California school board tells female high school track athlete to ‘wrap it up’ during tearful testimony about trans teammate watching her undress

Last week, during a Lucia Mar Unified School District (LMUSD) board meeting, Celeste Diest, a junior on the girls’ track team at Arroyo Grande High School, spoke publicly about her experience of having to change clothes before practice in the presence of a male who identified as transgender. Diest said that the trans athlete was watching her and other girls undress in the women's locker room.

“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 cry, choking up while explaining herself.

“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," she added. As Diest fought back tears, she then explained the "basic biology" that men have XY chromosomes and women have XX chromosomes. She was then interrupted by LMUSD board president Colleen Martin.

"Okay, please wrap it up," Martin said abruptly during Diest's address to the board.

“I just want to ask, ‘What about us?’ We cannot 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 added, after having been interrupted by Martin.

She then concluded her speech and was met with applause as she walked away from the podium. Martin tried to shut the cheers up and began slamming her gavel as the audience applauded Diest, the New York Post reported.

Several other community members gave speeches in opposition to having transgender athletes in women's sports, which has become a winning issue for Republicans as nearly 80 percent of Americans do not want men in women's competition, according to a report from Center Square.