Group warns California Interscholastic Federation against transgender athletes in high school sports

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- The debate over transgender athletes in high school sports is heating up again.

This time, it was in Oakland where the California Interscholastic Federation met Friday. This comes after a key decision in the state assembly earlier this week.

Jordan Brace runs track and cross country at her all-girls high school in Sacramento. She's concerned about trans athletes on the field and in the locker room.

She spoke during the public comment portion of the California Interscholastic Federation's spring meeting in Oakland on Friday. The California Interscholastic Federation, or CIF, governs sports in California's public and private high schools. Brace is urging the board to do what she says is "right" -- even if it's not "popular."

"I will shout it from the rooftops, and I will say it until I am blue in the face if I have to. Biological males do not belong in women's sports or in women's locker rooms," Brace told the crowd. "Biological males have much more muscle mass than we do as women, regardless of puberty blockers, or anything. It's unfair and it's unsafe."

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"Girls need their own sports. Girls needs their own safe spaces. And males can never become females," said attorney Erin Friday, one of the speakers during a rally ahead of the CIF meeting in Oakland on Friday.

Friday is also president of Our Duty U.S.A., which seeks to keep trans athletes out of female sports. She says they are here to send a "warning" to CIF: that it is in violation of Title IX, a federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools. And that could lead to cuts in federal funding.

"I had a meeting with the secretary the department of education in D.C. And they are going to end holding funds and freezing funds from our California schools, and that's to the tune of $8 billion dollars. And we cannot afford that in the state of California right now," Friday said.

CIF officials declined to be interviewed, in part because this topic was not up for a vote at the day's meeting.

But in a statement to ABC7, it says it allows students to compete in school sports, "consistent with the student's gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the student's records."

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Despite the threats to federal funding and potential lawsuits, this week California lawmakers blocked two bills banning transgender kids and teens from playing on sports teams based on their gender identity. One of the bills was directed specifically at the CIF.

"I'm not going to sanction discrimination against LGBTQ Californians," said Speaker Robert Rivas from the assembly floor during debate on the bills. "There is no epidemic of transgender kids playing basketball and soccer or any other sport for that matter. "

"It is about elevating gender identity above sex. And who is getting harmed? It's the women. It's always the women," Friday said.

Friday, who is a democrat, said this isn't a Democrat versus Republican issue. Some solutions they are proposing is an alternate league. Or, just make athletes compete on the teams of their sex at birth.