Sports
California high schooler begs state officials to ban trans athletes from girls sports at contentious meeting
As California continues to defy President Donald Trump’s executive order banning transgender athletes from girls sports, residents across the state are standing up to pressure officials to comply.
The California Interscholastic Federation, which is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education over potential Title IX violations, had its meeting Thursday crashed by protesters advocating for the protection of girls and women in sports.
Multiple protesters spoke to CIF officials at the meeting, pleading with them to ban trans athletes from girls sports, citing their own experiences.
TEEN GIRLS OPEN UP ON TRANS ATHLETE SCANDAL THAT TURNED THEIR HIGH SCHOOL INTO A CULTURE WAR BATTLEGROUND
One of those speakers was St. Francis High School track and cross-country student-athlete Jordan Brace, who fears potential injuries from competing against a biological male.
“Allowing a biological male to compete against a female athlete that does not have the same kind of build or physical abilities is completely unfair and unsafe for women, and that can lead to so, so, so many injuries,” Brace said.
“How many more injuries, which are sometimes permanent, will it take for everyone to realize how important it is for women to feel safe and for young girls to feel like they have fair competition.”
Transgender athlete supporter Kyle Harp, left, of Riverside holds the progress pride flag as “Save Girls Sports” supporters Lori Lopez and her dad, Pete Pickering, both of Riverside, listen to debate outside a Riverside Unified School District meeting Dec. 19, 2024. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Former high school volleyball player Payton McNabb is a female athlete who says she sustained permanent injuries from a trans opponent. McNabb says she sustained long-term physical and mental injuries in 2022 when she was spiked in the face by a transgender athlete allowed to compete on a girls team because of a policy put in place by North Carolina’s high school athletic association.
The United Nations released study findings saying that nearly 900 biological females have fallen short of victories because they have been defeated by transgender athletes.
The study, “Violence against women and girls in sports,” said more than 600 athletes did not medal in more than 400 competitions in 29 different sports, totaling over 890 medals, according to information obtained up to March 30, 2024.
“I want to know that I’m facing … someone who’s the same gender as me,” Brace said. “That I’m not being beat by someone in a race that has more physical capabilities than me, that’s naturally going to be faster than me, more muscular. I don’t think that anyone, anywhere, any young women, should have to deal with that, should have to fear that they aren’t safe or that they are being discriminated against in their sport.
“This is a matter of women’s safety.”
California mother Riece Morris, who has five children who compete for schools in the state, implored CIF officials to “do the right thing,” while expressing her belief the officials have “good intentions.”
“Good intentions do not make good policy. Good intentions do not absolve you from being complicit in robbing the girls of California of fair competition and single-sex privacy,” Morris said.
“Sacrificing girls sports by admitting boys was never a good idea. It was never going to last. So, I’m asking you to read the room, read the data and do the right thing. Do not let your legacy be that you had to be dragged kicking and screaming to do the right thing for girls after everyone else. Please stand up now and do the right thing.”
California has allowed trans athletes to compete in girls’ sports since 2014, and the policy has resulted in multiple controversies over the last year alone.
Martin Luther King High School in Riverside, California, is embroiled in one of the most contentious disputes on the issue.
A Dec. 19 Riverside Unified School District meeting included a parade of parents berating the board for allowing a trans athlete on the Martin Luther King girls cross-country team. A lawsuit filed by two girls on the team alleges their “Save Girls Sports” T-shirts in protest of that player were compared to swastikas.
The father of a girl who lost her varsity spot to the trans athlete previously told Fox News Digital his daughter and other girls at the school were told “transgenders have more rights than cisgender[s]” by school administrators when they protested the athlete’s participation.
Stone Ridge Christian High School’s girls volleyball team was scheduled to face San Francisco Waldorf in the Northern California Division 6 tournament but forfeited just before the match over the presence of a trans athlete on the team.
Protesters gather outside the California Interscholastic Federation offices to advocate for the protection of female athletes against transgender athletes. (Courtesy of Beth Bourne)
A transgender volleyball player was allegedly booed and harassed at an Oct. 12 match between Notre Dame Belmont in Belmont, California, against Half Moon Bay High School, according to ABC 7. Half Moon Bay rostered the transgender athlete.
