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

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. 

SIGN UP FOR TUBI AND STREAM SUPER BOWL LIX FOR FREE

The ensuing controversy and media coverage of the situation has thrust the two teenage girls, their families and the whole town into the spotlight of the national debate over trans inclusion in women's sports, which became a hot-button political issue in the 2024 election year. 

And for Starling, Slavin and their classmates, it has come with a wave of attention that they have never experienced, both negative and positive. 

"I've had tons of people reach out to me and say ‘thank you so much for what you’re doing and standing up for these women,'" Starling said. "For my friends, a lot of my friends have been shoulder-checked because they were wearing the shirts and a lot of them have been cursed out and called really bad names, and they posted certain stuff on the internet calling people horrible names for wearing these shirts." 

Slavin, who says she's found stress relief in sports throughout her life, has only found more stress from sports because of the situation this year. 

"It's scary that that's not something that can always be a stress-relieving place if we're going to have all this going on," Slavin said. "It affects you mentally and emotionally… It's so hard to have this all going on." 

HOW TO WATCH SUPER BOWL LIX BETWEEN CHIEFS, EAGLES STREAMED ON TUBI

Transgender athlete supporters hold up signs at left as Tori Hitchcock, center, of the Young Women for America, and Salomay McCullough, right, both former female athletes, show off their "Save Girls Sports" shirts as an overflow crowd converges outside the Riverside Unified School District meeting Thursday night to debate the rights of transgender athletes to compete in high school sports Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Starling says the trans athlete has been using the girls' restroom at the school, however, they haven't seen the athlete much in the locker room due to frequently missing practices. 

The two girls, and multiple parents who have spoken to Fox News Digital, allege the trans athlete was allowed to compete on varsity despite missing practice every week. 

Starling's father, Ryan Starling, previously told Fox News Digital that when his daughter and other girls approached the administrators about it, they were told "transgenders have more rights than cisgenders." The RUSD previously provided a statement to Fox News Digital insisting that its handling of the situation has been in accordance with California state law. 

The two girls then ignited a viral trend in their communities when they showed up to school in November wearing the "Save Girls Sports" shirts. 

And despite being scolded by school administrators for it and having to file a lawsuit, more and more students began to show up each week wearing the shirts, as the school had to alter its dress code and start placing students in detention for wearing them. This didn't stop the shirts from spreading and growing. It became a weekly ritual for hundreds of students every Wednesday to show up wearing the shirts support of the girls and their messaging, and many of them created viral social media posts on it. 

In early December, the school administrators gave up on their efforts to discipline students for wearing the shirts. Sources told Fox News Digital that more than 400 students have shown up wearing the shirts at a time, and students at other schools in the district have started to wear them to class.

HOW TRANSGENDERISM IN SPORTS SHIFTED THE 2024 ELECTION AND IGNITED A NATIONAL COUNTERCULTURE

Students at Martin Luther King High School in Riverside, California wear t-shirts that read "Save Girls' Sports" to protest a trans athlete on the cross country team. (Courtesy of Sophia Lorey)

But Slavin, Starling their attorney Julianne Fleischer, said the school administrators have still told the two girls that they aren't allowed to wear the shirts, during the press conference on Friday. However, they also said more than 400 students at their school have continued to show up wearing the shirts every Wednesday.

The situation culminated in a heated and confrontational event on Dec. 19, when the RUSD held a school board meeting to address the issue. Prior to the meeting, outside the district office, there were competing protests between activists and parents wearing the "Save Girls Sports" shirts and LGBTQ activists. 

Sources, including Ryan Starling, have told Fox News Digital that the LGBTQ activists at the event were harassing the "Save Girls Sports" protesters, and even disrupted a women's prayer group during a prayer circle prior to the meeting. 

"Members of the pro-LGBTQ groups started heckling and harassing the people in line who were speaking in opposition of their values. Some of these adult protesters were even coming up to the young girls that were going to be speaking and were yelling at them close to their face," Young Women for America (YWA)'s Inland Empire chapter President Tori Hitchcock told Fox News Digital.

One anonymous parent told Fox News Digital about witnessing a child being bombarded with vulgar insults by pro-trans protesters after the meeting.

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 the debate as they join the overflow crowd converging outside the Riverside Unified School District meeting Thursday night to debate the rights of transgender athletes to compete in high school sports Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

"My 16-year old son and a few others were standing outside after speaking when a group of the LGBTQ community intentionally walked by them pointing at each one of them saying, ‘FU FU FU,’" the anonymous parent said. 

Then, inside the meeting, parents and opposing activists gave impassioned speeches about their thoughts on the situation, with multiple speakers yelling in hysterical tones. The meeting went on for nearly five hours, and included testimony between individuals who opposed trans inclusion in girls' sports and those who supported it. 

Many of the pro-trans speeches were met with high-pitched cheers and the waiving of LGBTQ pride flags by those in attendance. 

The RUSD previously provided a statement to Fox News Digital insisting that its handling of the situation has been in accordance with California state law. 

"While these rules were not created by RUSD, the District is committed to complying with the law and CIF regulations. California state law prohibits discrimination of students based on gender, gender identity and gender expression, and specifically prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender in physical education and athletics. The protections we provide to all students are not only aligned with the law but also with our core values which include equity and well-being," the statement said. 

The RUSD also placed blame for its handling of the situation on officials in Washington D.C., and California's state capital, Sacramento. They made this statement back in early December, prior to President Donald Trump returning to office. 

"Save Girls Sports" supporters Skylar Crawford, left, and Jadeynn Gallardo, both of Martin Luther King High School, and Tori Hitchcock, right, of Young Women for America, pray among the overflow crowd converging outside the Riverside Unified School District meeting Thursday night to debate the rights of transgender athletes to compete in high school sports Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

"As these matters play out in our courts and the media, opposition and protests should be directed at those in a position to affect those laws and policies (including officials in Washington D.C. and Sacramento)," their statement read. 

Trump has pledged to ban trans athletes from competing in girls' and women's sports, as a federal bill titled The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act is currently progressing through congress. It has already passed in the House of Representatives.

Until that bill is potentially signed into law, Slavin and Starling are asking their supporters to "pray" for them. 

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

Jackson Thompson is a sports writer for Fox News Digital. He previously worked for ESPN and Business Insider. Jackson has covered the Super Bowl and NBA Finals, and has interviewed iconic figures Usain Bolt, Rob Gronkowski, Jerry Rice, Troy Aikman, Mike Trout, David Ortiz and Roger Clemens.