Parent Alert! Boys in Girls' Sports: How Did We Get Here?

Boys in girls sports. How did we get here? This is not just a California issue. We're talking about everything you need to know right now on Parent Alert. Welcome everybody. Jill Simonian from PragerU Kids here talking about what's become a needlessly polarizing topic here in California. Boys competing and winning in girls sports, particularly in high school. For the second year in a row, a biological boy dominated the California Interscholastic Federation's Girls Track and Field Finals. This has been making headlines across the country and it's not just a California problem. Sophia Laurie from California Family Council joins me today because you're going to break down the facts. We're going to talk about the truth. We're going to talk about why Americans across the country should really care about what's now become sort of a just very misguided common practice here in California. I also want to know as a mom what rights, if any, we still have here in California as parents and teachers so that we can restore equality in girls sports. This is a special conversation. I've been wanting to talk to you so much. Thank you for being here. Thank you for having me. Of course, I know. Okay, so here's the deal. For anyone who doesn't know Sophia, look her up right now. You've been on the front lines of all of this in the most, you know, I'm going to say courageous way. You've been on the front lines for several years now. Unfortunately, you have been harassed. You've been character assassinated online. You survived it. We have had some good news recently in California, which I want to talk about later. But for everyone watching now, I just want to put it out there up front. Recently, the Ninth Circuit court just blocked California from enforcing the gender secrecy laws currently in school. And this decision confirmed that parents do in fact have a right to know what the heck is going on with our own kids in school. So before we dive into that, I do want you to just give us a brief overview of who you are and what the California Family Council is. Yeah, absolutely. So like you said, my name is Sophia Lori, and I'm the outreach director at California Family Council. And our mission is to advance God's design for life, family, and liberty across California's culture, capital, and churches. And so every year in the state of California, there's over 2000 bills introduced. We go through all the bills and figure out which ones are affecting our family, which ones are affecting our values, life, marriage, education, parental rights. And I would like to say we're able to support a lot of bills, but more often than not in California, we are opposing and fighting them. And we spend all session long pushing back. We normally find about 60 to 70 bills that are affecting our values. We have about five or six that we'll support. And then the rest of the time, we're fighting them and just trying to inform the community on what is actually happening to your children, to your lives, and to your values. And that's a lot. I mean, that's a lot of wear and tear mental. I'm just saying this, you know, woman to woman, that's a lot of wear and tear mentally, emotionally. So thank you for doing that. You know, we often say courage is the most important character trait, and you have that, and we appreciate that. So in California, particularly with what we saw happen, I mean, right now it's summertime, so kids are out of school, generally speaking. And what we saw happen for the second year in a row at the high school girls track and field finals that did happen at the end of May, it's a question of, you know, every parent I talk to says, well, how did we get here in the first place? It's like, you know, this didn't happen overnight. How did we get here? How have boys been permitted to compete in girls sports by law? And when I first kind of broached this question for you prior to you coming here, you mentioned something called AB 1266 in 2013. And I thought, okay, you know, let's start there. Tell me what was that? How did it lead to where we're at now? Yeah. So, you know, sometimes parents think I sent my kids to school one day and then the next day, everything was so different. So many things change. All of a sudden my kids are learning these crazy ideologies. Now I'm hearing that there's boys and girls sports and restrooms, but it didn't happen overnight. Unfortunately, the other side was playing the long game. They really had, I think, a plan of where they wanted to get to, how they wanted to tear apart families, how they wanted to influence children. And so this really started, it blew up in 2013 with AB 1266. And that is now a California state law signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown at the time. And what that state law states is that you now get to play on sports teams, use locker rooms, and use restrooms at schools based on gender identity and not sex. And so, but back in, and I don't mean to interrupt you, back in 2013, I mean, my kids were toddlers. And that, those words, gender identity, weren't even, they weren't even in our vernacular. I don't even, so how did, why would they do that back in 2013? Well, that's exactly how they got passed. Because when you started hearing that gender identity, what is that? And then when people were fighting against it, I mean, I was 13 at the time, so I didn't really know about this. But when my coworkers at the time were fighting against this and they were telling people, this means that boys can think they're girls and use girls sports and spaces. No one believed that, right? Because that sounded so insane, but that's how they got this into place is they took all the steps. And then they started indoctrinating the children and teaching the children that you can try to change your sex. You can try to change your gender, the gender unicorn, the gender