The state continues to allow transgender athletes in girls sports at the risk of losing federal funding by defying Trump’s executive order, and Gov. Gavin Newsom recently admitted trans athletes competing with girls is “deeply unfair.”
But Newsom also won’t take a decisive stand opposing transgender inclusion, arguing transgender people are “poor people” who are “more likely to commit suicide, have anxiety and depression.”
California state lawmakers have introduced two bills to block trans athletes from competing in girls sports.
California Assemblyman Bill Essayli introduced one such bill Feb. 14, while fellow Assembly member Kate Sanchez announced Jan. 7 she is introducing a bill to ban trans athletes from competing in girls and women’s sports.
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Sports
Pirates star pitcher makes unfortunate history after being taken out in middle of perfect game bid
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Jared Jones was flirting with Major League Baseball history on Wednesday night — he got it, but it was not what he originally envisioned.
The Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher retired the first 18 batters he faced, but he was taken out in the middle of his perfect game bid after six innings.
Now, the Pirates certainly have their reasons — the 24-year-old Jones hasn’t thrown more than 81 pitches in eight starts since returning May 20 after missing all of last season while undergoing ulnar collateral ligament internal brace surgery on May 21, 2025. He was yanked with 77 pitches and likely would have needed more than 100 pitches to record the 25th perfect game in MLB history.
Jared Jones of the Pittsburgh Pirates pitches during the first inning against the Atlanta Braves at PNC Park on July 8, 2026, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Joe Sargent/Getty Images)
However, Jones left the game after getting zero run support, so when the Atlanta Braves tacked on three runs late for a 3-0 victory, Jones instead found himself in the wrong chapter of the history books.
According to Opta Stats, Jones became the first pitcher in the modern era (since 1920) to pitch at least six perfect innings and not record a win.
“It does suck. Something’s cool coming on, but I’m on what? My eighth start off of surgery? I completely understand it, and it is what it is,” Jones told reporters after the game.
Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Jared Jones (17) makes his way to the field to warm up before pitching against the Atlanta Braves at PNC Park. (Charles LeClaire/Imagn Images)
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Jones said he didn’t entertain attempting to complete the perfect game.
“Not with the pitch count,” he said. “Not really ever expecting to go nine right now, so that was never in my head.”
Joey Bart, traded to the Braves from the Pirates on June 18, followed a double by Mike Yastrzemski with a 422-foot, two-run homer to left-center field off a slider from Dennis Santana. Drake Baldwin added an RBI single to center in the ninth for good measure.
It was the second time in less than a week that a pitcher was taken out of the game with a perfect bid through six innings — the Miami Marlins took Eury Perez out after seven innings in which he had 92 pitches. Perez, too, is in the midst of returning from injury and has surprisingly found himself right in the postseason mix.
He was pulled for Lake Bachar to start the eighth, and the Marlins allowed eight runs to the Athletics in the final two innings, but held on to win 9-8.
Jared Jones (17) of the Pittsburgh Pirates delivers a pitch during a MLB game against the Cincinnati Reds on June 27, 2026, at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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The Pirates are 4.0 games out of the final wild card spot, which is held by the Marlins.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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WASHINGTON — The Dodgers are scheduled to visit the White House on July 23 to celebrate their latest World Series title.
“President Trump is excited to welcome the Los Angeles Dodgers BACK to the White House to celebrate their World Series championship!,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in a statement to The Times.
The date falls on a scheduled off day in the middle of a nine-game East Coast road trip for the Dodgers. The team will play three games in Philadelphia against the Phillies July 20-22 before ending the trip with a three-game series against the New York Mets July 24 to 26.
The visit continues a tradition from the Dodgers’ two previous World Series championships. They were hosted by President Biden in 2021 and President Trump in April 2025.
After the Dodgers claimed their second consecutive World Series title with a dramatic Game 7 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays, a visit to the White House was planned, but it wasn’t until Thursday that a date was officially booked and confirmed.
