AB Hernandez, the transgender high school student-athlete who was recently threatened by President Donald Trump before winning her state’s competitions for the high jump and the long jump, has said she’s “not scared” of his threats and promised not to keep her mouth shut when it comes to trans participation in sports.

“I can tune it out pretty well. I don’t really care. It’s weird when reporters come, and I’m like, I forgot I’m famous now,” she told The Guardian, mentioning media questions about Trump’s attacks against her. “But for the most part, I’m living a normal life, and then I go on social media and, I’m like, wait, I’m known.”

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Trump targeted a trans teen athlete. Her opponents embraced her when she won first place.
She won first place in her state high jump and triple jump championships after Trump threatened to arrest her for competing.

Before the state track-and-field championships last weekend, Trump called her participation “not fair and totally demeaning to women and girls.” He also threatened to permanently end federal funding to the state and asked local cops to stop her from competing. They didn’t, and she ended up winning first place in two competitions.

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“Track is everything to me. Track is my little baby,” she told the aforementioned newspaper. “It’s crazy I can say that I’m a state champion for something I love so much. It’s an honor.”

While Trump has tried to vilify Hernandez as a threat to cisgender athletes, Hernandez said of her teammates, “They see how hard I train. I constantly watch [myself] on film, see what I can do better. I probably do 10 times more than any athlete at my school. They see that, and the media doesn’t. They have a lot of respect for me and I don’t get hate at my own school.”

She also said her competitors haven’t expressed any negative feelings towards her as well. “I will forever be grateful for these girls,” she said. “When we were lining up to get our medals, I told them: ‘You made my experience perfect. I couldn’t have done it without you.’ It was amazing to see they stood up for me.”

Hernandez said of the president and his transphobic right-wing supporters who have repeatedly targeted her and other trans athletes, “They try to use intimidation tactics to push people to quit, but I’m not scared of them. They bark, but we bite.”

“You are probably going to be the only person who knows how hard you work. As long as you know you’ve put in the time, the work, the effort, that’s all that matters. Whatever anyone else says, and it might be a large-scale of people, just tune it out,” she continued.

“I don’t think they realized who they messed with,” she added. “People say, ‘Ooh, they messed with the wrong kid.’ But at the same time, they messed with the right one. Because I’m not keeping my mouth shut.”

Her mother, Nereyda Hernandez, also spoke to the publication, admitting that she previously supported Trump (though she now calls herself nonpartisan). “I wanted to put that out there so people know it doesn’t matter what your political views are,” she said. “You can still be accepting and supportive of your family member.”

Though she was raised Catholic and had a hard time understanding her daughter’s gender identity at first, she said, “I told AB from day one, ‘You’re still my baby, so I’m going to support you.’ I’ve been open that it’s going to be a little difficult, because it’s not what I’m used to, but I said I’m willing to learn and accept. Honestly, it’s the best thing I could have done, because I cannot imagine what this child would have went through if I was close-minded and unsupportive.”

“God gave us these children, what would God want us to do? Protect, support and love our kids. So that’s what I’m doing,” she added, noting that she has studied her daughter’s legal rights to prevent anyone from violating her daughter’s privacy or undermining her athletic achievements.

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