Clash over trans students draws hundreds to SLO County school board meeting
A roiling debate about transgender students drew hundreds of people to the Lucia Mar school board’s meeting Tuesday night as both sides showed up in force for an evening rally before continuing the issue at a lengthy public comment period inside.
Parents, students, teachers and community members turned out in droves on both sides of the divisive conversation around trans students’ participation in school sports and use of the bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identities.
Crowds gathered outside an hour before the meeting opened to the public, with demonstrators on one side of the lawn waving transgender flags while people on the other held signs that read slogans like “Keep boys OUT of girls sports.”
The two groups showed up in near-equal numbers by the time the board meeting began.
“Our main goal is to show the LGBTQ+ community and trans kids, specifically, that everyone’s welcome in our schools and they’re valued, and we want to make sure their rights are protected and that they feel safe,” pro-trans rally organizer and South County Democratic Club spokesperson Virginia Roof told The Tribune. “We have to show the kids that there are adults in their community that are inclusive and want to make sure their rights are protected.”
On the other side, many wore shirts reflecting the logo of Save Girls Sports, a local group that aims to “protect girls and women from boys and men (biological males) in their sports, locker rooms and private spaces.”
The group posted a call to action to attend Tuesday’s board meeting on Facebook.
“Our focus is on protecting girls,” the group’s founder Shannon Kessler told The Tribune. “As a woman, I see this as a degradation in women’s rights. … This is not about hate. No one has ever asked anyone to exclude anyone from school. This is just a matter of no boys — no biological boys — in girls sports.”
Kessler is also the director of Culture Impact, a ministry of Harvest Church, but said she was not speaking on behalf of the church.
When the doors to the school board meeting opened at 7 p.m., security guards had to conduct crowd control to ensure the building wasn’t rushed and that equal numbers were admitted on both sides. The fire marshal counted heads as people entered to ensure the building didn’t surpass max capacity. Every chair in the house appeared to be filled.
Despite there being no item on the agenda relating to the school district’s policies over trans students’ inclusion in sports or use of school facilities, 68 people spoke during public comment almost exclusively on the issue, including a transgender student athlete who has been caught in the crossfire of the conflict.
“As a trans student, I have been threatened and harassed on a ... daily basis. My safety has been compromised multiple times, and yet, the students responsible rarely face the consequences due to deeply flawed district policies.” the student said.
The Tribune is not naming the student for her security.
“This is not just a policy issue, it’s matter of basic human rights,” she said.
Community rallies on both sides of trans student rights
Trans student rights and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in schools have come under significant fire during the second Trump administration.
Within the first 100 days of his term, President Donald Trump has signed multiple executive orders targeting trans students’ participation in athletic programs and declaring only two genders exist. On April 3, the U.S. Department of Education sent a letter ordering schools to sign certifications against “illegal DEI practices” or risk losing federal funding.
Many parents across SLO County support these proclamations, and a petition being circulated by a SLO County parent group asks local school districts like Lucia Mar to “follow federal laws” by rolling back inclusion policies for trans students.
The pro-trans “Be an Ally” rally ahead of Tuesday night’s board meeting, organized by the South County Democratic Club, was held in response to the last school board meeting on April 15, when a large showing of people spoke for and against trans inclusion policies, including a student athlete who became emotional when recounting her experience changing in the same locker room as a transgender teammate.
“The reason we’re doing the rally is as a reaction to counter this hateful rhetoric,” Roof told The Tribune ahead of Tuesday’s rally. “Some of the comments at that meeting were just so vile, and ... as a concerned parent and citizen, I just didn’t feel like that could stand.”
But for Kessler, the founder of Save Girls Sports, the issue is not a matter of hate.
“We’re not ‘anti’ anyone,” Kessler told The Tribune. “This, to me, is not an LGBTQ+ issue. It’s a girls’ and women’s rights issue. We would just like to see — particularly this seems to be happening most in female locker rooms — that they would not have their spaces invaded by biological boys.”
Kessler went on the Dave Congalton’s Hometown radio show on Friday to discuss the issue.
Outside the board meeting, Roof led chants of “It’s love not hate that makes America great,” while counter-protesters sang church hymns. Kessler said it was a normal occurance for them to pray outside of school board meetings.
“They believe that because Trump put his name on a piece of paper that our kids don’t belong, and we say absolutely no to that,” Roof said to the crowd.
“I don’t like how it’s just two groups at each other, and I think there’s a lot of twisting of words, or can be at least,” Arroyo Grande high school senior Judah Hill told The Tribune as he observed the rally. “I hope that both sides move from a place of love.”
