Teen girls open up on trans athlete scandal that turned their high school into a culture war battleground

Two high school students and their families sued their high school and school district alleging violations of their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights as well as Title IX protection.

Taylor Starling and Kaitlyn Slavin – student athletes at Martin Luther King High School in Riverside, California – held a live press conference on X Friday hosted California Family Council Outreach Director Sophia Lorey. The two girls shared their perspectives on a recent national controversy that has besieged their community caused by a trans athlete competing on the girls' cross country team. 

"It was confusing, this has never happened to me before, like I didn't even think this was going to be happening to me," Starling said. "It was all just like, surprising, that there was going to be a guy running with the girls."

Slavin, who is only a freshman, said the experience of having her first year of high school involve the situation is "kind of crazy."

"Just in high school, having to compete against males when you shouldn't be is something that shocked me right away," Slavin said. 

Starling lost her varsity spot to a trans athlete who transferred to the school this past year, and when they wore shirts that read "Save Girls Sports" in protest, they allege school administrators compared the shirts to swastikas. The two girls and their families are now engaged in a lawsuit against the Riverside Unified School District (RUSD) over those allegations.

In response, hundreds of their fellow students and hundreds of other residents in the community began wearing the shirts in protest. The shirts became a local, and then national symbol for the protection of female athletes from biological male inclusion in their sports and locker rooms. 

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