Sixteen-year-old AB Hernandez is a natural athlete. On a recent blustery afternoon, she stood at the edge of Jurupa Valley High School’s athletic field, waiting for her event at a track and field meet to be called. As a voice announced over the loudspeaker, “Girls Triple Jump!,” she ran to take her place. On her turn, she broke into a measured, high stride, arms swinging in time with her legs. She quickened her pace and hurtled towards a sand pit. As she reached her mark, she flung herself high into the air and forwards several meters. She quickly pointed her toes and reached her arms forward as she descended, finally splashing down into the sand. Cheers erupted from the stands while she rolled onto her stomach, stood and ran to her friends, smiling.
Hernandez is the transgender athlete who was thrown into the national spotlight after the president of a nearby school board doxxed her — revealing her name, her high school and the fact that she is trans. Since then, Hernandez has been seen her name in Newsweek and The Washington Post. She has been smeared on right-wing podcasts and harassed online; some of her antagonists have even shown up at her track meets.
A small faction of adults have made AB Hernandez the face of a campaign to rewrite California law that has allowed transgender children to play on their school’s sports teams for over a decade. None of them has children enrolled in the Jurupa Valley Unified School District; several homeschool their kids.
“This is all child abuse,” Nereyda Hernandez, AB’s mother, told Capital & Main in an exclusive interview. “They just need to leave my baby alone.”
The Hernandez family has lived in Jurupa Valley, an equestrian, mostly Latino city of about 106,000, for nearly 30 years. AB grew up, the youngest of four sisters, like many other local kids: on a ranch surrounded by family. Her grandparents immigrated to the United States from Mexico and El Salvador, and instilled a strong sense of faith and tradition into the family. Nereyda, who became a widow in her early 20s, raised her children regularly attending a Catholic church.
Nereyda did not know her daughter was trans until AB was in the eighth grade.
“I was accidentally asked about her. I just said, ‘I’m just letting her be her,’ but I really didn’t know,” she recalled. Nereyda said she did not always understand her daughter’s experience, but made a point to educate herself. “As long as in your household, your child has that support, you stand behind your child, then they’re gonna be OK. I’m gonna stand behind her 120%. That’s my job as a mom.”
In 2013, then-California Gov. Jerry Brown signed the School Success and Opportunity Act into law, ensuring that transgender youth can fully participate in all school activities, sports teams, programs, and facilities that match their gender identity. This past February, President Donald Trump banned transgender women and girls from college women’s and high school girls’ sports teams. The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) stated in response to Trump’s action that it would allow trans athletes to compete under existing California law. Shortly afterwards, the U.S. Department of Education announced a Title IX investigation into CIF for its policy allowing transgender high school athletes to play girls’ sports. Title IX is a federal law aimed at preventing gender discrimination in education.
“There is the threat from the federal government to withhold funding. [And] there’s threats from the state government to withhold funding if we violate laws,” Superintendent Trenton Hansen said at the Jurupa Unified School District Board of Education’s March meeting. “Unfortunately, school districts are placed in the middle of this tug of war. All the information we’ve received from legal counsel … is that we follow the laws here in California, that [Trump’s] executive orders do not carry the weight of the force of law, and that these issues will need to be figured out in the court system.”
Many residents of Jurupa Valley, which Trump won by two points in November, have united in support of AB.
“Our community is in 100% support of our neighbors,” said Armando Carmona, a member of Jurupa Valley’s City Council. “I’ve extended 100% support to our young athlete, who’s competing at the highest level in high school, because they’re competing within the current rules. In this community we can talk about federal issues, we talk about state or even global issues. But at the end of the day, we all realize we’re neighbors first.”
Five parents of children enrolled in JUSD schools who spoke with Capital & Main said they fully support AB competing.