bread man, all these things. That's what then led to us being here today. So you put in the crazy that people don't actually ever believe will happen. Then you teach the children the crazy, and then it starts to happen. Yeah, because the, so if this law, you know, in 2013, Assembly Bill 1266, this law became law in 2013. So that opened, that was essentially that kids could use any restroom they want. That was included in it. And then after that was the, was it the Healthy Youth Act in California? Yes, 8329. It was signed into law in 2015, the California Healthy Youth Act. But when things get signed into law, it doesn't mean they necessarily go into place the day the governor signs it. Sometimes it's a two-year process, three-year process. It just depends how the law is written. So they then make this whole new California Healthy Youth Act, which sounds like a great thing. Yeah, sure. Until you realize this is a whole rewrite of the sex ed system where they're teaching all these ideologies where the government's now saying, we're going to teach children again, the gender bread man, where you can decide whatever you want to be, or you start hearing the books that my shadow is purple because pink is girl and blue is boy, but you can really change your shadow and decide your color. And it could be purple, or maybe you're a girl, but it's blue because you want to be a boy. And so as this all started to go through and it got a little bit delayed because of COVID and students being online and everything, but then they started to teach the students this. And now I'm not shocked that we're in 2026 and we're hearing up and down the state of California that boys are in girl's spaces, in the bathrooms, locker rooms, in the sports teams, that all these children are struggling with gender confusion because they were taught this even as early as kindergarten. I mean, I had calls from preschooler parents who are going to their back-to-school night and they're opening the books that are there, the children's books, and they're wondering why is this talking about mommy and mommy and daddy and daddy, and you can decide what you want to be. And so when they've then opened up the laws and then pushed the indoctrination, that's why we're out today. Yeah. And it's just, I mean, the words age-inappropriate do not begin to describe it, but I think that's the easiest way to describe it. It's just age-inappropriate. Recent investigation. You know, a lot of people will say, well, that is a one in a million case where you're talking about the books or the gender-bred, I was going to say gender-bred unicorn, but that's combining both of them. There's a gender unicorn and then the gender-bred man. And we've actually shown them and shown evidence of them on previous parent alerts here. But, you know, it's not hyperbole. It actually is happening. And I want to just share with you something now. I don't know if you've seen it. At the time of us recording this conversation, I just saw a posting on X of a recent investigation happening in California. And it's from a woman by the name of Amy Reichert. Do you know who this? Okay. So Amy Reichert of San Diego, she's a San Diego mom. And she shared this on her X, and we'll go ahead and bring up the post so you can actually read along if you're watching right now. But it says, Encinitas assistant superintendent, Amy Inlingworth, said that schools should create gender support plans where the parents aren't in the plan. They never see the plan. They never know about the plan. She encouraged teachers to remove he and she from books and replace them with they to normalize pronoun changes. And the training materials described what children learn from their own parents about biological reality at home as misinformation and negative stereotypes. And Amy goes on to cite this is why Assembly Bill 1955 was so dangerous a few years ago when schools were being told to keep secrets from parents while treating moms and dads as a problem and leading innocent children to irreversible procedures that can scar them for life. So when people talk about this being hyperbole, and that was in these documents also, this assistant superintendent was advocating that these books and the removal of he and she happen in the very youngest of grades, in kindergarten, first grade, second grade. And it's just, I just, it surprises me still, but with you being in this, I want to say this game, it's not a game, but with you being in this area of expertise for so long, is this something that you saw several years ago happening and people just wouldn't believe it? I'm curious if you can just describe kind of your perspective, just to give people a lay of the land if they're in another state besides California, and they're like, that's so far-fetched. This is something that we really saw blow up in around 2020, 2021, 2022. A lot of it, I think, is the social media influence on children seeing that. But I wish when you read that statement, I can say, that's really one-off to hear that, that teachers don't say that, superintendents don't say that, school board members don't say that. But when you read it, it's like, yeah, of course a teacher or superintendent or school board member would say something like that, because it is happening. Those things are being said. We're watching it from the California legislature all the way down to school boards, where they are trying to remove words like woman and man, male, female, he, she, because if they can take that language out, then the children are just going to be more confused and more open to these ideologies. This is happening everywhere, up and down the state, but it's not just in California. It is happening across the nation. As California goes, so does the nation. Unfortunately, that's said with a negative connotation right now. I do believe we can turn the state around and one day say that positively, as California