This little office appliance tries to keep its rants local, but sometimes national politics come lurching at us, and thanks to Prez. tRump and his barrage of executive orders, that’s happening more often. One ongoing panic at our disco is about female trans athletes (or, locally, maybe a single female trans athlete) competing alongside cisgendered female athletes.
Whether you believe trans students should be included or excluded from participating in sports in line with their gender identity is nearly irrelevant at this point because tRump’s fearmongering and extremism has sucked all the oxygen out of rational debate. For tRump, it’s always us against them. He’s not interested in common ground, compromise, or solutions. tRump smash!
In fact, I’m pretty sure tRump hasn’t met a culture war battle he doesn’t want to douse with gasoline, and the trans topic is right up his intolerant alley because it so clearly pits right against left.
Last year, Moms for Liberty (except not for trans athlete liberty, obviously) and right-wing youth organization Young America’s Foundation filed a complaint to stop former President Joe Biden‘s changes to Title IX, the 1972 law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in education programs that received federal funding. Biden expanded protections to trans athletes.
This national cock-up has come home to roost, especially in the North County—our own little hotbed of intolerance and fear. The complaint alleges that a transgender student using the Atascadero High School girl’s locker room in the 2023-24 school year “twerked in the faces” of other girls.
Because she was named in the 2024 complaint, Atascadero Unified School District Board Member Rebekah Koznek was invited to The White House to witness tRump signing an executive order banning trans athletes from competition and removing Biden’s Title IX expansion. Koznek’s daughter was apparently on the receiving end of said twerking.
Trump has also threatened to withhold federal funding to California if the state continues to allow transgender athletes to compete in girls’ and women’s sports.
People like Koznek and local Moms for Liberty members are demanding that local school districts implement Trump’s executive orders even though it contradicts state laws meant to foster greater inclusion.
States rights are super important to tRump … except when they contradict with his intolerance and bigotry.
According to Koznek, female athletes “have been directly affected by CIF [California Interscholastic Federation] and colleges who have rules in conflict with the current [executive order].”
Look, understanding the problem isn’t difficult. Locker rooms are uncomfortable places regardless of your gender or gender identity, and if you’re a cisgender athlete who loses to a trans gender athlete, that probably feels unfair, and reasonable people can certainly debate these points, but the heat is turned up so high on the issue that possible solutions can’t be properly explored.
After a transgender athlete in Southern California won regional girls’ triple and long jump competitions last month, the CIF decided to allow “any biological female student-athlete” who would have qualified to advance in a competition that a trans athlete won to be included in the next round of competition.
In a statement, the CIF said it “believes this pilot entry process achieves the participation opportunities we seek to afford our student-athletes.” In other words, a cisgender athlete can advance to the next stage of competition if she loses her spot because a trans athlete took it. It’s a compromise seeking some small measure of equity.
My question is does this molehill deserve its mountainous stature? I mean, how many local trans athletes are affected? One? Is this really a big deal? At the college level, according to testimony from NCAA President Charlie Baker in December, he knew of fewer than 10 transgender college student-athletes among the 510,000 total.
And let’s remember what we’re talking about here: student sports. They’re supposed to promote holistic development, build character, teach teamwork, and promote healthy lifestyles. Making room for trans athletes seems like a potential teaching moment, but we’re sadly living under tRump’s vilification of DEI. Tolerance and inclusion are now dirty words.
It’s part of tRump’s larger attack on intellectualism. He wants to dissolve the U.S. Department of Education, punish and defund institutes of higher learning (he’s cut more than $10 billion in federal research grants), and he’s come right out and said, “I love the poorly educated.” Why? Because they voted for him.
Now tRump has made cuts to the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which provides $295 million to public libraries and museums nationwide, including ours. Because SLO County libraries are funded primarily through county, city, or donated funds, their doors will remain open, but tRump’s cuts may affect library programs local families rely on.
“From summer reading programs for our kids to workforce training supporting small businesses, San Luis Obispo County has 14 public libraries and numerous museums that play a critical role in enriching our local communities,” U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California) told New Times via email.
Local families can expect to feel the impact of more of tRump’s policies. Head Start programs could be cut, tariffs could affect construction costs, school meal programs might disappear, and some families with tenuous or complicated immigration statuses could be torn asunder—the future is unknown, but tRump seems determined to sow chaos and pandemonium, and even Californians won’t escape his wrath. Δ
The Shredder is staying calm and shredding on. Send thoughts to shredder@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Jun 12-22, 2025.