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July 2025 -- Photo Essay: LA Fires update

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Malibu, Pacific Palisades

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rebuild six months after LA Fires ... 

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... little-to-none

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-Photos InterChurch News

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June 2025

'Save Girls' Sports' rally, press conference ...

      

... makes case to CIF for Title IX protection

About 60 southern California female athletes, parents, teachers and supporters held a 'Save Girl's Sports' rally (Photo: Top) and press conference Friday, June 20th. 9 a.m. at Westin South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa outside from where California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Executive Committee were scheduled for a 10 a.m. meeting. California Family Council (CFC) sponsored the event. Notable speakers at the press conference included Ryan Starling (Photo: L), whose daughter Taylor and a cross country teammate filed a civil federal lawsuit against Martin Luther King High School and the Riverside Unified School District, Chino Valley Unified School Board president and candidate for California State Superintendent Sonja Shaw (Photo: Center), CFC Outreach Director Sophia Lorey, Advocates for Faith and Freedom Senior Legal Counsel Julianne Fleischer, and former Jurupa Valley High School physical education teacher Jessica Tapia. Tapia won a $350,000 settlement in her lawsuit against Jurupa's school district after being fired for refusing to follow -- as a Christian -- it's 'gender-ideology policies.' Tapia is also the inspiration for the Teachers Don't Lie movement.

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"You've broken down the female athletes of California. Their dreams of being first in CIF -- broken.

Their desire to be in privacy in their changing space -- broken. Their desire to to not be bullied

because they believe in biological truth -- broken."

-Jessica Tapia

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The same speakers and more then addressed the 10 a.m. CIF Executive Committee meeting (R) in a banquet room during public comment citing alleged Title IX violations of girls' rights. Current CIF policy (Bylaw 300 D.) and the State of California (AB 1266, Jan. 1, 2014) allow biological males (XY) -- who self-identify as females -- to compete in girls' sports and use girls' locker room facilities (safe spaces). Lorey presented the CIF Executive Committee with a 'Save Girls' Sports' binder containing 20,074 petition signatures 'demanding CIF return to policies that align with federal Title IX law, laws designed to protect equal opportunities for girls.'

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"This is not about hate, it's about justice ...

let girls play, let girls win, let girls be safe."

-Sophia Lorey

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A few of the Committee members seated around a horseshoe shaped seating arrangement nodded in agreement as speakers presented their arguments for over an hour. Alloted two minutes each for public comment -- 25 speakers cited the consequences of CIF Bylaw 300 D. and State law AB 1266 on girls' sports including female athletes losing placement in competitions, awards, scholarships, emotional damage including girls who opt to change clothes in their cars due to lack of locker room privacy.

"I'm here today," said Celeste, a high school varsity-level athlete, "as athletes like myself have endured humiliation through the intrusion of her privacy ... with a boy in the locker room. The watchful eyes of the transgender athlete has robbed us of our dignity ... others have resorted to changing in their cars." 

Julianne Fleischer, Senior Legal Counsel wtih Advocates for Faith and Freedom, a pro-bono firm based in Murrieta, California, said to the Committee, "Allowing biological males to compete in female categories is not only unfair, it is demeaning, it's dangerous and it's fundamentally discriminatory against women and girls. This isn't equality," she said, "this is preferential treatment masquerading as inclusion." 

Fleischer said CIF's Bylaw 300 D. policy is a "clear violation of federal law and a betrayal of the promise of fairness for women in sports."

Offering an olive branch to CIF Committee, Fleischer said her firm -- which represented Tapia in her $350,000 lawsuit settlement victory against Jurupa Valley U.S.D. -- is "willing to work with you, to sit down with your attorneys ... to come up with solutions that are consistent with federal law ... this is an offer to come to the table and talk."

Moms and dads spoke on behalf of their daughters' experiences with transgenders in girls' sports before the Executive Committee. Here are two examples:

• Bridget, a mom to a high school track and field athlete daughter in San Luis Obispo County, said, "My daughter changes in the car ... for her own safety, her own religious reasons to not go into the locker room and change ... that is what you have forced her to do ... I reject a California law that forces a gender ideology on me, on my daughter ... we are women, we are female and I pray that you acknowledge that." 
• Randy Starling, the father of Taylor Starling -- a high school cross country varsity athlete bumped down to the JV team after clocking in behind a transgender in a race and party to a lawsuit filed against Riverside U.S.D. -- gave a brief history of his daughter as a triplet, born at 29 weeks, three pounds, "fighting for their lives" with breathing tubes. He said "I will do anything for them. She earned her spot ... captain of the team. I'm seeing my daughter be called a Nazi just because she's standing up for fairness and equity. I know [what] you guys have constantly said about transgenders and suicide. What about the girls? What about what they're facing and the psychological damages they're going through? You have team sports coming up. You have cross country. You have volleyball coming up. Please make the right decisions for these girls. I'm asking you as a father. Please."  

The Committee had voted to accommodate nine more speakers after the 30-minute public comment time alloted in the agenda. The 'Save Girls' Sports' final rally speaker, identified himself as David, pointed towards a girl in the rally audience, told her to turnaround and said to the Committee, "If you missed what the girls' shirt [said], it said "CIF: Can't Identify Females."  He said, "Unfortunately, this is a policy that you folks are putting forth today ... it is the agenda to erase sex, to erase female sex, to erase sex-based rights of females ... we ask you to stand with us ...help us fight."

"Thank you for your time," said CIF President-Elect and Superintendent of Monrovia U.S.D., Dr. Paula Hart Rodas (Photo: R, 2nd from L) as rally members exited peacefully -- resolutely. 

-Photos InterChurch News