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Girls Deserve Better

Dismantling the Defense of Spot-Taking in High School Sports

One year ago, I published “The Unfairness of Spot-Taking”, arguing that protected categories like women’s sports exist because of immutable sex differences. Allowing males to enter those categories doesn’t expand inclusion — it enables straightforward theft of spots, medals, opportunities, and dignity from the very group the category was designed to protect.

The events of the past year, capped by the 2026 CIF State Championships, have proven the thesis beyond any reasonable doubt. And few pieces illustrate the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of the denialist side better than the Orange County Register’s May 31, 2026, editorial: The pathetic right-wing crusade against a high school track athlete.

Let’s eviscerate it.

The Smear First, Reality Never

From the headline onward, Sal Rodriguez’s piece is pure ideological copium. It frames any defense of sex-based categories as a vicious, unthinking “right-wing crusade” against poor AB Hernandez, a male competing in girls’ track and field.

This is lazy journalism and lazier reasoning. The objection has never been about Hernandez as an individual. It is about a policy that lets a spare male — one whose performances are mediocre in the boys’ division — colonize the protected girls’ division.

At the 2026 CIF State Championships, Hernandez delivered:

  • High Jump: 5’10” — Sole athlete to clear it. State champion (shared under CIF’s face-saving rules).
  • Triple Jump: 42-8.75″ — Clear winner.
  • Long Jump: 20-2.25″ — Third place.

Now place those exact marks in the boys’ division at the same meet:

  • Boys’ high jump: Winners cleared 7’0″ to 7’2″+.
  • Boys’ triple jump: Top distances routinely 46-50+ feet.
  • Boys’ long jump: Winners exceeded 23-24 feet.

Hernandez’s results would have been non-competitive among boys. This is spot-taking in its purest form: a male who can’t cut it in open competition is handed easier wins in the girls’ category thanks to retained post-puberty advantages in power, leverage, bone density, and explosiveness. The OC Register doesn’t even attempt to dispute the performance gap. It simply calls critics mean for noticing it.

CIF’s “Balancing Act” Is Surrender With Extra Medals

The editorial gushes over CIF’s “balancing act” — letting males compete and win in girls’ events while handing out shared placements and duplicate medals so the displaced girls aren’t completely erased from the official record.

This is not balance. It is institutional cowardice dressed up as compassion. CIF knows the policy is indefensible, so they invented a participation-trophy workaround: inflate the podium, hand out extra hardware, and pretend no theft occurred. Hernandez still walks away with the dominant performances, the prestige, the rankings, and the recruiting edge. The girls get polite co-championships and the clear message that their category is now optional.

As I wrote last year: once you allow entry based on mutable identity rather than immutable sex, the protected category collapses. Shared medals don’t fix the unfairness — they memorialize it.

The “Bullying” Hypocrisy

Rodriguez clutches pearls over “cyberbullying” and adults “picking on” a high school student. Spare us the selective compassion.

The real bullying is systemic. It is telling every girl athlete in California that their years of training, sacrifice, and competition can be overridden the moment a male’s feelings demand access. It is forcing girls to smile on podiums beside the male who just took their top spot.

Jennifer Sey captured it perfectly in response to the podium footage:

That is the actual message being sent to girls in 2026. Not “be kind.” Not “inclusion.” Erasure, sweetened with performative sensitivity.

Political Theater and the Collapse of the “Right-Wing” Smear

The editorial airbrushes away the political opportunism. Democrat candidate Tom Steyer dropped a glossy, professionally produced video with Hernandez and his mother right before States, casting the athlete as a victim needing protection from evil critics. Pure campaign fodder.

Even lifelong liberal and women’s sports legend Martina Navratilova wasn’t having it. Her reply to Steyer was devastating in its simplicity:

When a lesbian icon and progressive stalwart calls out the absurdity, the OC Register’s attempt to paint this as a partisan “right-wing crusade” becomes laughable. The worm has turned. Defense of women’s sports is no longer a left-right issue. It is reality versus ideology.

The Unfairness of Spot-Taking, Confirmed

One year after my original piece, the evidence is overwhelming. California’s experiment in gender identity over sex has produced exactly what critics predicted: displaced girls, contorted rules, political theater, and defensive editorials that mock concerned parents, athletes, and observers while ignoring immutable physiology.

Women’s sports were not created to provide consolation prizes for males who fall short in open competition. They exist because of sex-based differences that no amount of shared medals or editorial sneering can erase.

The OC Register’s piece is not journalism. It is contempt — for girls, for reality, and for anyone still willing to state the obvious. Calling fairness “pathetic” doesn’t make the theft any less real.

The spot-taking continues. But so does the pushback — from Martina Navratilova, from Jennifer Sey, from female athletes, from parents, and from growing numbers of honest people across the political spectrum. The era of pretending is ending.

Girls’ sports belong to girls. Full stop. No amount of shared podiums, political videos, or defensive editorials will change that truth.

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James K. Bishop

James K. Bishop is a conservative writer and raconteur hailing from Texas, known for his incisive and often provocative takes on political and cultural issues. With a staunch commitment to originalist constitutional principles, he emphasizes limited government, individual liberties, and traditional American values. Active on X under the handle @James_K_Bishop, he frequently engages his audience with sharp critiques of progressive policies, media narratives, and overreaches by the federal government. His style is direct, often laced with humor and wit, which resonates strongly with his conservative followers.