Questions swirled around whether players would decline the visit this year after it did not happen during a scheduled visit to Washington in April.
Kiké Hernández said in 2018 he was unsure he would have gone had the Dodgers won the World Series the previous year. Mookie Betts said he was undecided and needed to talk it over with his family when last year’s visit was announced. After winning his first World Series with the Boston Red Sox in 2018, Betts skipped their trip to the White House the following year during Trump’s first term.
Both players, along with every returning member of the 2024 team who was with the team during its road trip, participated in the visit. The only notable absence was first baseman Freddie Freeman, who remained in Los Angeles to nurse an ankle injury.
Manager Dave Roberts, who indicated in comments to The Times in 2019 he might not go to the White House if Trump was president, also participated in last year’s ceremony.
Asked at the Dodgers’ fan festival in January about the possibility of returning to the White House, Roberts told The Times’ Bill Shaikin: “For me, I stand by: I’m a baseball manager. That’s my job.”
“I was raised — by a man who served our country for 30 years — to respect the highest office in our country,” Roberts said. “For me, it doesn’t matter who is in the office, I’m going to go to the White House. I’ve never tried to be political. … For me, I am going to continue to try to do what tradition says and not try to make political statements, because I am not a politician.”
Clayton Kershaw, who retired after last season but was on Team USA for this year’s World Baseball Classic, told The Times in the spring that he was aware Dodgers fans are split over whether the team should visit the White House again this year, but he said he is looking forward to it.
“I went when President Biden was in office. I’m going to go when President Trump is in office,” Kershaw said. “To me, it’s just about getting to go to the White House. You don’t get that opportunity every day, so I’m excited to go.”
Times deputy sports editor Ed Guzman contributed to this report.
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All eyes were on Caitlin Clark on Wednesday night as she made her anticipated return from injury in a road matchup in Los Angeles.
But instead of a triumphant comeback, the Fever spent the entire night chasing the Sparks as Clark’s rough return fueled a 106-92 rout.
The superstar never found a groove, looking completely out of sync in her return from a back injury.
STEPHANIE WHITE GIVES CAITLIN CLARK STATUS UPDATE AHEAD OF FEVER-SPARKS, BUT HER NEXT MOVE RAISES QUESTIONS
Caitlin Clark huddles with teammates as the Indiana Fever battle the Sparks. (Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images) ((Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images))
Much of that disjointed performance falls squarely on head coach Stephanie White, who kept Clark on a ridiculously tight leash by limiting her to just 16 minutes. The stop-and-go approach could have sabotaged any chance for the phenom to establish a rhythm.
Clark finished with just 9 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists. Her minus-16 plus-minus told the story.
The Los Angeles Sparks were severely shorthanded, taking the floor without stars Kelsey Plum and Cameron Brink.
MERCURY’S NOW-DELETED SOCIAL MEDIA POST MOCKING CAITLIN CLARK DRAWS SCRUTINY AFTER STAR’S INJURY
Yet while a depleted Sparks roster played to win, Indiana spent the night over-managing its biggest asset.
With Clark on a minutes restriction and Aliyah Boston out of the lineup, Kelsey Mitchell was forced to shoulder the entire offensive burden.
Mitchell did her part, pouring in 29 points while shooting 5-of-9 from beyond the arc.
Caitlin Clark orchestrates the Fever offense as Indiana battles the Los Angeles Sparks in primetime action. (Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images) ((Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images))
But one hot hand couldn’t stop an efficient LA squad.
The Sparks shot 45% from three-point range, going 9-of-20 from deep to cruise to the 106-92 victory.
White’s next move is to sit Clark against the Mercury on Thursday while Boston returns.
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After Wednesday’s loss to a shorthanded Sparks team, it’s fair to question whether Indiana’s cautious approach is working. The Fever dropped to 12-9.
Caitlin Clark and Dearica Hamby face off as Fever and Sparks battle at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. (Photo by Tyler Ross/NBAE via Getty Images) ((Photo by Tyler Ross/NBAE via Getty Images))
Send us your thoughts: alejandro.avila@outkick.com / Follow along on X: @alejandroaveela
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