Taylor Starling and Kaitlyn Slavin – Student athletes at Martin Luther King High School In Riverside, California – held a live press conference on X Friday organized in California Family Council Outreach Director Sophia Lorey. The two girls shared their perspectives on a recent national controversy that besieged their community caused by a transatlet that participated in the Cross Country team of Girls.
“It was confusing, this has never happened to me before, as if I didn’t even think this would happen to me,” said Starling. “It was all just like surprising, that there is one Man walks along The girls. “
Slavin, who is only a freshman, said that the experience of having her first year of high school is the situation “a bit crazy”.
“Only in high school, you have to compete against men while you shouldn’t be something that shocked me right away,” Slavin said.
Starling lost her Varsity spot to a trans -athlete that surrendered to the school in the past year, and when they wore shirts with the text “Save Girls Sports” in protest, they claim that school managers compared the shirts with swastikas. The two girls and their families are now busy A lawsuit Against the Riverside Unified School District (RUSD) on those accusations.
In response, hundreds of their fellow students and hundreds of other residents in the community started to wear the shirts in protest. The shirts became a local and then national symbol for the protection of female athletes against organic male inclusion in their sports and changing rooms.
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The subsequent controversy and media reporting on the situation has printed the two teenage girls, their families and the entire city in the spotlight of the national debate on trans-inclusion in women’s sports, which became a hot button issue in the 2024 election year.
And for Starling, Slavin and their classmates it has received a wave of attention that they have never experienced, both negative and positive.
“I let tons of people reach and say:” Thank you very much for what you do and stand up for these women, “said Starling. “For my friends, many of my friends have been controlled on shoulder because they wore the shirts and many of them were cursed and really bad names, and they placed certain things on the internet and called people terrible names to wear for wearing these shirts. ”
Slavin, who says that she has found stress lighting in sport throughout her life, has only found more stress of sport this year because of the situation.
“It is scary that that is not something that can always be a stress lighting if we will all have this,” Slavin said. “It influences you mentally and emotionally … It is so difficult to have all this going on.”
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Transgender -Atleet -Hangers keep on the left signs as Tori Hitchcock, center, of the young women for America, and Salomay McCullough, right, both former female athletes, show off their “Save Girls Sports” shirts while an overflow audience comes together outside the Riverside Unified School district meeting Thursday evening to debate the rights of transgender athletes to compete in sports in high school on Thursday 19 December 2024. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty images)
Starling says that the Transatleet used the girls’ toilet at the school, but they have not seen the athlete much in the dressing room due to often missing practices.
The two girls, and several parents who have spoken with Fox News Digital, claim that the Transatlete could compete at Varsity despite the lack of practice every week.
Starling’s father, Ryan Starling, previously told Fox News Digital that when his daughter and other girls approached the managers about it, they were told: “Transgender people have more rights than cisgators.” The Russian
The two girls then inflamed a viral trend in their communities when they came to school in November in the shirts “Save Girls Sports”.
And even though they were reprimanded by school managers and had to submit a lawsuit, more and more students started to appear every week Wearing the shirtsBecause the school had to change the clothing instructions and put students in custody for wearing them. This did not prevent the shirts to spread and grow. Every Wednesday it became a weekly ritual for hundreds of students to appear in the shirts supporting the girls and their messages, and many of them created viral social media messages on it.
At the beginning of December, the school managers to report About their efforts to discipline students to wear the shirts. Sources told Fox News Digital that more than 400 students have worn the shirts at the same time, and students at other schools in the district started wearing them to the class.
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Students from Martin Luther King High School in Riverside, California wear T-shirts with the text “Save Girls Sports” to protest against a transatlete in the cross-country team. (Thanks to Sophia Lorey)
But Slavin, Sparling from their lawyer Julianne Fleischer, said that the school managers still told the two girls that they are not allowed to wear the shirts during the press conference on Friday. However, they also said that more than 400 students at their school continued to appear the shirts every Wednesday.
The situation culminated in a heated and confronting event on December 19, when the RUSD held a school board meeting to tackle the issue. Prior to the meeting, outside the district office, there were competitive protests between activists and parents who wore the shirts “Save Girls Sports” and LGBTQ activists.
Sources, including Ryan Starling, have Fox News Digital told That the LGBTQ activists at the event bother the protesters “Save Girls Sports” and even disrupt a women’s prayer group during a prayer circle prior to the meeting.
“Members of the Pro-LGBTQ groups began to hang people in line and bother them who spoke in contrast to their values. Some of these adult demonstrators even came to the young girls who would speak and shouted at them told “Young Women for America (YWA) of the Inland Empire Chapter President Tori Hitchcock to Fox News Digital.
An anonymous parent told Fox News Digital about seeing a child who was bombed with vulgar insults by Pro-Trans protesters after the meeting.
Transgender -Athlete Supporter Kyle Harp, left, Van Riverside holds the progress rot flag as “Save Girls Sports” supporters Lori Lopez and her father Pete Pickering, both of Riverside, listen to the debate while they have the flooding public who come together outside the Riverside Unified School District meeting Thursday evening to debate the rights of transgender athletes to compete in sports in high school on Thursday 19 December 2024. (All J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
“My 16-year-old son and a few others were talking outside when a group of the LGBTQ community deliberately walked through them and said to each of them,” Fu Fu, “said the anonymous parent.
Subsequently, parents and opposing activists in the meeting gave passionate speeches about their thoughts about the situation, with several speakers scream on hysterical tones. The meeting lasted almost five hours and included witness between people who oppose trans -inclusion in girls sports and those who supported it.
Many of the pro-transes speeches were confronted with high cheers and the abandonment of LGBTQ Pride flags by those present.
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The Russian
“Although these rules have not been drawn up by RUSD, the district is dedicated to compliance with the Act and CIF regulations. The State Act of California prohibits discrimination of students on the basis of gender, gender identity and gender expression and specifically prohibits discrimination on the basis of Gender in physical education and athletics.
The Russian they made this statement back at the beginning of December, before President Donald Trump returned to the office.
“Save Girls Sports” Supporters Skylar Crawford, Left, and Jadeynn Gallardo, both from Martin Luther King High School, and Tori Hitchcock, Right, of young women for America, pray between the overflow that is merged outside the Riverside School District Meeting Thursday evening to debate about the rights of transgender athletes to compete in high school sports Thursday, December 19, 2024. (All J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
“Because these matters occur in our courts and the media, opposition and protests must be aimed at those in a position to influence those laws and policy measures (including civil servants in Washington DC and Sacramento),” said their statement.
Trump has promised to prohibit transatletes to compete in girls’ and women’s sports, because a federal account is currently progressing the protection of women and girls in the Sports Act through the congress. It has already passed in the House of Representatives.
Until that account is potentially signed in the law, Slavin and Starling ask their supporters to “pray” for them.
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