LA Trans Group Calls Out Far-Right Activists for Fetishizing and Stalking a Trans Child

Earlier this week, the Southern California–based activist group Protect Trans Youth LA (PTYLA) found themselves at the center of right-wing controversy after they pushed back against the conservative stalking and harassment of 16-year-old trans athlete AB Hernandez. Activists with the group, who spoke to Free Radical on terms of anonymity for their safety, described one of the anti-trans protesters invasively talking about the girl’s genitals at a public sporting event.

“I was so horrified when I heard someone comment about her body,” an activist with PTYLA recalled. “The rest was awful, but I had a visceral reaction when she said that, just this awful feeling in the pit of my stomach. An adult yelling about a 16-year-old's genitals in public is way over the line,” they said. This group of adult anti-trans protesters also reportedly misgendered Hernandez, calling for a “transgender-only league,” calling trans people “mentally ill,” and even shouting insults at Hernandez while she was warming up.

The controversy began after former gym teacher Jessica Tapia and Chino Valley School District Board president Sonja Shaw doxxed Hernandez last year, according to nonprofit news outlet Capital & Main. This prompted a wave of media attention, culminating in far-right personality Charlie Kirk discussing Hernandez on the podcast of Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom in March and ultimately prompting Newsom to admit that he “aligns completely” with Kirk on the topic of transgender girls in sports.

Kirk’s harassment hasn’t ceased — just last week, he featured Sophia Lorey, former Alliance Defending Freedom client and outreach director at the California Family Council (CFC), on his own show. The CFC, which is a member of the Project 2025 Advisory Board, is notorious for working with anti-trans activists to push bans on transgender girls’ participation in girls’ scholastic sports — and Lorey, a former college soccer player, is no exception. After Kirk referenced his chat with Newsom about Hernandez, Lorey joined him in misgendering the girl and calling for the segregation of transgender athletes. This prompted a new wave of attention toward Hernandez, with PTYLA mobilizing in conjunction with local groups including Pride at the Pier to coordinate a response.

After speaking with Hernandez and her mother Nereyda, the groups found that the best response was one that directly contradicts the harmful rhetoric of anti-trans groups — to attend Hernandez’s next track meet and to cheer on all the girls competing.

“We are asking NOT to engage with extremists at this event. Please do NOT come ready for a protest, OR for a Pride celebration — this is a track meet, and the athlete in question has asked for support for all the student athletes, in a way that does not put her ability to participate at risk. We are there to cheer her and her teammates on as they show off the culmination of their hard work this year,” wrote Pride at the Pier on Instagram.

The months of harassment come in spite of support for Hernandez from her local community. Numerous parents affirmed to both Capital & Main as well as to PTYLA activists that they support Hernandez playing on her school’s team, and that their children echo this sentiment. In April, Hernandez asked board members — including president Leandra Blades — of the nearby Placentia–Yorba Linda Unified School District, "How are you saving girls' sports when you're not reaching out to the team that I'm on?... [They all] love me and support me. They've told me over and over again that they want me on this team.”

Blades, along with Shaw and Tapia, participated in an endless slew of harassment and stalking targeted atHernandez — including the sharing of her and her mother’s personal information — in an effort to rally members of the far right against the family. In a statement Pride at the Pier sent to Free Radical, they note that “on the ground, Proud Boys, Moms for Liberty, and various other agitators wear anti-LGBTQ T-shirts to intimidate the trans athletes at their sporting events (where the harassers typically do not have kids competing).”

According to an activist with PTYLA who spoke to Free Radical, “AB's mom is trying to take out a restraining order on multiple people on behalf of her and her daughter. There were California law enforcement [present] and Placentia–Yorba Linda Board policies posted around the venue because of this issue. There were 4–5 officers from the Orange County Sheriff's office. The security plan was to keep AB physically separated from the agitating group, so thankfully I believe she didn't have close contact with any of them.” That meeting was also the setting of Shaw notoriously ripping up a cease and desist letter sent by Nereyda following the doxxing of her daughter.

PTYLA’s response to the furor was swift, and they worked with the family to both publicly oppose the attempts of far-right adults to bully a child, and to express support for the community as well. 

“To the parents listening: support your kids,” Nereyda Hernandez said in a statement sent to Free Radical. “Stand by them, because when the world tries to tear them down, your support, your love, and your voice is what helps them rise. To the policymakers and school officials: listen to the voices of transgender youth. Protect them!!! To those who have stood beside us and taken steps to ensure AB’s safety and her ability to pursue what she loves, you are appreciated!!! Thank YOU!!! To the young trans athletes out there: YOU BELONG, DO NOT GIVE UP, YOU ARE NOT ALONE!!! As AB’s mother, I will continue to support her, protect her, and love her exactly as she is. Nothing and no one will ever change that!!!”

This isn’t the first time that PTYLA has taken an active part in the fight for trans rights in California. In February, they played a key role in organizing protests against Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles for abruptly ceasing the provision of gender-affirming care for minors; last month, they additionally led a rally against Representative Brad Sherman (D-CA) for his silence on transgender rights.

Sherman, who is a member of the Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus, has been criticized for his apparent relative silence toward LGBTQ+ issues. In April, PTYLA released a list of demands calling for him to protect trans people, especially trans asylum seekers, and staged a protest during a town hall; a separate, coordinated pro-Palestine protest was also held outside. “You have not made a statement on LGBTQ rights since this president was elected,” an activist shouted during the hall. “We have demands, you have trans constituents who need you to take a stand.” 

Three days later, Sherman reintroduced the Equality Act, which would provide federal protections against LGBTQ+ discrimination; Sherman condemned the activist’s disruption in a statement to Free Radical and denied that the town hall brought forth Act’s introduction, saying that it “had been… scheduled for introduction long before.” He added, “I respect the passion of every young person fighting for trans rights — it’s a fight I’ve been part of for decades.”

One of the individuals involved in the action told Free Radical, “Intersectionality is the pinnacle. While I was inside pushing for better protection of trans rights, other pro-Palestinian and anti-imperialist activists were outside the town hall protesting Brad Sherman's Zionist positions. I think it's ever important that we work together towards our collective liberation, challenging politicians, oligarchs, and anyone who uses their power to exploit on every front we have access to.”

Intersectionality is indeed central to the fight for trans liberation. These fights are fundamentally about the rights of regular people — the families targeted by the far right are rarely ever seasoned activists or leaders in their community, but rather cherished members that sit on the same playing field as everyone else.

“I'm trans & nonbinary, and I didn't realize how emotional it would make me to hear them yelling those hateful things in front of a huge crowd of people,” another one of the PTYLA activists recalled. “It bothers me personally, but it really breaks my heart to think there might be other trans kids who haven't come out yet, hearing and seeing this happen. It's the kind of stuff that drives us back into the closet. This kind of vitriol isn't going to stop anyone from being trans, but it will inspire self-hatred and drive up suicide rates for trans teens.”

A common trap that activists fall into is hyperfocusing on one specific issue. People will naturally fight for causes that affect them and their community, but what often becomes apparent to activists over time is how interconnected every fight is. The battle for trans rights cannot succeed without liberation for Black and Indigenous people of color, without migrants, without disabled people, without the poor — without the community as a whole.

Protect Trans Kids LA offers a lesson as another incarnation of radical groups of both the past and present. If we want to see liberation for marginalized people, we need to fight for everyone — not just the few.

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Thank you to Ryan Fae (@ryan.staticnoi.se) for editing this article. Subscribe to support more journalism like this.