School board president tells emotional girl to wrap it up after she recounts trans athlete experience

A school board meeting in California featured emotional debate over transgender athletes being allowed to share locker rooms with high-school girls.One girl who cried during a speech was told to “wrap it up” by the board president. During the Lucia Mar Unified School District (LMUSD) board meeting on Wednesday, a high-school junior girls’ track athlete at Arroyo Grande High School named Celeste Diest took the podium to recount her experience of having to change in front of a biologically 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, as she began to choke up and 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.”Diest then fought through her tears to argue that the trans athlete’s XY chromosomes define the person as a male, adding, “That is basic biology.”But Diest was then interrupted by LMUSD board president Colleen Martin. “Okay, please wrap it up,” Martin said, gesturing to Diest to finish her point. The teen then sniffled and continued speaking. “I just want to ask ‘what about us?’ We can not sit around and allow our rights to be given up to cater to an individual that is a man, who watches women undress and is stripping away female opportunity that once was fought for us.Sadly we have to try and regain our rights back.

I hope you put effort into the restoration of our school safety.” Diest then walked away from the podium to a roaring applause from the audience before Martin tried to silence the cheers. Martin even began slamming her gavel down to try and temper the growing applause, but the cheers only got louder after that. “No!” Martin yelle...