goes, so does the nation. But that's just not where we're at right now. And so, yes, this is happening up and down for the past five to six years now. And I'm also curious about, you know, when we talk about this extending, this ideology extending past California, is there evidence of it or are we just imagining this? No, absolutely there's evidence of it. So at California Family Council, we are, we have sister organizations in 40 of the 50 states. And more often than not, when California passes these insane bills that are affecting education and parental rights, we will get a call from one of our counterparts one to two years later saying, hey, right now in the Minnesota legislature, we're trying to fight a bill that is nearly word for word what California passed two years ago. How do we fight it? What's going on? What do we do? So what happens in California does not stay here. We watch, again, nearly word for word legislation in other states that are copied right out of California's rulebook. California's the template. Okay. All right. I'm going to ask you now to explain and clarify some of the latest California directives for deplatforming parents as the authority of our children. Explain some of the directives for and how exactly do these directives fit into this biological boys competing in girls sports? Yeah. So this all kind of with AB 1955, where you're mentioning the boys and girls sport, we saw this kickoff a couple of years ago, AB 1314, a positive bill by assembly member Bill O'Saley at the time, was trying to put a bill in place that said that parents do have the right to know what's going on in their children's lives at school. They do have the right to know if their child wants to play on the sports team of the opposite sex, use the locker room of the opposite sex, wants to identify or have a different name. And so we're really trying to get ahead of it. We're recognizing that school's working secrets and said, okay, let's get a policy in place. Let's get a bill in place that says no parents do have the right. Because unfortunately in California, even though it's assumed parents have the right, even though our constitution between the first amendment, 14th amendment parents are given the rights. And yes, that's what I wanted to ask because it is interpreted in our constitution, but then you see these things happening in California and it's all of a sudden it's like, oh yeah, the constitution doesn't exist. Yes. Unfortunately, the California government sometimes thinks that they can run independently and do whatever they want, regardless of what the constitution says. But that's how we're now kind of seeing these wins. So we try to get that positive bill in place. The California Capitol would not give us a hearing. They would not let the bill go through. That's where 80-1955 came from. They actually, for the first time, had to play defense the other side, which is great. That is a good step in the right direction that the other side for once saw us do a positive bill and recognize we have to push back even harder. So 80-1955 came into play there. And that bill was then going to say that school districts do not have the right to put policies in place to let parents know what's happening in their children's lives. So the state was doubling down. You were hearing comments from people like Senator Scott Weiner stating that the state is in charge of children, that we are in charge of your children. No, the parent is in charge of the child. The parent needs to know what's happening in the child's life. It's just, you really got to hear that they finally started saying out loud what they've been thinking for years. And so 1955 comes into place and gets signed into law, of course, because there is a super majority. Those things fly through at the California Capitol. But then we saw this massive win recently with 80-1955 and the Ninth Circuit Courts. And so to put it just plain and simple, what we see with that win is the courts have finally said parents have the right to raise their children. Parents have the right to know what's going on in their children's lives. Schools should not be keeping secrets from parents. And so it's not going to be a huge change overnight. It's not going to say K-1955 is no longer allowed or in place. What it did, it protected the parents that were involved in that lawsuit. So those seven families out of Plankton Beach, they will have protections. But it is the first step in the right direction. Like, think about you're baking a cake and the you do is you've got to put all the dry ingredients together and put it and then you get it all going. We just did the dry ingredients. Okay, we're in the good, we're in the good step. So we're halfway done. We're halfway done. And so, but this is how it plays out in the courts. And sometimes things take 15-20 years to play on the court. So the fact that 1955 was put into place two years ago and we're already seeing it being reversed in the courts is a phenomenal step. And the fact that we finally have people in the courts again saying parents have the right to know what's happening in their children's lives. The First Amendment and the 14th Amendment are going to be followed. It is putting us on track for a better place in California for children. Yeah, it is. And it gives me hope knowing that that is now, you know, it's been cited and stated and that's what the, you know, the directive is, I guess. But our state, California, again, seems to feel as though they are exempt from all of these decisions. So when it shakes out at the local level for us parents, do we have rights still, I guess? I mean, do we, is it, is it feasible to say that we can cite that decision and things will be reversed in our own schools or no? Because what, because tell me, okay, so California, and I'll, I'll ask you to go a little bit further, like for instance, CIF, California Interscholastic