A 9-year-old girl was left in tears after she was verbally assaulted during a track meet in British Columbia, Canada last week by a man who accused her of being transgender because of her haircut.
The girl's mothers are speaking out about the incident that occurred during the 4th grade girls shot put finals.
Heidi Starr told the news outlet Castanet the grandfather of another participant began yelling at her daughter from the stands when she stepped up to throw.
"She went to step up to compete for the grade four shot-put final, and right before she went to throw, a grandfather of a student said, 'Hey, this is supposed to be a girls' event, and why are you letting boys compete'."
"My daughter is cisgender, born female, uses she/her pronouns."
"She has a pixie haircut."
Starr revealed the man demanded to see certification proving her daughter is female.
She shared he also insisted another girl at the event with short hair was "obviously trans."
"He stopped the entire event."
"He also pointed at another girl who also had short hair. He then piped in and said, 'Well, if she is not a boy, then she is obviously trans'."
Starr said the man's wife then began calling her "a genital mutilator, a groomer, and a pedophile."
The girl's other mother, Kari Starr, revealed the incident completely devastated their daughter.
"This has destroyed our beautiful daughter's confidence, and she was inconsolably crying during this whole event and continued once it was over and we were leaving."
"Not to mention, she was unable to concentrate on her track and field finals and the shot-put throw for which she had qualified."
People on social media were livid.
Many were appalled not only by his words but also that an adult man would even consider verbally abusing 9-year-old children.
Central Okanagan School District superintendent Kevin Kaardal agreed the man's behavior was "totally unacceptable" and promised the appropriate measures are being taken.
"Staff intervened and actually moved the shot-put away from where he was."
"The gentleman was not a part of our school district. We are taking steps to ensure he is not able to be on our school property or attend events in the future."
"Adults need to govern themselves and behave appropriately."
Heidi also shared her hopes actions can be taken so no child has to endure what hers did, telling iNFOnews:
“The biggest thing I’m really hoping is that policies will be put in place so that, when stuff like this happens police are called right away."
“There was no protocol on what to do and we have to kind of accept that this is the world we live in and you’re going to get people who feel emboldened enough to do these atrocious things."
"It’s not fair to the parent volunteers at these events to be expected to navigate what are really criminal harassment matters.”
It's no secret transphobes have set their sights on trans athletes competing in women's sports.
But as with their prior obsession with bathrooms, their ire is more often turned on cisgender women—the people they claim they're protecting—who don't meet their narrowly defined gender stereotypes.
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