Multiple members of the religious community attended the Democratic party’s rally and spoke during public comment, including Rabbi Micah Hyman of Congregation Beth David, Rod Richard of the Unitarian Universalist church in San Luis Obispo, and Episcopalian Rev. Greta Ronningen and Brother Dennis Gibbs of the Central Coast Community of Divine Love.
“There’s a very, very large Christian community that don’t seem to get as much air time, that are very positive about the trans community, the LGBTQ+ community,” Ronningen told The Tribune. “God’s love is for all, no exclusions.”
Public comment draws big turnout
For the second Lucia Mar school board meeting in a row, public comment was taken over almost entirely by the issue of trans students’ use of school facilities and participation in sports.
Comment was limited to one minute per speaker and went for well over an hour, starting around 8:30 p.m. and ending just minutes before 10 p.m.
One of the speakers at the April 15 board meeting was Arroyo Grande High School student and track athlete Celeste Duyst, who became emotional when recounting a “beyond traumatizing” experience of changing in the girls’ locker room while she said a transgender student who she referred to as a “biological male” watched her undress, The Tribune previously reported.
Duyst’s comments made national headlines, reported by Fox News and other news outlets.
Both Duyst and the transgender student spoke at Tuesday’s board meeting.
“I am the transgender athlete who was ruthlessly slandered at the last school board meeting,” the student said.
During her one minute comment, the student athlete called out Kessler, former mayoral candidate Gaea Powell and school board Trustee Mike Fuller for “using their platform to spread harmful disinformation and hateful rhetoric.”
Powell also spoke at the meeting, as did Kessler.
“I am demanding that the (Lucia Mar) school district stop standing by as the human rights of transgender people are being threatened,” the trans student said. “You must act now.”
The girl’s father, Trevor, spoke on Tuesday night as well. The Tribune will only use his first name for the safety of the family.
“Our child is kind, thoughtful and funny. She deserves to be treated like any other student,” he said. “She’s not a political issue. She’s a person.”
He said the situation was pushed “to the national level with no concern for the safety of any minor involved.”
“It’s entirely inappropriate and dangerous to try to litigate this in public,” he said.
The girl’s mother also spoke.
“I really don’t want to be here,” she said with a sigh.
As the woman spoke over her time limit about her daughter, half the crowd yelled “you’re out of time,” drowning her out with cheers as she left the podium.
Duyst spoke second, directly after the trans student.
“I would like to start by saying women have a biological disadvantage to men,” Duyst said.
She, like many others who spoke against trans students’ participation in sports teams and use of bathrooms that align with their gender identity, made the argument that sports should be about biological sex, not gender.
“Currently perception and feelings are being used as evidence to qualify oneself as a woman. A person is not a woman based on their thoughts and perceptions, but on DNA and fundamental anatomy,” Duyst said. “The trans community are not only trying but succeeding in watching girls change along with competing against us. Most females don’t appreciate competing with ... biologically unfair competition, and don’t want to change with a boy watching them.”
“I’d like to mention that I’m not transphobic and do not have hatred toward the transgender community,” she said as she was cut off by the pro-trans crowd erupting into laughter, to which others in the crowd responded with calls to “be respectful.”
“The reason why I am speaking is because my rights and safety are no longer valued. Please give us equal opportunity and help make our school safe,” Duyst said, speaking on behalf of female athletes.
But two other students who run track with both Duyst and the transgender student said that Duyst doesn’t speak for the whole team.
“As a female athlete, I stand here representing both me and my likewise peers’ support for sharing our spaces with transgender females,” Molly McLaughlin said. “I urge you to recognize that true empowerment and protection for women comes from inclusion and compassion, rather than relentless ostracism.”
In total, 68 people spoke on Tuesday night, including other transgender and non-binary individuals, religious leaders and community members on both sides of the issue.
“It’s your moral obligations to stand for the rights of all children and stop this bullying,” Powell, who is an outspoken critic of the district’s policies on LGBTQ+ students, school curricula and library books, said. “Get rid of the woke ideology that has indoctrinated our children to be sexualized and brutalized and discriminated against.”
Many people spoke directly about Duyst and the transgender student. Some talked about the science and chromosomes that determine biological sex, the unfair advantage biological men have and the need to protect women and girls. Others spoke about the need to include transgender girls in that protection.
“Transgender people have always existed, and will always continue to exist,” Emma Collins, an Arroyo Grande high school alumni, said.
This story was originally published May 6, 2025 at 11:14 PM.