Federation that runs all of these high school sports. So this Ninth Circuit has now said, here's the decision, but does that affect CIF's decision to allow boys to compete in the girls' sports or they say, oh no, that doesn't apply to us? How does it, do they relate or do? Those go a little bit separate right now. So what it would say is that if your child is now choosing to, again, use the locker in sports teams in the opposite sex, parents do have the right to know, but it's not stopping it from happening. Okay. So we still will see with CIF, unfortunately, they're going to continue to allow boys and girls sports because even though we're seeing some good change on 80-1955, 80-1266 would need to be undone in order to actually remove the boys from girls sports and spaces. And so, but I do want to clarify, parents absolutely do have rights because I think a lot of parents in California think, oh, I just don't have rights. Everything's, it's too far gone. This is the way it is. We just have to go along and get along. Absolutely. And then that's not the case. And it's actually a lot easier to put your rights into place than parents even recognize. Some parents are thinking, well, I want to push back against the indoctrination that's happening on my five-year-old, but I don't have time to get involved in a lawsuit. That's a lot of work. It just seems really intimidating. I'm busy raising kids. I'm busy working and all these things. And so I want to make it clear, it is such a simple, easy process to make sure your rights are being followed. And so we actually saw, we've been seeing so many great decisions coming out of the Supreme Court and something that kind of, we think, influenced AB 1955 being pushed back on. The Marabelli case of the Supreme Court has influenced the Ninth Circuit decision. We saw last year at the Supreme Court, Mahmood v. Taylor. And so this was a phenomenal ruling. And I think it's taken a little bit, like I said, it was last year, but it's taken a little bit for lawyers and organizations to get things in place to say, parents, here we go. Here's how we do this. And so parents actually have the right to opt their children, not just out of sex ed, but out of any teaching that goes against any of your religious beliefs. And so what's so important about that is they think, okay, I know I can opt my kid out of sex ed, but when I'm looking at their math homework, it says Sally and her wife Susie, or it says so-and-so non-binary goes with this person here. How many cars do they need to get somewhere? So it is getting put into every part of education. You can opt your child out of all of it because of the Mahmood v. Taylor case. It was a very positive ruling that, again, said that children have the right, parents have the right to remove their children from anything that goes against their religious beliefs. And so that's not just for Christianity. It's any religious belief. You can't sit here and say, well, but I'm this or I'm that. No, it's any religion. And so it is so simple to actually do it. Attorneys have put letters in the place that you just have to go on and checkbox which things you want your children removed from. So maybe you just say, I want my children removed from any LGBTQ plus ideology. Maybe you want them removed from any teachings on Hinduism, on Muslims, anything like that. You can choose whatever it is. And if it's being taught in science, math, whatever art class, whatever it's being taught and we have at California Family Council, at CaliforniaFamily.org, we have a parents right resource page. We have all the different attorneys and law firms that have put together those opt out forms. Parents can go through. They can choose which one they prefer. One, all they have to do is find their name, select the boxes. It gets emailed straight to the principal. And the best part about it is if any school district, any principal, whoever it is, pushes back and says, no, this is not the case, the attorneys are tied to each organization will step in. And so it's not a lawsuit. It's not like you're like opening up this big lawsuit and you're now like thinking about this. They'll just send a letter to the school district and say, no, this parent does have the right to remove their children from these teachings. And then it's done. It's that simple. You can literally go online and it will give you two minutes to fill it out and you will protect yourself from being indoctrinated. I mean, that makes it really easy. Notwithstanding, of course, the principal and then the teacher getting involved. And that's something that I'm a big, I know it takes a lot of energy and it takes a lot of emotion and self-control and all of those things that we try to strive towards as a parent. But it really is worth it, I think, to take that step and with conviction and, you know, joy and love in your heart and say, this is age inappropriate for my child or my family at this time. Please respect this, because I think if more parents did that, it would be a bit more mainstream than it is. Talk me through a real time situation. And you kind of already did. You know, if my child was in a classroom situation where they were going to be part of some activity or story time or even something that's part of the curriculum that really violated my family's values and beliefs, what is the real time approach? Yes, you can go and, like you said, fill out the form on California Family Council's site and you can do all of those things. But when it comes to parent and teacher partnerships, ideally, I kind of always like to say, maybe we should try and get involved on a personal level. Would I, what's your recommendation? Would I, I'd fill out the form, but would I connect with the teacher, the principal, the school board? Who is my first line of connection with that you recommend? Well, like you said, having that personal relationship is very important. I