“It’s not about the divide of the topic, it’s about the well-being of a child, that all she wants to do is play sports,” said Veronica Hurtado, whose son attends a local high school. “As a mom, I can assure you there’s not a mother in this community that wouldn’t agree with me when they say you’re worried about her safety and her mental health.”
Hurtado says she can relate to Nereyda Hernandez. When Hurtado’s daughter, Molly Ramirez, came out a lesbian, she says she was pressured by an administrator to stay in the closet. Hurtado promptly moved her daughter to a different school. Today, her daughter runs the family’s feed store, and says she feels accepted by the community.
“I have a lot of younger people generations younger than me that are coming out. And my goal is to make them comfortable,” Ramirez said. “I feel like that’s what our community is about.”
AB has been athletic her entire life. She has done tumbling, hip-hop dance, cheerleading, soccer, baseball and volleyball. Her mother says that sports has helped AB navigate difficult circumstances in the past, like the sudden death of Nereyda’s parents in 2021 from COVID-19 complications, and becoming the subject of a national debate.
“I think that [sports] is her way of coping with things. This is, in a sense, therapy,” she said. “’Cause at the beginning, I was worried about suicidal thoughts. I’ve always been scared of people hurting her.”
The onslaught against AB has been led by a former teacher and nearby school board president. Jessica Tapia, a former gym teacher at Jurupa Valley High School, was fired in January 2023 after stating she would not respect trans and nonbinary students’ pronouns — a violation of district policy. She began posting about AB on her social media pages in October 2024. Tapia was joined by five others at the Jurupa Unified School District Board of Education’s March meeting, where they misgendered AB repeatedly and demanded the board stop AB from competing.
“We know deep down in our heart this isn’t normal and it isn’t right,” Tapia said in an interview. “Any time that I have an opportunity to speak into an issue, especially a tip of the spear, hot topic issue, I take it as God calling me to use my voice, my experience, my platform, my influence to speak the truth.”
Sonja Shaw, president of the Chino Valley Unified School District and candidate for California Superintendent of Schools, began collaborating with Tapia’s Instagram posts about AB in February. One of those posts included the 16-year-old’s full name, and the name of her high school. Nereyda Hernandez subsequently sent a cease-and-desist to Tapia and Shaw, which Shaw tore up at a Board of Education meeting while deliberately misgendering AB.
“I stand with parents, athletes, and coaches who demand real fairness in sports and privacy protections for all students,” Shaw said in a statement to Capital & Main. “We will not be silenced, and we will not stop fighting until girls receive the respect, opportunities, and safety they deserve. Enough is enough.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently spoke to right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk about AB on the debut episode of his podcast “This Is Gavin Newsom.”
“It is an issue of fairness — it’s deeply unfair,” Newsom told Kirk. “I am not wrestling with the fairness issue. I totally agree with you.”
AB Hernandez is currently ranked third in the United States for triple jump behind two girls from high schools in Texas and Arizona, two states that have banned gender-affirming care for trans children.
Nereyda Hernandez said she wished the governor had stopped the conversation when her daughter was mentioned. Jurupa Valley City Councilmember Carmona agreed.
“Bringing in a minor, a minor of color into this worldwide debate or discussion … is a major challenge and it’s problematic,” Carmona said. “We have a family that’s been harassed and attacked by extremists on one side targeting a child.”
Newsom’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the Hernandez family’s concerns.
During a Friday afternoon visit to her church, Nereyda spoke to her priest about her daughter becoming the target of a hate campaign. He encouraged her to love her daughter, and to have her confirmed in the church.
In May, AB will compete at the CIF California State Track and Field Championships in Clovis, California. Nereyda says she and her daughter are looking forward to it.
“I hope that it has a positive impact, not just for my child, but for the future, for the future athletes,” Nereyda said. “And I tell my baby, ‘I really think and I really hope you open doors for other kids to be able to come out and live happy, because I see my baby’s happy being herself.’”
All photos by Jeremy Lindenfeld.
Copyright Capital & Main 2025
