CIF announces AB Hernandez is male, and they can screw girls over at the same time!

WE ALL KNOW THIS IS A BOY! THE BOY KNOWS IT TOO! YAY GIRLS’ SPORTS!

California Interscholastic Federation has set the bar very very high for self-humiliation, but I have confidence they can reach even greater heights—or is it depths? I thought CIF couldn’t have embarrassed themselves any more than they did last May when it became apparent that a boy, AB Hernandez, had a very good chance of winning three GIRLS state championships. And those spineless geniuses at CIF thought, ooo, bad optics. Galvanizing every ounce of their considerable cowardice and remarkable institutional idiocy, CIF established a pilot entry process just for the state championship track meet that applied only to the three events in which Hernandez was entered—the long jump, triple jump, and high jump—such that, if the boy made it into the finals, 12 girls, actual females, could advance to the finals and compete for the state championship. So, in those three events, 13 athletes would advance to the finals instead of the rule standard 12—12 girls and a boy. AND if the special boy got a podium spot, the girl whose spot that should have been would “get” to share her podium spot with Hernandez. This feat of institutional stupidity rose well above run-of-the-mill stupidity by simultaneously adding in criminality, destroying all girls’ Title IX right to single-sex sports, making a joke of the very foundation of competition, AND installing a blinking neon arrow over the male competitor that read: THIS BOY IS NOT A GIRL BUT WE’RE TOO COWARDLY TO TELL HIM TO COMPETE IN THE BOYS’ CATEGORY AND THE GIRLS WILL BE GOOD SPORTS ABOUT GIVING UP ALL THEIR RIGHTS.

As it turns out, last May was not a one off as CIF hoped. They’re still cowardly and stupid, and boys are still not girls, and everyone knows it—shit—so already, so early in this year’s track season, they’ve had to perform the same We Are Fucking Idiots dance. On March 7, at the Roosevelt Invitational in Eagleville, CA, the male athlete, AB Hernandez, swept the high jump, triple jump, and long jump. Even though he had the best jump by a long way, the meet directors “let” the top jumping female athlete stand on the first place podium with the boy. Because: see? Girls are not being displaced by this boy, right? And let’s be clear, everyone KNOWS AB Hernandez is male—CIF acknowledges it, the girls know it, the parents know it, AB Hernandez knows it, everyone knows it. So much for affirming that boy’s feminine identity. The truth is a bitch. But AB Hernandez is not. He’s just a boy.

Is this supposed to be a win for kids with trans identities? Is this the end game of “trans inclusion?” Because, eeuuww.

No matter how you slice it, it’s hard to even count the losers in this situation. First and foremost, girls lose. It’s CIF’s job to administer the rules of sport, one of which is to define and defend categories, sex being foremost among them. They failed girls monumentally by actively welcoming boys with special identities into the sport. Thousands of girls over a single track season are displaced by a single boy. It’s not just places and opportunities that girls lose, it’s the message that a boy is entitled, backed by state law, no less, to choose to compete in girls’ sports, but girls cannot choose to have only female competition. Boys are prioritized in girls’ sports. Boys have all the power in girls’ sports. For no reason other than that they claim a feminine identity. Girls lose big time.

And while we’re on the notion of unverifiable identities, if CIF made a special rule just for one boy in girls’ sports, it’s obvious they should honor girls who identify as boys and compete in boys’ sports. The first place “trans boy” should have shared the podium with the first place boy at the state championship, even if this athlete actually placed last. She was the first “trans boy” and should have been recognized just like the first place “trans girl.” Why did the CIF not make a rule about this? Nevermind that this cohort barely exists (it’s not clear if there were ANY females competing in the male category at the state championship or the Roosevelt Invitational). No one seems to give a fuck about females, regardless of their identity claims. So let’s expand the loser list—ALL females lose. Including those with masculine or nonbinary identities.

AB Hernandez loses. The CIF is running into problems with the whole gender identity thing. To a member, they know like they know their names that Hernandez is male. Hell, Hernandez knows he’s male but is riding this train as far as it will take him. Why not? Can you even imagine being a 17-year-old narcissistic, not entirely mentally healthy boy and having this much personal power over the CIF? But the truth is, his “power” identifies as power. In the same way he’s living a lie, the CIF and every other person watching in the stands knows he’s male. CIF confirms he’s “the male winner of the female triple jump.” Dude, that’s a lose. Not enough makeup in the world to hide that.

You have to almost—almost—be in awe of an organization that is willing to debase itself publicly to this degree. CIF has. And appears to have no end to their willingness to expose their idiocy. Not only making special rules to allow special boys to compete in girls sports, violating Title IX, destroying the integrity of girls’ sports, violating every foundational truth of our society—that and more. There is simply no limit to the degree to which CIF will debase their own organization. That they will commit these crimes against girls, publicly, and lie blatantly—they’ve given away every shred of authority or credibility they ever had. Wow, talk about losers.

Sports lose. Cheats are not treated kindly in sports because cheating is counter to the very soul of sports. Sports strive to be as fair as possible, to control for known advantages—age, weight, ability, experience, and yes, sex—so that talent can be celebrated. Do not start with me about Michael Phelps. Don’t embarrass yourself. Phelps competes against males, males of much the same experience and ability. And wins by milliseconds. He is a champion of his category. People who know something of sports know that watching Michael Phelps swim against women is a display of male advantage. We know that. Not interesting or worth celebrating. A debasement of sports. Pretending that male advantage doesn’t exist is just stupid. People reject that. It’s so obviously empirically wrong, it’s an insult to the idea of competition.

CIF is orchestrating and presiding over a humiliating circus of their own making. It’s grotesque, and everyone recognizes it. This is not progress. It’s not sports. It’s a drag show with unwilling audience and participants.

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