think it's the step of, did you go to your child's back to school night? Because then you'll find out right away what's happening in the classroom. Because some of these teachers are not afraid and do not feel like hiding their indoctrination. You go to the back to school night and you hear your child's had a great first few to school. Everything seems like it's going good. And then you see the pride flags up in the classroom or just the different things being pushed. And so make sure you are heavily involved in your child's life and in the education. We're not where we were, where we used to just say, all teachers are great. We can trust all teachers. Unfortunately, that's just not the case. And there's still so many amazing teachers out there. But we can't just, you can't just send your kid to school anymore and trust that everything is going to be good. So it's staying up to date, showing up to the things. And I do think it's really important to also, as teachers, when you're talking to these teachers, for them to actually get to know maybe why you don't want your child learning all this stuff. And just really emphasizing, I'm grateful for you as a teacher. I want to make sure my child's getting the best education. Because again, that one-on-one relationship, it might not necessarily protect your child in the long run, but it's going to open your eyes to what is happening in the classroom. And then the next step from there is, I would say the best thing to do is to send in that opt-out letter to get your child removed. Because then you'll know quickly, where does your school board stand? Where does your school district stand? Where does your principal stand? Because they'll either just say, okay, great. We got it. Good to go. Noted. Your child will be opted out. Or you're going to start to see where the school district really stands. And so I think that will open your eyes to a lot of the next steps. And also, I think, like you said, parents, it might seem like a lot, but go fill out that form or go talk to your school board, because that might take a day. Filling out the form might take a minute or two. But when you send your child somewhere every day, Monday through Friday, for eight hours a day, it's going to take a lot more time to un-indoctrinate your child than it is to just protect themselves. It's true. So is it within our rights then, these decisions that have been made, if we have a kid in sports and there is a locker room situation, is it within our rights to say that we want the other child removed from the locker room? Or do we remove our own children? Do you see what I mean? How do we approach that? Yes. So with that, it's a whole different level of California, unfortunately, is dying on the Hill of protecting confused students over students that just deserve safety and fairness. And so they have chosen to not follow Title IX. They've chosen to ignore our federal government. And there was Supreme Court oral arguments on girls' sports cases in January. Those decisions can impact something that we're seeing out on the protection of girls' sports in locker rooms right now. But if a parent goes to a school district and says, my A3 daughter went to the restroom and there was a boy in there, or my A3 daughter was changing out for PE, because some parents think, oh, well, my daughter doesn't play sports, so she's safe from this. Right. But that's not the case. No, it's not. Because it can be any restaurant on campus changing out for PE, which most junior hires have to go do. And the parent can go to the school district, and unfortunately, the school district will tell them, we're following state law. The law. Yes. And so there are steps to put in place, though. Unfortunately, the girls have to actually be then put somewhere else to get ready for PE, which is heartbreaking for me. We shouldn't be losing out on our safe spaces. Yeah. But as a parent, because your daughter might say, no, Mom, Dad, it's embarrassing. I don't want to get pulled out of the locker room. That's really embarrassing. And also, it's also a case of, I don't want people to think I am all of these false positives. Yeah, absolutely. But that's where I think the parent needs to really double down and say, I'm going to go to the school office, and I'm going to say, as long as this boy is in my daughter's locker room, I ask that she has a private one-on-one restroom, whether it's an office restroom or wherever it is on campus, where she can change out so her education isn't getting messed up for the day. And then you explain to your daughter, this is the decision we're making as your mom and dad. And if people start saying these things, put the blame on us. Just say, I didn't choose this. My mom and dad are forcing me into it. Give your child that kind of free card out. Yes, that protection. I mean, I'm so grateful. I remember there was times where my mom would say, if you don't want to go do something or do that, just say, oh, sorry, my parents said I couldn't. Just put it back on the parent. I tell my kids that all the time. I said, blame me. I don't care. Yes, exactly. So the other steps for parents to take with the whole girls' sports situation is if your daughter has to play either with or against a male athlete, what we really need right now is actually to file Title IX complaints to the Department of Education. Because that's how, then, the federal government comes after the state of California. Because then they can say, oh, wow, look it, we keep getting Title IX complaints left and right. And so we might keep seeing from the attorney general's office, and they're saying, hey, we're cracking down on California today. We're cracking down on Maine today. We're looking into this school district. It's because the Title IX complaints have been filed. So they can go to OCR online, and they can file a Title IX complaint. And it's so simple. And also, for anyone