‘They Picked on the Wrong Kid’: How Families Are Speaking Up for Trans Athletes

It was last August when Trevor Norcross first made the trip from San Luis Obispo County to Sacramento for the California Interscholastic Federation’s executive committee meeting.

During a heated public comment period, dominated by those who were opposed to transgender girls’ participation on sports teams that align with their gender identity, he stood up and spoke.

“I started coming to the CIF meetings by myself when I saw that the anti-trans crowd was showing up unopposed,” Norcross told KQED. “I just wanted to be on record that we’re here, we care, and we matter.”

Two years earlier, his daughter Lily had come out as transgender just before she entered high school. She joined the track team in her first year and found great joy in competing as a sprinter and long jumper during her first two seasons. But after the Trump administration reentered the White House in 2025, the Norcross family said, it seemed to open the door to a slew of outwardly hateful rhetoric.

In their small coastal community of Arroyo Grande, Lily became a target.

She said she’s been stalked by a local politician running for state Assembly, targeted by a local church group’s campaign against transgender high school athletes, and is widely known to be “example No. 3” in a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit filed against the California Department of Education and CIF. The Trump administration’s suit alleges California officials violated Title IX by refusing to sign a resolution agreeing to comply with a federal push to ban transgender athletes from girls’ sports.

“I have had people try to dox me. I’ve had people stalk me. I’ve had people threaten to murder me,” Lily told KQED. “I have people just walk up to me and call me slurs during school. Anything that you could imagine, I have dealt with.”

Norcross soon discovered that their family’s experience was not unique. Looking through notes from CIF meetings, he found that they had become rife with anti-transgender sentiment. At the first meeting where Norcross spoke, nine people followed him — all opposing teens like Lily being able to participate on school teams that match their gender identity, according to meeting minutes.

Since that August meeting in Sacramento, Norcross has attended every one the executive committee has held, plus larger Federated Council meetings, which are more rare and bring together representatives from across the state.

At first, he’d show up alone. But over time, Norcross, families of other trans athletes and local advocacy groups have built up a coalition that’s transformed the CIF meeting room.

At last week’s executive committee meeting in Oakland, the room was filled wall to wall with transgender rights supporters.

“We had 50 people there, and all the speaking slots,” said Arne Johnson, a lead organizer for the Bay Area-based activist group Rainbow Families Action. “We got to take the room ourselves. It was like the first time we got to engage with CIF without feeling gross and having to scrape off some bad feelings after the conversations.”

Rainbow Families Action first sent its own representatives to a CIF meeting in October, months after the high school sports governing body piloted new rules ahead of the state track and field championships that increased the number of girls who could qualify for the finals in events where a transgender athlete was competing.

There, they met Norcross. During the public comment period, he spoke in support of Lily again.

“His speech was very moving,” said Johnson. “It just was kind of one of those moments when you suddenly see where you need to be. We just were like, ‘This can’t ever happen again. Trevor can’t come to one of these things by himself.’”

Since then, Rainbow Families Action has sent representatives to every CIF meeting, growing their coalition from about a dozen representatives.

The group in Oakland included parents, transgender students, a grandmother, multiple clergy members and activists from different trans rights groups.

“We’re gaining our momentum,” Norcross said. “The other side came at us hot and heavy, and they intentionally used degrading language on purpose because they want us to be afraid. They want us not to speak out and we refuse.”

Next, he said, he is advocating to meet with Gov. Gavin Newsom, who made headlines last year after he called it “deeply unfair” for transgender athletes to compete in girls sports.

Norcross said Newsom has met with activists who oppose transgender athletes’ inclusion and should offer parents like him the same opportunity.

In addition to the lack of research proving that trans girls have a biological advantage, Norcross argues “there are all kinds of advantages people have.”

“If you can afford a private coach, you’ve got an advantage. One of the things I want to talk to Governor Newsom about is he, like me, is left-handed. He played baseball. Isn’t being left-handed an advantage when you’re playing baseball?” Norcross asked.

“Entering puberty earlier than others is an advantage. Your birthday, based on cutoffs, is an advantage,” he said. “There’s more research that needs to be done to say if you can statistically prove that those are bigger advantages than being a transgender athlete.”

In the meantime, he and Rainbow Families Action plan to continue making their presence known at CIF meetings statewide.

“They picked on the wrong kid and they picked on the wrong family,” Norcross said. They “platformed us and we will fight back.”