Three feminine student athletes sued their Southern California faculty district and state Department of Education, claiming they suffered intercourse discrimination below Title IX and civil rights violations when the defendants allowed a transgender athlete to compete on their highschool monitor and volleyball groups.
The federal lawsuit, filed Tuesday within the US District Court for the Central District of California, comes because the inclusion of trans ladies and ladies in sports activities has emerged as a central focus in a broader, nationwide concentrating on of the transgender group by Republican leaders and the Trump administration.
While the criticism doesn’t identify the transgender athlete, the outline matches that of A.B. Hernandez, a Jurupa Valley High School senior who was thrust into the highlight after President Donald Trump threatened to withhold California’s federal funding over her participation within the state monitor and area championships in late May.
The plaintiffs declare the trans athlete made competitors unfair, leading to decrease monitor and area rankings for these competing in opposition to her. The swimsuit additionally says not less than six colleges forfeited volleyball matches reasonably than compete in opposition to the group that some of the plaintiffs, together with Hernandez, play on. They additionally declare an invasion of privateness as a consequence of sharing a locker room with the student and allege faculty officers ignored or dismissed their complaints.
Through the trans athlete’s participation, the plaintiffs declare they skilled “unfair athletic competition, safety risks, sexual harassment, and deprivation of equal educational opportunities resulting in harm to Plaintiffs and many other female athletes.”
Some arguments within the lawsuit – which comes mere weeks into the educational 12 months and months after Trump signed an government order banning transgender women from competing in ladies’s sports activities – largely mirror these expressed by trans athletes’ critics’ within the bigger debate.
Opponents argue transgender women have unfair bodily benefits that harm cisgender ladies’s alternatives for fulfillment in sports activities. Trans athletes and their advocates, in the meantime, say there’s a lack of constant, conclusive analysis to help this declare and argue trans folks deserve the suitable to compete with their friends.
Aside from the California Department of Education and the Jurupa Unified School District, the defendants additionally embrace the California Interscholastic Federation, the governing physique for highschool sports activities throughout the state. A spokesperson for the California Department of Education stated it had not but seen the lawsuit. Spokespeople for all three defendants declined to touch upon pending litigation.
In an e mail, Nereyda Hernandez, A.B. Hernandez’s mom, urged “everyone to remember there is a real child at the center of this issue.”
“Regardless of personal opinions, no child should be subjected to public scrutiny, targeted, or used as a political symbol,” Hernandez’s mom stated.
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“I respectfully ask that privacy, dignity, and compassion guide this conversation moving forward.”
Of the plaintiffs, just one is called within the lawsuit: Madison McPherson, a now-collegiate volleyball participant who beforehand competed in varsity monitor and area, soccer and volleyball at Jurupa Valley High School.
Two different plaintiffs, each minors, are recognized solely by their initials. But Julianne Fleischer, one of their attorneys, confirmed they’re Alyssa McPherson, Madison’s youthful sister, and Hadeel Hazameh, each of whom nonetheless compete for Jurupa Valley High School. The athletes’ moms, Maribel Munoz and Hanan Hazameh, are additionally named plaintiffs.
“California continues to ignore the rights and protections federal law affords female athletes, sidelining them in the name of ‘inclusion,’” Fleischer stated in an announcement. “But the rights of female athletes are not second-class. This is not about politics—it is about protecting fairness, safety, opportunity, and the hard-won rights of young women in sports.”
Lawsuit alleges feminine athletes misplaced out on podium spots and volleyball video games
The lawsuit seeks unspecified financial damages, in addition to an injunction stopping the Jurupa Unified School District from “allowing any male student to participate or compete in any female sports,” amongst different avenues for aid. It claims violations of Title IX, the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the free speech and train clauses of the First Amendment.
The lawsuit says the plaintiffs have been disadvantaged of truthful competitors by Hernandez’s inclusion on their sports activities groups, claiming a Title IX violation.
Madison McPherson refused to take part within the monitor season throughout her senior 12 months as a result of she had persistently misplaced out on larger placements throughout monitor and area occasions throughout the earlier two seasons, the lawsuit says, with Hernandez putting larger.
“McPherson grew frustrated and angry that, despite her high athletic ability, she was losing many placements – often first place – to A.H.,” the lawsuit says, referring to Hernandez by the student’s initials.
Hazameh additionally misplaced placements to Hernandez by the 2024-2025 season, the lawsuit says, occurring to assert the plaintiffs “could not overcome the apparent biological advantages” of Hernandez regardless of their very own coaching.
Hernandez, the lawsuit notes, additionally competes on the highschool volleyball group. But because the begin of the 2025-2026 season, six colleges have both forfeited or canceled matches in opposition to the group. The lawsuit claims these cancellations have been as a consequence of Hernandez’s inclusion, arguing it deprives the athletes of “meaningful athletic opportunities.”
The criticism says the plaintiffs have been made uncomfortable by their trans teammate allegedly touching their buttocks – described as “butt tapping” after incomes some extent – additionally citing the trans athlete’s use of the lady’s locker room and loo. Hazameh and her mom are Muslim, the lawsuit notes, arguing their spiritual obligations forestall Hazameh, who wears a hijab, from exposing her hair or physique to males. The lawsuit additionally cites the McPhersons’ and their mom’s Catholic religion.
The plaintiffs repeatedly raised their considerations with faculty directors, the lawsuit says, however have been instructed the college was following state regulation. The lawsuit claims their considerations have been dismissed or ignored, and that they suffered retaliation.
Alyssa McPherson and Hazameh, the lawsuit says, have been faraway from varsity volleyball group chats final Friday after they individually instructed their coach “they could no longer participate in games or practices that included a male athlete.”
The lawsuit additionally cites feedback by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who stated on a podcast earlier this 12 months that transgender athletes’ participation in ladies’s sports activities is “deeply unfair.”