listening, if they maybe don't have kids or this is happening to their granddaughter or their neighbor, you can file Title IX complaints on behalf of other people. So you can just say, I heard in my district that one of my neighbors, who's a girl, had a boy in her locker room or had a boy in her sports team. And they can fill it out. That doesn't affect the child or the family directly. But it gives the federal government more knowledge, more information to continue to crack down on California. Interesting. Wow. Well, this is why civics education is so important. Because so many of us, myself included, has, you know, perhaps we really didn't learn how civics and our system of government actually works. But this is how it actually works. There are safeguards and rails in place to help us with things like this. I'm curious, you know, obviously, the majority of this conversation has been all about California. Can you give us some other examples that have maybe happened across the country that people might, you know, not be aware of? I recently heard of a case in Oregon. You said that there's some laws on the cusp in Minnesota. Where are some of the other areas in the United States that maybe people who are watching outside of California might not be aware of? So when people think, oh yeah, it's bad for Californians, but not for us, only 27 states protect girls from boys in their locker rooms, bathrooms, and sports teams. That means right now, 23 states actually allow for this. They've not put laws in place. They're not protecting it. And so the quickest way to find out is your state protected or your daughter's state. You go to familypolicyalliance.org. They actually have a list of what 27 states protect girls, sports, and spaces, and which don't. And so it just, I think that number is just such like a shocking number to actually hear that. You think, okay, maybe things are rough in California and New York and, you know, Oregon. We've heard some things, but no, it's 23 states have allowed for girls in their sports and in their spaces. And so we see the videos of boys beating out girls, and it's not just in California. We've seen in Oregon, girls having to share a podium with a male athlete. We've seen over on the East Coast, Peyton McNabb was a high school volleyball player playing just at high school, and a male athlete was on the girls volleyball team, spiked a volleyball into her face. And for a year, she was losing function in her face. She was struggling with memory issues because she had to play against a male athlete. That wasn't in California. And so it is happening everywhere. If your child has a phone in their hand, they are accessing all the same things that California students are learning. They're able to see it all on social media. So this idea that you can run to another state or a little bubble, unfortunately is not the case because of cell phones, because of social media, because these ideologies are spread far and wide. So just because you think you're in a safer state doesn't actually mean your child is protected. So it's really important to be aware of what are the rights, what is happening in your state, what protections has your state given your children or taken away from them. Right. Now, we're almost out of time, but I have to ask you, you were there in person at the California Interscholastic Federation Track and Field Finals. You were on site when the young man was competing and dominating in these finals. And if people go to your social media way back in May, they will see that you were posting about how the organization, CIF, was not allowing you and a group of people to express your views and that there was a free speech area way across the street, in the corner where no one could be disturbed. Can you just describe briefly your real-time, on-site experience? Because you go to all of the, not all, but you are, you're in my feed constantly, and I'm always seeing you on site at these places that really are violating the rights of young female athletes. And just give us a little bit of an insight about what actually happens there, what you experience, what these organizations say or do or don't say and do. Yeah, it's heartbreaking to see what happens at these events, what's actually happening in person. Like you said, at the CIF Track and Field State Meet, where a male athlete was dominating in three girls events, they put a freedom of speech section. This is the entrance to get in, and the only time you have free speech is way over there. There's a sign way over there on the other side of the parking lot on the sidewalk. Do they not forget this is America? We have the First Amendment, right? So do you think they can say, hey, if you're going to be upset that there's a male athlete taking away opportunities and fairness from girls, you've got to go in this far corner on the opposite side of the track and field where no one's even driving by. I was there with Sonia Shaw, the Chino Valley Unified School Board President. She's running for State Superintendent, and her and I were like kind of giggling at it. We're standing in the little square. We're like, okay, we have our freedom of speech here. Oops, we stepped out of the square. Now we lost our freedom of speech. But this is what these institutions are doing. It's not funny. I'm laughing, but it's really not funny. They want to silence you. Two years ago, when we were in the same exact situation at the CIF State Track and Field event, again, the male athlete dominating in three girls events, I went inside the stadium, paid to get in. They do bag checks. I open my backpack. They see my little flyers. I had my Save Girls Sports bracelet on and a bunch of them in my bag, and I was going to pass them out and just have conversations with people that were there at the tournament or at the finals. Hey, did you know that there's a male athlete? Do you know that CIF allows