Link

Rose broke the elusive 1:59 barrier not once, not twice—but five times during her college career. No other collegiate runner has ever accomplished that feat.

Link

Link

Veteran cyclist Julie Cutts Peterson told Fox News’ “America Reports” about why she refused to take the podium for the medal ceremony after losing to a trans competitor.

“At the finish line I was upset. I said ‘I did not want to race against a man,’” Peterson said, recalling her frustration at the event and the way the audience gasped at her comment. “In my mind I was like, ‘I can say that, I have freedom of speech.’ I was raised believing in the Bible where men are created by God and God created women from men, I was born and raised in America, where I learned my pronouns, and I took science classes that taught me about XX and XY and I believe that most Americans and people worldwide would support men not being in women’s categories.”

Peterson came in second place to transgender opponent, Kate “KJ” Phillips – born a biological male – who took the gold medal last Tuesday at the Lyons Masters National Championships in Wisconsin. She is one of multiple veteran female cyclists who are speaking out against USA Cycling after they claim the organization failed to disclose the participation of a transgender athlete in a recent race.

Peterson recalled the final sprint of the race where Debbie Milne was the only competitor ahead of her until “out of nowhere” came Phillips. 

“I knew at that sprint that that was a man’s sprint,” she said, noting her extensive experience riding among both men and women.

Peterson went on to argue transgender ideology is not scientifically sound, declaring, “There is no amount of makeup, money, or marketing that can change that Y-chromosome, and that’s why we are taking a stand.”

The cyclist claimed further that the transgender competitor’s name was not even included on the registration list, “which means that we were not given the information that he would be racing in our category before the race started.”

“Apparently we’re hearing that from other athletes as well,” “America Reports” co-anchor Sandra Smith said, sharing a clip of Milne claiming that Phillips’ registration was completely hidden from competitors. 

“Catherine Phillips, KJ’s name, was not on that list. And I checked it up all the way to the point of closure when we couldn’t register online anymore,” Milne said last Thursday on “Fox & Friends.” According to Milne, neither she nor Peterson believe the omission of Phillips’ name was accidental, referring to the incident as “deception.” She said Peterson later got confirmation Phillips had been registered since mid-June, long before the online list closed. The cyclist added that, had she known, she might have reconsidered spending hundreds of dollars and traveling over 400 miles to compete. 

Smith also noted that Fox News Digital had reached out to USA Cycling, who responded by providing their transgender eligibility policy.

Smith relayed that as she understood it, the policy as it stands is, “Quite simply it’s just providing a written and signed declaration to the cycling technical director that their gender identity is female.”

Peterson agreed, claiming she has a photo of how the registration appeared June 19th at 4:48 P.M., arguing that USA Cycling and Bike Reg had plenty of time to show the transgender competitor’s name there but decided not to, an increasingly growing pattern.

Fox News’ Madison Colombo contributed to this report.

California Department of Education officials on Monday refused to comply with a Trump administration demand to bar transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports, in response to a July 7 deadline following a federal civil rights investigation.

State officials formally rejected the conclusions of the Office for Civil Rights investigation, which determined late last month that California violated the rights of female students by allowing transgender athletes to compete in sports according to their gender identity. Federal officials gave the state 10 days to comply with their order and agree to a proposed resolution.

“The California Department of Education … respectfully disagrees with OCR’s analysis and it will not sign the proposed resolution agreement,” wrote Len Garfinkel, general counsel for the California agency in a brief communication.

Failure to comply exposes California to unspecified “imminent enforcement action,” in the words of federal demands issued June 25.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon commented on the California rejection in a social media post Monday.

“California has just REJECTED our resolution agreement to follow federal law and keep men out of women’s sports,” McMahon wrote at 12:08 PM. “Turns out Gov. Newsom’s acknowledgment that ‘it’s an issue of fairness’ was empty political grandstanding. @CAgovernor, you’ll be hearing from @AGPamBondi,” she added, referring to Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi.

McMahon’s post alluded to comments from Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has shown some sympathy toward those who object to transgender girls competing in sports against cisgender girls, calling it an issue of fairness.

President Trump has repeatedly threatened to withhold federal funding from California, and in several instances his appointees have acted to do so over various issues, including the existence of state programs to promote racial diversity and the refusal of state and local officials to cooperate with immigration agents seeking to take unauthorized immigrants into custody.

Legal challenges to these actions, including more than two dozen lawsuits involving California, are ongoing. In some cases, the Trump administration has successfully held back or canceled certain funds. In other instances, judges have blocked the administration or ordered a restoration of dollars.

In this confrontation, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation in February into the California Interscholastic Federation, or CIF, which oversees sports at more than 1,500 high schools, after the organization continued its policy of allowing transgender students to compete in accordance with their gender identity.

That investigation was later expanded to include the California Department of Education and local school districts.

In late June, the Trump administration called on California to “voluntarily agree” to change what it determined are “unlawful practices” within 10 days.

Under the proposed resolution agreement, California would have to notify all recipients of federal funding that operate interscholastic athletic programs that they must comply with the Trump administration’s interpretation of Title IX.

The notice, it states, must specify that “Title IX and its implementing regulations forbids schools from allowing males from participating in female sports and from occupying female intimate facilities” and that recipients of federal funding “must adopt biology-based definitions of the words ‘male’ and ‘female.’ ”

The CIF on Monday sent a separate response also rejecting the federal demands.

California and federal officials view civil rights for transgender students through different lenses, with clashing interpretations of what is legal under federal law, commonly called Title IX, which bars discrimination based on sex.

Supporters of transgender athletes hold up signs at left as others show off their “Save Girls Sports” shirts outside the Riverside Unified School District to debate the rights of transgender athletes in December.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Defenders of LGBTQ+ rights say that Title IX protections should be extended to gender identity to include transgender girls.

Nearly two dozen states, including California, have laws that allow transgender students to participate in sports according to their gender identity. Other states have banned such participation.

In an attempt to address the issue of athletes losing out on awards, the CIF moved forward May 27 with a plan that duplicates the awards when a transgender athlete wins a competition.

Under the new process, an athlete who would have won the award receives the same recognition that she would have if the trans athlete had not competed. This practice was applied to the state competition in which AB Hernandez, a 16-year-old transgender junior from Jurupa Valley High School, won multiple medals at the state high school track and field championships.

But the new CIF policy does not address team sports, where it’s more difficult to assess the impact of an individual trans athlete. Nor was the policy applied retroactively to rewrite the results of past competitions.

Cal Athletics

Constance Fouillet (left), Charlie Berridge and the Cal men’s and women’s golf teams will play at the birthplace of golf in October.

Link