New ban in place for transgender athletes

That circumstance caused a considerable degree of controversy. One school, Belmont’s Notre Dame, forfeited a match to Half Moon Bay due to the biological boy’s presence.

There was another incident involving rude Notre Dame parents who verbally harassed the transgender youngster during a volleyball match with Half Moon Bay. Those adults were disciplined by Notre Dame authorities.

All of this went viral via social media and received more coverage from TV media and newspapers.

All the while, both Half Moon Bay and the Peninsula Athletic League, of which the Cougars are a part, have relied on rules provided by the California Interscholastic Federation, the sports governing body for the state’s secondary schools.

Those rules specify that a teen athlete can participate in an athletic endeavor based on whatever gender that person identifies as. An email from the office of the CIF’s commissioner, Ron Nocetti, indicated there is no change in its regulations, at least for now.

A Monday statement from the Cabrillo district indicated that it is “awaiting further guidance on recent federal policy changes … (it) plans to work closely with the San Mateo County Office of Education, the CIF and the California Department of Education” as the situation unfolds.

It’s relevant to point out that, last week, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which controls participation in college sports, reversed itself and now bars biological men who identify as women from competing against women.

The cudgel being wielded by the federal government to enforce its new mandate is the threat of a loss of taxpayers’ dollars for those institutions that resist.

It’s already apparent that California — and its myriad schools — are in the feds’ crosshairs.

FROM MERCY HIGH TO THE CIA: In a century that increasingly highlights a growing reliance on accurate information in every realm of human endeavor, including safety and security matters, it’s noteworthy that a Mercy High School alum is included in a book about the Central Intelligence Agency. Molly Chambers, Class of 2005, is one of the CIA’s former operatives included in “The Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women in the CIA.” The book, authored by Liza Mundy, is available on Amazon.

A MOVIE HOUSE CENTENNIAL: The Stanford Theatre, which features movies from Hollywood’s Golden Age, is observing its centennial this year. It opened for business during the heyday of silent films in June of 1925. It’s one of the oldest single-screen movie houses designed during the early days of the West Coast cinematic boom. The first film shown was “I’ll Show You the Town.” An homage to director Frank Capra is concluding this week at the theater’s location on University Avenue in Palo Alto.

BADGES ARE HEADING HOME: A collection of Honolulu Police Department badges, some of them dating back a century into the 1920s, is being donated to the department’s museum by a San Mateo County sheriff’s deputy, Ron Sfarzo. In a recent email, he said the badges were gifted to him some time ago. He noted that he and his wife will travel to Honolulu to deliver the badges as part of the observance of their 56th wedding anniversary. Kudos.

HEY, TAKE A GANDER AT THIS: Redwood City police received a complaint not long ago that an annoying man was using an online neighborhood information service to lure women to his residence. After he did so successfully, he then reportedly welcomed them by flashing unseemly private parts of his anatomy that should remain out of public view by any definition of good taste. And you thought TikTok was a threat to the nation’s social order.

A QUESTION THAT RANKLES: By the way, are there any more frustrating six words in the English language (or, for that matter, other languages popular in this great land) than these: “May I put you on hold?” I think not.

John Horgan has been writing about San Mateo County’s ins and outs, to the tune of an estimated 7 million words, since 1963, beginning modestly at the defunct Burlingame Advance Star. He can be contacted by email at johnhorganmedia@gmail.com or via instant messaging on Facebook and Instagram.