EXCLUSIVE: Taylor Starling, a high school cross country runner at Martin Luther King High School in Riverside, California, lost her spot on the varsity team to a transgender transfer student earlier this season.
Several parents of students at Martin Luther King have told Fox News Digital that the school has allowed the trans athlete to compete on the varsity cross-country team despite missing practices for academic reasons. These parents include Starling’s father, longtime firefighter Ryan Starling, and subcontractor Dan Slavin, father of Kaitlyn, another runner on the team.
“The fact that the male athlete was able to compete while attending less than 25% of practices is not fair. In what era, on what team, in what sport can you barely show up to practice and still compete?” Dan Slavin told Fox News Digital. “It’s not fair and it’s not right to those who work hard every day all season long.”
Both families are currently involved in a lawsuit against the Riverside Unified School District (RUSD).
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Ryan Starling told Fox News Digital that losing his daughter’s college spot emotionally disrupted his entire family, as cross country played a crucial role in her life. And when his daughter and other girls on the team confronted their school administrators, he claims they were told that “transgender people have more rights than cisgender people.”
“It’s been told multiple times, not only to Taylor, but to her sister,” Ryan Starling said, adding that Taylor is one of three triplets, and all three are active on varsity sports teams. “All Martin Luther King administrators have made this comment, and the Title IX Coordinator for the Riverside Unified School District has stated ‘that as a Cisgender girl they do not have the same rights as a transgender girl’ to multiple girls, not just our daughters, but several girls on campus.”
A spokesperson for RUSD declined to officially comment on Ryan Starling’s claims when speaking to Fox News Digital.
The RUSD previously issued a statement to Fox News Digital emphasizing that its handling of the situation complies with California state law.
“Although these rules are not established by RUSD, the District is committed to complying with the law and CIF regulations. California state law prohibits discrimination against students on the basis of sex, gender identity, and gender expression, and specifically prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in Physical Education and Athletics The protections we provide to all students are not only consistent with the law, but also with our core values, including equality and well-being,” the statement said.
In California, a law called AB-1266 has been in effect since 2014 and gives California students at the scholastic and collegiate levels the right to “participate in sex-segregated school programs and activities, including athletic teams and competitions, and to use facilities consistent with his or her gender identity, regardless of the gender stated in the student file.”
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Section 4910(k) of the California Code of Regulations defines gender as: “The actual gender or perceived sex of a person and includes the perceived identity, appearance, or behavior of a person, whether or not that identity, appearance, or behavior does not differ from what is traditionally associated with a person. one’s sex at birth.”
California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Bylaw 300.D. reflects the Education Code and states, “All students should have the opportunity to participate in CIF activities in a manner consistent with their gender identity, regardless of the gender indicated on a student’s record.”
The RUSD also placed blame for the handling of the situation on officials in Washington DC and California’s capital, Sacramento.
“While these cases play out in our courts and the media, opposition and protests should be directed at those in a position to influence these laws and policies (including officials in Washington DC and Sacramento),” their statement said.
But Starling, Slavin, other students and their families were willing to do much more than just send a letter to their local legislators.
Taylor and Kaitlyn sparked a viral trend in their community when they went to school in November wearing shirts that read “Save Girls Sports.” Martin Luther King administrators allegedly confronted the girls with the shirts and compared them to swastikas, according to their lawsuit against the district.
Then, more and more students started showing up each week wearing the shirts because the school had to change the dress code and detain students for wearing them. This didn’t stop the shirts from spreading and growing. It became a weekly ritual for hundreds of students to wear the girls’ shirts and support their messages every Wednesday, and many of them created viral social media posts about it.
At the beginning of December, the school directors took the floor gave up on their efforts to discipline students for wearing the shirts. Sources told Fox News Digital that more than 400 students were wearing the shirts at a time, and that students at other schools in the district also began wearing them in class.
While this was happening, Taylor was also taking steps to regain her place in college, according to her father. Ryan Starling says it was a “transformative” experience and motivated her both athletically and academically. She has since earned her spot on the varsity team, and her father says she even beat the trans athlete by more than three seconds in a recent competition.
“She’s had so much support from her friends, where her friends were wearing all the t-shirts,” he said.
The Starling family has not only received positive attention, as Ryan Starling says, there have been several negative reports and even threats. The family had to postpone their recent family vacation to ensure Taylor’s safety for a trip to the state competition because her parents did not feel comfortable letting her travel alone.
“There were some negative things online, there were some threats of violence against our girls, there were several things, and we just didn’t feel comfortable leaving Taylor for a day and a half and flying her out a day later so she could was running at state, so we chose to stay together as a family and support Taylor, and then we postponed our vacation until the first of the year,” Ryan Starling said.
The situation reached a potential turning point during a five-hour RUSD school board meeting on Dec. 19. Outside the office, there were competing protests between activists and parents wearing “Save Girls Sports” t-shirts and LGBTQ activists.
Have sources told Fox News Digital that the LGBTQ activists at the event harassed the protesters on the other side and even disrupted a women’s prayer group during a prayer circle before the rally.
Subsequently, parents and opposing activists gave impassioned speeches at the rally about their views on the situation, with several speakers shouting in hysterical tones. But Ryan Starling, who stayed throughout the meeting, had a glimmer of hope toward the end of the meeting. He says that after it was over, a newly appointed board member spoke to the girls who were there to protest the trans athlete, and the new board member suggested their problem would be resolved once President-elect Trump takes office on January 1. 20.
“Don’t worry girls, we’ve got your back, just wait until January 20th,” the new board member said, according to Ryan Starling.
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Supporters of transgender athletes hold up signs as an overflow crowd gathers outside the Riverside Unified School District meeting Thursday evening to debate the rights of transgender athletes to compete in high school sports, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Trump has promised to ban trans athletes from women’s and girls’ sports, and the new Republican-controlled Congress has indicated it wants to do the same.
The house lines package for the 119th Congress was published this week, and the first step in the agenda is a bill that would create Title IX revisions that would allow athletes to compete only in the gender category they were assigned at birth.
However, California and Governor Gavin Newsom have pledged to oppose the new Trump administration.
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