Patriot High School has become the eighth California school to have its girls’ team not play against Jurupa Valley High School due to the latter’s having on its team an athlete who is a male identifying as transgender.
This represents the first forfeit from within Jurupa Valley’s own district.
The school district did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NTD News.
The wave of opposition began earlier this month when Jurupa Valley saw three forfeits in one weekend during the Freeway Games tournament on Sept. 13. Aquinas High School, Yucaipa High School, and San Dimas High School all refused to play due to the participation of Jurupa Valley player AB Hernandez, who identifies as transgender.
Before those incidents, Riverside Poly High School, Rim of the World High School, Orange Vista High School, and AB Miller High School forfeited matches against Jurupa Valley over the same issue.
The mounting forfeits have left Jurupa Valley searching for opponents willing to compete against their team.
Meanwhile, legal challenges have accompanied the athletic boycotts.
“Girls’ sports are for girls,” attorney Julianne Fleischer said in a statement sent to multiple media outlets. “No policy can erase the biological differences between males and females, and forcing young women to compete against boys is both unfair and unsafe.”
The controversy has spread beyond Jurupa Valley’s immediate area. Bakersfield Christian High School also announced that it forfeited its freshman-sophomore volleyball match against Ridgeview High School due to the presence of a male player.
According to the school’s statement, the forfeit was made “in alignment with our school’s policies and deeply held religious beliefs.” The private Christian school said that athletics should develop character within “a framework of biblical truth.”
“As a school grounded in the authority of Scripture, we affirm the biblical view that sex is determined by God at conception,” the statement read. “We believe God created each person as male or female, and that this distinction is purposeful, good, and not subject to individual preference or change.”
In California, some school districts allow student-athletes to participate with teams aligning with their chosen gender identity, a policy that conflicts with some schools’ religious beliefs.
Bakersfield Christian stated it respects the California Interscholastic Federation as a governing body but does not “agree with or conform to its rules and policies that conflict with our biblical understanding of sex and gender.”
