Newsom office source responds to planned protest against trans athlete at state playoff girls' track meet

A planned protest at Saturday’s California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section Division 3 preliminaries will once again spotlight the state’s insistence that biological males can compete in girls’ high school track and field. Sophia Lorey, the former NCAA women’s soccer player who organized last year’s demonstration at the same meet, is returning with her “Save Girls’ Sports” activists. The target this time is a transgender athlete from Jurupa Valley High School who, one year ago, won state titles in the triple jump and high jump and placed second in the long jump.

Governor Gavin Newsom’s office responded to questions about the upcoming protest with a familiar script: “The Governor has said discussions on this issue should be guided by fairness, dignity, and respect. He rejects the right wing’s cynical attempt to weaponize this debate as an excuse to vilify individual kids.” The statement also reminded reporters that California is one of 22 states with a 2013 law, AB 1266, signed by then-Governor Jerry Brown, requiring schools to let students participate in sex-segregated sports consistent with gender identity.

That legal posture is colliding with federal reality. The Trump Justice Department filed a Title IX lawsuit against California education agencies last July, precisely because of the Jurupa Valley athlete’s dominance. In the fall, three former female volleyball players from the same school sued the Jurupa Unified School District for allowing the transgender athlete on the girls’ team and in the girls’ locker room. Multiple opposing teams forfeited matches rather than compete. Meanwhile, Newsom’s Legal Affairs Secretary David Sapp emailed the district a copy of the state’s motion to dismiss the federal suit, an exchange school officials later described as merely sharing a “publicly available” document.