Taylor Starling and Kaitlyn Slavin, Student Athletes of the Martin Luther King High School in Riverside, California, held a live press conference on X Friday, the director of Dissemination of the Family Council of California, Sophia Lorey. The two girls shared their perspectives on a recent national controversy that has besieged their community caused by a Trans athlete competing in the Girls Cross Cross team.
“It was confusing, this has never happened to me before, as if not even thought this was going to happen to me,” Starling said. “Everything was like, surprising, that there was going to be a guy running with the girls.”
Slavin, who is just a first -year student, said that the experience of having his first year of high school involves the situation is “a little crazy.”
“Only in high school, having to compete against men when you should not be is something that surprised me immediately,” said Slavin.
Starling lost his university place to a Trans athlete who was transferred to school last year, and when they carried shirts that said “Save Girls Sports” in protest, they claim that school administrators compared the shirts with the swastika. The two girls and their families are now dedicated to a lawsuit against the Unified School District of Riverside (Rusd) about those accusations.
In response, hundreds of their peers and hundreds of other community residents began using the shirts in protest. The shirts became a local and then national symbol for the protection of female athletes of male biological inclusion in their sports and changing rooms.
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The consequent controversy and the coverage of the media have pushed the two adolescents, their families and the entire city in the center of attention of the national debate on trans inclusion in women’s sports, which became a more political problem Hot in the election year 2024.
And for Starling, Slavin and his classmates, he has come with a wave of attention that they have never experienced, both negative and positive.
“I have had tons of people who contact me and told me ‘thank you very much for what you are doing and defending these women,” Starling said. “For my friends, many of my friends have been verified from the shoulders because they carried the shirts and many of them have been cursed and called really bad names, and published certain things on the Internet by calling people by horrible names for using these shirts,” .
Slavin, who says he has found stress relief in sports throughout his life, has only found more stress for sports due to the situation this year.
“It is afraid that this is not something that can always be a place to relieve stress if we are going to have all this,” said Slavin. “You mentally and emotionally affect you … it is very difficult to have all this.”
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The supporters of the transgender athletes hold signs on the left such as Tori Hitchcock, center, of the young women for the United States, and Salomay McCullough, right, both female athletes, show their “Save Girls Sports” shirts as a multitude of overflow converge Outside the Unified School District Riverside on Thursday night to discuss the rights of transgender athletes to compete in high school sports on Thursday, December 19, 2024. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times through Getty Images)
Starling says that the trans athlete has been using the girl’s bathroom at school, however, they have not seen the athlete much in the locker room due to frequently missing practices.
To the two girls, and several parents who have spoken with Pak Gazette Digital, allege that the Trans athlete could compete in the university team despite the missing practice every week.
Starling’s father, Ryan Starling, previously told Pak Gazette Digital that when his daughter and other girls approached the administrators in this regard, they were told that “transgeans have more rights than the cyanners.” The RUSD previously provided a statement to Pak Gazette Digital insisting that its management of the situation has been in accordance with the State Law of California.
Then, the two girls lit a viral trend in their communities when they appeared at school in November with the “Save Girls Sports” shirts.
And despite being scolded by the administrators of the school for it and having to submit a demand, more and more students began to appear every week using the shirts, since the school had to alter its clothing code and start putting Students in detention for using them. This did not prevent the shirts from spreading and growing. It became a weekly ritual for hundreds of students every Wednesday to appear using the support of the shirts of the girls and their messages, and many of them created viral publications on social networks.
In early December, school administrators deliver About their efforts to discipline students for using shirts. The sources told Pak Gazette Digital that more than 400 students have appeared using the shirts at the same time, and the students of other schools in the district have begun to use them in class.
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Martin Luther King High School students in Riverside, California, wear t -shirts that read “Save Girls’ Sports” to protest against a trans athlete in the Cross Country team. (Courtesy of Sophia Lorey)
But Slavin, hungry to his lawyer Julianne Fleischer, said that school administrators have still told the two girls that they are not allowed to wear the shirts, during Friday’s press conference. However, they also said that more than 400 students in their school have continued to appear using the shirts every Wednesday.
The situation culminated in a heated and confrontation event on December 19, when the RUSD held a meeting of the school board to address the problem. Before the meeting, outside the district office, there were protests in competition between activists and parents who wore the “Save Girls Sports” shirts and LGBTQ activists.
Fuentes, including Ryan Starling, have He told Pak Gazette Digital that LGBTQ activists in the event were harassing the protesters of “Save Girls Sports” and even interrupted a women’s prayer group during a prayer circle before the meeting.
“The members of the pro-LGBTQ groups began to bother and harass people in the row they spoke in opposition to their values. Some of these adult protesters even approached the young women who were going to speak and shouted them nearby for their face , “Young women for America (YWA), the president of the Inner Empire chapter, Tori Hitchcock, told Pak Gazette Digital.
An anonymous father told Pak Gazette Digital about witnessing a child bombarded with vulgar insults by Pro-Trans protesters after the meeting.
The supporter of the transgender athlete Kyle Harp, on the left, of Riverside holds the flag of pride of progress as the supporters of “Save Girls Sports” Lori Lopez and his father Pete Pickering, both of Riverside, listen to the debate while joining the Multitude of overflow that converges outside the Riverside Unified Meeting of the District on Thursday night to discuss the rights of transgender athletes to compete in high school sports on Thursday, December 19, 2024. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
“My 16 -year -old son and some others were standing outside after speaking when a group of the LGBTQ community intentionally walked through them pointing to each of them saying: ‘Fu fu’,” said the anonymous father.
Then, within the meeting, parents and opposite activists expressed passionate speeches about their thoughts about the situation, with multiple speakers shouting in hysterical tones. The meeting continued for almost five hours and included the testimony between the people who opposed trans inclusion in girls’ sports and those who supported him.
Many of the Pro-Trans speeches met acute cheers and the exemption of LGBTQ pride flags for those who attended.
The RUSD previously provided a statement to Pak Gazette Digital insisting that its management of the situation has been in accordance with the State Law of California.
“Although Rusd did not create these rules, the district undertakes to comply with the law and regulations of CIF. California State Law prohibits the discrimination of students based on gender, gender identity and the expression of the expression of gender, and specifically prohibits discrimination based on gender in the genre Physical education and athletics.
The Rusd also blamed for its management of the situation in Washington DC officials and the capital of the state of California, Sacramento. They made this statement in early December, before President Donald Trump returned to office.
The supporters of “Save Girls Sports” Skylar Crawford, on the left, and Jadeynn Gallardo, both of Martin Luther King High School, and Tori Hitchcock, on the right, of young women for the United States, pray among the multitude of overflow converge Outside the Riverside School District meeting on Thursday, discuss the rights of transgender athletes to compete in high school sports on Thursday, December 19, 2024. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
“As these issues are developed in our courts and the media, the opposition and protests must address those in a position to affect those laws and policies (including officials in Washington DC and Sacramento),” said his statement .
Trump has pledged to prohibit Trans athletes in sports of girls and women, since a federal bill entitled the Law on the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports is currently progressing through Congress. It has already passed in the House of Representatives.
Until this bill is potentially promulgated, Slavin and Starling are asking their supporters to “pray” for them.
