A school board meeting in Riverside, California, went awry after Republicans and anti-trans activists stormed the town hall in opposition to school policies protecting transgender girls.
The Riverside County School District held a board meeting on Thursday, with California Assemblymembers Bill Essayli (R) and Leticia Castillo (R) in attendance alongside a crowd of anti-trans activists wearing “Save Girls’ Sports” and “It’s Common Sense. XX ≠ XY” shirts.
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There were vocal calls for Superintendent Renee Hill to resign, with attempts to urge the school district to oppose transgender girls’ inclusion in girls’ sports. This is in spite of the fact California’s education code explicitly requires that transgender youth not be subject to discrimination or segregation and that sports teams are divided along the lines of gender identity, not sex assigned at birth.
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The California Interscholastic Federation also permits transgender girls to participate in girls’ sports.
“Nobody should be bullied like that. It doesn’t feel okay,” said one person at the meeting, in reference to the targets placed on transgender kids “We don’t need to be having this conversation. They’re just kids let them live their lives.”
The meeting also featured many advocates for LGBTQ+ rights calling for an end to the harassment of transgender girls.
The meeting concerns a lawsuit filed by two cisgender girls at Martin Luther King High School in Riverside, California. They allege that by her mere inclusion, a transgender girl got them ousted from spots on the cross-country team.
They also complain that their shirts, featuring language that misgenders and dehumanizes transgender individuals, were inappropriately compared to other hate symbols like the swastika. They allege that this was in front of Jewish students. No student has yet to come forward alleging this as an issue.
They are represented by far-right legal advocacy organization Advocates for Faith & Freedom, which frequently sees cases that are related to opposition to transgender individuals.
Anti-transgender legislation has been linked to upwards of a 72% increase in the number of suicide attempts in transgender youth.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement that he is “committed to providing his unwavering support to ensure every student enjoys their right to an equal education free from discrimination and harassment.”
Daisy Gardner, outreach director of Our Schools USA, said on behalf of a parent of a transgender athlete at King High, “The anti-trans movement at King has gotten out of control. This is not about saving girls sports. This has become a bullying campaign aimed at our most marginalized and vulnerable communities.”
In a statement, Riverside Unified School District said it is “committed to ensuring that each student in our schools is safe and that students exercising their 1st Amendment rights, within the existing limits, will be allowed to do so.”
“At our district, we uphold students’ rights to free speech at school and encourage them to express their perspectives in a respectful and meaningful way, however, at the same time, we recognize that there are some limits to free speech in schools, including speech that constitutes a true threat, causes a material disruption to the learning environment, or infringes on the rights of other students. Student safety remains our No. 1 priority and while we continue to focus on student learning, we are taking steps to minimize disruptions likely to arise from public attention on this issue,”
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