By Emil Amok Guillermo
Asian Americans should celebrate A.B. Hernandez, the 16-year-old trans girl from Riverside County, competing at the California high school track and field championships.
Hernandez, her nails painted, her hair pulled back, jumped higher than anyone she faced to win first place in the girls’ high jump. She was second in the long jump. But she added a victory in the girls’ triple jump.
That’s where she also figuratively jumped over Donald Trump, anti-trans protestors, and the cowardly California bureaucrats who gave in to Trump on the rules.
I’d like to see Donald Trump compete in track and field—— as a woman or a man. For him, let’s give him some affirmative action. We’d make it gender -blind.
He’d still finish last, if at all.
Or I’d give him more of a break. Let’s see him play his game—golf—against all the great Asian American women golfers.
As they say in the language Trump knows, locker room talk, the president wouldn’t be able to hold their putter head covers.
But back to track and field.
Trump finished on the losing end this weekend. Despite bullying Hernandez, Trump couldn’t stop the 16-year-old trans athlete from being who she is.
A girl. And a champion.
Last week, Trump used his power in an attempt to keep Hernandez from participating in the state high school championships.
On social media, Trump said he was “ordering local authorities, if necessary, to not allow” her to compete.
He even threatened to cut off federal funds to the state.
Trump wrongly called the trans athlete “practically unbeatable.” Essentially,
Trump did all he could to rig the state championships against Hernandez.
Does that sound fair?
A 78-year-old president with all his power bullying a 16-year-old trans girl who has worked hard all year to be the best she could be.
As a compromise to Trump, the CIF (California Interscholastic Federation) asterisked Hernandez in an odd way. It recognized her win. But it also claimed cis-gendered athletes who would be displaced by her would get a bump up.
In other words, the second place finisher to Hernandez was officially made first place also. A tie, diminishing Hernandez’s victory.
Wait a minute, isn’t that cis-gender affirmative action? Yep.
And I thought that after Asian Americans were made a spectacle as race victims in the Harvard anti-affirmative action case, Trump and his ilk had declared America a meritocracy.
What a sham? What a shame– to see a bastardized affirmative action used in California’s track and field championships in order to appease Trump.
Just goes to show you how affirmative action and its counterpart, meritocracy, are seen by Trump as relative and subjective.
Is Pete Hegseth qualified to lead the Department of Defense? Kash Patel to run the FBI? Only if the key qualification is “loyalty to Trump,” not on specific management and ability.
Of course, if Donald Trump, a convicted felon, is qualified to be president, then you can justify anyone as qualified to be anything.
As long as the boss likes you.
The CIF rule change is an annoying compromise. Hernandez competed all year, and there was barely a peep from the president. But when it’s championship time, here’s all the noise forcing CIF to cave to Trump.
It would have been better to finish the season and go through a more open process to change the rule for next year.
Instead, Trump used Hernandez to ignite the issue and enliven his passionate anti-trans MAGA base. Perhaps it’s to show that even though Trump’s failing on tariffs, the economy, Ukraine/Russia, Gaza, among other things, Trump does know how to bully 16-year-old trans girls.
Protestors, of course, showed up at this weekend’s championships. But according to Hernandez’ mother, there were many more who showed up with love and support for her daughter.
As it should be.
A.B. Hernandez should be honored not just for her victories, but for standing up to the bully.
”There are no words to express how proud I am of her despite her being targeted and harassed,” Nereyda Hernandez, A.B.’s mom told NBC4 news. “She’s here. She’s successful. She did it. I’m excited, and we’re taking the gold home.”
We must note each and every time the good prevails during these Trump times.
Especially on an issue that inspires the worst kind of hate imaginable toward innocent human beings, some of whom are in our own families.
It’s a highlight of the first day of June when we honor the LGBTQ+ communities. Trump and MAGA could squawk and gawk, but they couldn’t keep A.B. Hernandez from soaring.
Emil Guillermo is an award-winning journalist, news analyst and stage monologuist. He has written a weekly “Amok” column on Asian American issues since 1995. Find him on YouTube, patreon and substack. See him at the Marsh/SF, 1062 Valencia St., performing bits from his new “Amok Monologues.”
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