erased in California.

Starting TODAY, it’s the now the home of a vital petition urging CIF to save girls’ sports.

No Boys. No Bias. Just Fairness.

🔗 Sign & share:… pic.twitter.com/5Hwh2C7ap3

— Sophia Lorey (@SophiaSLorey) May 29, 2025

In response to Trump's threat, CIF attempted to put a band-aid on the problem and announced its "pilot program" allowing female student-athletes whose medals and spots were taken by boys pretending to be girls to compete in the finals.

RedState then reported that:

Wednesday Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon announced that the Department of Justice launched an investigation against the CIF to determine if their policy mandating that males be allowed to participate as whichever gender they identify with. She also announced that she'd directed the US Attorney for the Central District of California to investigate whether this policy violated the Equal Protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.

CIF later issued a clarification because its new policy was as clear as mud. It read that:

On Friday, May, 30, if necessary, in the high jump, triple jump and long jump qualifying events at the 2025 CIF State Track and Field Championships, a biological female student-athlete who would have earned the next qualifying mark will also be advanced to the finals.

Additionally, if necessary, in the high jump, triple jump and long jump events at the 2025 CIF State Track and Field Championships, a biological female student-athlete who would have earned a specific placement on the podium will also be awarded the medal for that place and the results will be reflected in the recording of the event.

At the press conference, Pearce said CIF's so-called fix "only underscores their knowledge that biological girls have been cheated out of the opportunities they earned." Later, telling RedState, "So, again, they are recognizing the problem that they have and that what they are doing isn't right or fair to biological girls."

"Because here, the CIF and Newsom and California legislature, frankly, have failed our girls by not being compliant with federal law, which is Title IX, and coming into compliance with President Trump's Executive Order 'Keeping Men out of Women's Sports,'" she added. "And so what we have this weekend, in some of our girls' track and field meets, is a biological boy who is favored to win the state title in a couple of girls' events."

The Mayor Pro Tem called on Newsom and the CIF "to do the right thing and said the only solution that makes it fair for females is "to remove biological boys from girl's sports" and ban "transgenders" from competing.

CA State Assemblymember David Tangipa said that allowing a biological male to compete against females affects every person on that field, "fundamentally" changing how each one prepares for the competition, knowing they are biologically at a disadvantage. 

"As a former athlete at Fresno State, I know how important it is for a lot of these athletes to compete, that spend hours and hours preparing….and creating these changes in the middle of championship weekend is a disservice to all of them," he added. 

California Family Council Women's Sports Advocate Sophia Lorey, a former four-year varsity CIF athlete, called out CIF for allowing AB Hernandez to compete against females. She said they have a choice to either "course correct and defend girls' sports" or go down in history as "one of the leading organizations that led the charge in erasing them."

"California is failing our girls," Lorey said, pointing out that by allowing Hernandez, "that's not equality, that's not inclusion, this is the erasure of female athletics. President Trump just threatened that federal funds will be pulled from CA schools if CIF allows this injustice to continue. And he's right."

RedState spoke to Lorey, who told us the girls who are competing Friday are "not okay" with having to compete against a biological boy, and "they don't want to compete against" him. But she said many have remained silent out of fear of "retaliation" and "losing their fair shot to play at the next level."

"I have received texts and calls from these athletes and their parents that this is not okay," Lorey said. "They don't want to have to compete against a boy, but they have trained so hard to make it to this spot and CIF Finals. And so they want a change from CIF, and they are wondering why the group won't protect them."

She said not only are the athletes hurting, but the parents too, who she said are "heartbroken" after watching their child work so hard to get to this level of competition only to have their victory "stolen by a male."

Lorey encouraged people to go to XXonly.org to sign the petition calling on CIF to do what's right.

Noticeably absent at today's presser was anyone from Newsom's office, after the Governor admitted recently that it is "unfair" for females to have to compete against biological boys in women's sports.