California athlete says she changes clothes in her car to avoid sharing a locker room with trans athlete
As California's transgender athlete conflict escalates, one high school athlete has resorted to changing clothes in her car to avoid uncomfortable situations.
During a Lucia Mar Unified School District (LMUSD) school board meeting this week, junior Audrey Vanherweg revealed her decision.
"I strongly disagree with what is going on in the girls' locker room and on the girls track team, so much so that I change in my car for track practice because I feel way more comfortable in my car than I do in my own school's locker room," Vanherweg said.
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Vanherweg isn't the first LMUSD girl to express anxiety over the track and field locker room this season.
During a meeting in April, fellow junior track athlete Celeste Diest recounted her experience having to change in front of a biological male trans athlete before practice while that athlete allegedly watched her undress.
"I went into the women's locker room to change for track practice where I saw, at the end of my row, a biological male watching not only myself, but the other young women undress. This experience was beyond traumatizing," Diest said, beginning to cry.
"Adults like yourself make me and my peers feel like our own comfort was invalid, even though our privacy was and still is completely violated."
Both meetings included several parents speaking in opposition to trans athletes in attendance, while other community members spoke in support of trans inclusion. Both meetings also included just as many speakers advocating for transgender athletes.
At this week's meeting, a trans track and field athlete described the decision to join the girls team while wearing a transgender pride flag.
"When I joined track last year, I was terrified," the athlete said. "I was alone, and I feared for my life. When I started going to track practice, I was too afraid to make friends. I thought they would reject and mock me for being transgender. At my first meet, I sat alone, on the wet, muddy ground.
"I fear that somebody would accuse me of a heinous crime, so I walked on razor-thin ice. I never spent longer than three minutes in the locker room. I never made eye contact with people," the athlete said. "And yet, people still accuse me, someone who deals with sexual harassment on a daily basis, of being a predator. So, I'm here to say that I am not the villain, I am the victim."
Women's rights activist and former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines, a leader in the national movement to protect women's and girls sports, previously told Fox News Digital she believes trans athletes involved in the current culture war are victims.
"I view them as victims too. I really do. They have fallen victim to the movement. They have unfortunately fallen for the lie that they weren't created uniquely and intentionally in God's perfect image. And that is a horrible message to send to anyone," Gaines said.
"I believe they're victims too, which is the sad reality of the gender ideology movement."
California has allowed transgender athletes to compete in girls sports since 2014. California's high school sports league, the CIF, was one of the first in the country to openly defy President Donald Trump's "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports" executive order after it was signed Feb. 5.
The CIF is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education for potential Title IX violations over the issue.
California's state legislature failed to pass two GOP-backed bills to reverse the current policies that allow males in girls sports after every Democrat voted against them April 1.
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