this? Just basic conversation. And so I was doing that before any of the events started because I played sports. Your parents don't want to miss anything that happens. Things happen so quick. So I did it before events started. Did not want to disrupt any parents from watching their children. Only talked to about 10 people. Events started to kick off. I went and sat in the shade, was going to get things ready and go cheer on the girls. Then all of a sudden, a CIF official is walking over to me and has two police officers with her. And I see them walking. I'm like, oh, where are they going? And then turn and come straight to me. Mind you, I'm sitting like in a beach chair in the shade away from all the things going on. And she goes, are you the one handing out the bracelets and the little flyers? Mind you, I had a Protect Girls Sports shirt on. I had the hat on. I'm like, yes, obviously, I'm the one handing this out. And she goes, we're going to have to ask you to leave the event. So I said, what's the policy that says I can't do this? Go back and forth for a couple minutes. She can't give me a policy. You know, the signs outside said you can't bring any posters in. So I left my posters in my car. And I really was there to support the girls. So I said, can I just go put all the bracelets, all the flyers in my car? I'm here to cheer on the girls. I'm here to support them. Some of them have asked me to be here. No, you can't do that. Can I throw them all away in front of you? Like, I'm really here to cheer on the girls. No, you can't do that. So she eventually has me police escorted out of the event because I was there to support girls. Craziest part is after this all plays out, the same lady that removed me from the event, pictures come out. She's the one escorting the male athlete around, making sure he gets to the girls area to compete in the girls sports to take away things from the girls. So if you want to speak out and protect the girls, you're thrown out of the event. But if you want to invade girls sports spaces, you're now protected and escorted around. And so it really shows what these organizations are doing. We've gone to CIF meetings for the past three to four years now. And we've made it clear to them that this situation is real and it's happening. The first couple of times we went, it was just myself and some other moms and organizations. But now we actually bring the girls that have been affected. And they go and these CIF members, when we're sitting in the federated council meeting, there's 50 to 60 of them in this like hotel room. Most of them don't even look at the girls. As these girls are sharing that they're changing in their cars because a boy comes into the locker and watches them change. Some girls have shared that they've been called or compared to Nazis for wearing by their athletic director. Other girls are sharing that they had to graduate high school semester early because the threats were so much on them because they spoke out against the fact that a male athlete was on their team and they didn't feel safe and comfortable. These are the stories they'll come share. And these CIF members, they look down. They don't do anything. They don't see anything. They've heard from us for years. They're not changing things. And the worst part is silence is allowing this to happen. I've told those CIF members, if you agree with us, if you think girls should have their rights and their safety and their fairness, which how do you not? But if you agree with us and you're saying nothing and you're staying on as a part of CIF, you are the problem. So you need to speak out or you need to get out of there. I don't know how any adult in their right mind could know that they're sitting in a room that is allowing this to happen and they're too afraid to speak up, to say anything, to stand with those girls. And shame on the men in that room, like the men with daughters and granddaughters. My dad would never have allowed this to happen to me. He would have stood outside the locker room and said, nope, you're not going in there. You're not getting in there. My daughter's in there changing. He would have done anything to protect me. So to watch the men in place, allow this to happen. And you know what's the worst part? It's the women that are pushing that. They're working towards their own erasure. They had these rights. That's why they're on the CIF board, because they were either an athlete, they're now either an athletic director, they're involved in education and children and athletics. And now they're going to let those rights be taken away from these girls. So the institutions, the federations, the government in California is not standing with us. But the girls need people to stand up for them because they've been phenomenal. But I ask these girls, what do you need? And they say, why do I keep having to fight for myself? Where are the adults? So we need people to stand beside them, alongside them, and just really making it clear that Californians actually do stand for the protection of girls. Yeah, and I've long time said we have a parenting crisis in America, unfortunately, and I think we particularly have a parenting crisis in California, because somewhere, somehow, and I don't know how, I certainly don't think I fall into this category, but somehow, many parents have just relinquished their own authority and their own sense of morality and their own sense of what's true and what's not true. And I don't understand why. And so with that, I mean, I hope it reverses and with this latest Ninth Circuit decision, I think that maybe it will promote people to have a little bit more courage because they see now that these court decisions are starting to state what is real and what is not and what is true and what is not. I want to ask you, before we go, many people will argue, because I will always say, everybody deserves dignity and respect. I