Shame on us for making brave girls fight for women’s sports alone

Federal law is supposed to forbid it, and even California Gov. Gavin Newsom calls it unfair.

Yet on Saturday, AB Hernandez, a boy, swept the girls’ high jump, triple jump and long jump at the California Interscholastic Federation Southern Sectionals competition.

Hernandez’s dominating distances will most likely advance him to the state championships at the end of the month. 

CIF allowed the first-place girl in each event to share the podium with Hernandez — tacitly admitting two plain facts: that Hernadez is male, and that young women have unfairly had to compete against him for years.

The list of displaced girls is so long at this point that we’ve stopped flinching.

High jumper Reese Hogan is one of them; she’s been forced off the podium’s top spot by Hernandez over and over again. 

“It’s just really disappointing to go into a competition knowing you already lost,” Hogan has said.

Everyone knows men and women are different. 

Everyone knows women’s sports exist because males are, on average, faster, stronger and possess greater physical advantages in nearly every athletic domain. 

Those are simple truths — but the truth is we’re not yet winning.

We’ve had major successes: In 2025, President Donald Trump’s executive order directed federal agencies to protect women’s sports by recognizing biological sex.

The International Olympic Committee has announced new rules safeguarding women’s events at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

Many states, 27 currently, now have protective laws.

Polls show roughly 80% of Americans believe the women’s category should be for women only. 

But despite this reality, 23 states still allow gender identity to override biological sex.

Boys continue to take titles, scholarships, records and opportunities from female athletes.

California’s Hernandez is just one example; it’s happening in pools, on tracks and on fields nationwide. 

And the silent majority bears responsibility.

Brave girls are left to forfeit competitions, speak out at school board meetings and file lawsuits, while the 80% who agree with them stand by mute.

Children are carrying a burden adults should shoulder — but won’t.

Why? Fear of the bullying 20%.

Transgender athlete AB Hernandez competes in the girls’ high jump at the Arcadia Invitational. AP

The upcoming Supreme Court decision in Little v. Hecox, expected in June, will be telling. 

A ruling for biological reality would simply allow the 27 protective states to enforce their laws; it won’t force the other 23 to change.

A “win” won’t signal progress — it will just mean we won’t slip backward.

For Reese Hogan, who must still compete against Hernandez, nothing will change.

So the fight is far from over.

Yes, all 50 states need laws protecting women’s sports.

Here in Colorado, I’m chairing a  grassroots ballot initiative to do just that. 

But legal protections, while essential, aren’t enough: We must also change the culture.

Currently, persistently, our institutions — the media, universities and corporate America — are both occupied by and beholden to the 20% .  

Watch, for example, who the media chooses to humanize.

The Los Angeles Times gave a sympathetic platform to Hernandez’s mother, a parent determined to keep her male child competing against girls.

It hasn’t profiled Reese Hogan, or the other female athletes displaced for years. 

That’s an editorial choice — one that creates the illusion of a societal consensus that doesn’t exist.  

Nike reportedly imposes contract provisions on its star female athletes, barring them from speaking out about the protection of women’s sports.  

Officers and coaches at universities instruct female athletes not to publicly defend their own sports; some who wanted to join our team at XX-XY Athletics have had to bow out because of it.  

Advocates for the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee threaten athletes that if they do speak up, they’ll risk their standing in the Olympic movement.  

That’s how entrenched transgender ideology has become.  

When the institutions built to protect athletes quietly punish the ones who dissent, the problem isn’t the law; it’s the culture.

The 20% is entirely comfortable running roughshod over women who dare to stand in their own defense.

Culture only changes when the pressure to change finally outweighs the comfort of doing nothing. 

And women’s sports are worth saving.

They represent opportunity, fairness and the recognition that sex-based differences matter.

Teenage girls, who know the stakes better than anyone, have shown extraordinary courage — but we can’t keep placing the burden on them.

The grown-ups who have submitted to being bullied into silence must screw up their courage and join them.

Jennifer Sey is founder and CEO of XX-XY Athletics.