Trans Athlete's Mom: Sharing Podium With Girls Made Son 'Invisible'

A California mother stood before a Pride Summit audience and declared that her biological son—competing in girls' track—was rendered "invisible" because he had to share a winner's podium with actual females. The stakes for ordinary Americans are plain: the same movement that demanded males be allowed to dominate women's sports now insists that women's presence on the podium is an act of erasure.

Nereyda Hernandez, mother of Jurupa Valley High School graduate AB Hernandez, made the claim Thursday at the San Francisco Pride Summit. The California Interscholastic Federation had instituted a rule in 2025 to address the uproar over trans-identified males winning girls' events: biological females who finished directly behind AB would also receive first-place honors.

That compromise—let the male compete, but recognize the girls too—was apparently too much. "Of course I'm going to be upset," Hernandez said. "AB put in all the work, all the hours after school, and she got put aside. It was heartbreaking. I knew it hurt her, because she's physically there, but she's kind of invisible."

Invisible, despite standing on the podium. Invisible, despite taking the top spot. The complaint is that recognizing the female runners somehow erases the male who beat them.

AB Hernandez has taken first-place honors at multiple female category track events in recent months, according to Breitbart. That dominance sparked protests from parents and demonstrators wearing "Save Girl's Sports" shirts and carrying signs reading, "No boys. No bias. Just fairness," the New York Post reported.

AB's response to those protesting for fair competition: "I don't care." The athlete added: "Track is a very singular sport; it teaches you to rely on yourself. Once you're on the track, you just stay focused on the track."

The controversy drew the attention of President Trump, who said last year he would withhold federal funding from California if it "continues to ILLEGALLY allow 'MEN TO PLAY IN WOMEN'S SPORTS,'" according to the Post.

Breitbart framed the mother's complaint as the logical endpoint of the entire project: if boys belong in girls' sports, then girls on the podium are the problem. The Post played it straighter, noting the CIF rule change and the federal pressure without editorializing on the absurdity of a male athlete's family claiming victimhood over sharing a stage with the very females he displaced.

Here is the open question: if the rule is that biological males compete as girls, and the rule is also that girls who lose to those males still get recognized—then who exactly is being erased? The movement that insisted biology doesn't matter now finds that when reality intrudes, nobody wins except the people who made the rules.