may not understand you. I may think you are completely misguided, but I guarantee I will always treat you with dignity and respect as a human being. And many people will argue, well, listen, as human beings and as Christians, we should love and accept everyone as they are and let everyone do exactly what they see fit, regardless of how we feel about it. What is your response? The world has really misconstrued what it means to love people. Loving is not affirming a lie. It's not affirming a sin. It's not affirming that keep people in lifestyles that are actually harmful towards them, even if they don't realize it in the moment. The most loving thing we can do is tell people the truth with grace. I actually think it's harmful when we don't do that. I think it's hurting our culture right now when we choose not to do that. I mean, people all the time, I get it a lot at the state capitol because we're a Christian organization. They'll say, but you're so hateful. You're a bigot. You're all these things. As Christians, we're supposed to love each other, Sophia. And my response to that is we see so many stories in the Bible when we see Jesus, and he's not saying, hey, caught you in your sin. Eh, keep doing it. Love you anyways. No, we saw when he caught the woman in adultery. He said, go and sin no more. I've caught you in it. I recognize the harm. Go and sin no more. And so when we're telling, people are always like, you're so hateful to these, they say girls, the boys who are confused. You're so hateful to them when you say that they don't deserve to be in sports. The most loving thing I can do is tell those boys, there was no mistake in the way you are made. You are beautiful and amazing as the young man that you are, and it's so harmful to allow them to go down to that lie. And so we need to say the truth. We might not be liked because the truth, that's part of it. I would rather be not liked, but be able to go to sleep every night knowing that I stood for what was right. I stood for what was true, but I did it with loving grace. Don't attack these people. Don't be going after them. Don't be wishing them harm. I say all the time, no one, no matter their beliefs, should ever have harm wished upon them, should ever have to worry about their safety. Fortunately, we live in a time where things are kind of crazy, but just because you believe differently than me doesn't mean I wish you ill. I actually just love you enough that I'll tell you what's the best for you, what the truth is. And so being silent is being harmful. Being afraid of what people might think of you because you're saving, you got to get over it, especially parents. Show your children, right? I mean, my parents were wonderful examples of that. There was times where I'd say, did you see this? Do you see that? And my dad would say, did you actually read into it? Do you actually see what's happening? And kind of go back and forth. And then I'd go look into things and be like, okay, yeah, you were right. I'm just believing what the culture's saying in the moment. And so love people by telling them the truth with grace. Yes, very well said. What are you, I don't want to leave people feeling hopeless here because the cards are seemingly stacked against, but what are you hopeful about? I believe, as I said earlier, one day saying as California goes, so does nation and so does the world truly is going to be a positive thing. I do think we're going to see a change. The reason we've had to see state capital play defense, the reason we're seeing the courts make good decisions on crazy bills like 80-1955 is because parents woke up and parents are speaking out. I mean, we're seeing these high school girls speaking out because people are finally being bold enough to say what's right and it's getting the other side really scared in the best way possible. So we are seeing wins. We're seeing some bad bills actually being killed and not making it through. So just because sometimes everything feels hopeless, I'm very hopeful for what can happen when parents stand up, speak up for what's right. I do believe we will see the state eventually turned around and be just the golden state again. And so there's a lot of wins and sometimes just stopping the bad is a win in California. Sophia, Lori, thank you for your conviction. God bless you. Thank you for giving us the courage to stay informed and stay active in our own meaningful ways in our communities and schools, whether it's in a big way or whether it's in a very small way. There's no effort that's too small. I always say as long as we parents and teachers can do what we can that stays true to what truth is, particularly regarding protecting girls in sports, in schools, in locker rooms and bathrooms, our job is to do what we can. That's one of our callings now as parents, whether we want to conveniently admit it or not. So thank you for what you do. Follow, I'm going to ask everyone to follow Sophia on your on Instagram and X. What are your handles? Yes. So Sophia S. Lori, that's on Instagram and X and then California Family Council on all the social media. Even if you don't live in California, it's good to know what's happening here because you might see it then happen in your state. So follow along there. And if you are a parent that is facing any of these issues, please, please, please reach out, DM me, whatever it is you want to come alongside and help you. Thank you so much. God bless you. Okay, follow Sophia. And for more conversations like this to stay informed and active, you can go to PragerU.com slash parent alert. And of course, for your kids, for patriotic education and good character values in US history, you can subscribe for free parents to PragerUKids.com for short videos and resources and books and lessons that will reignite your kids love and your whole family's love for America during these times. We'll see you next time on Parent Alert.