California chiropractor defends entering man in women’s surf contest to protest transgender athletes

A woman in northern California recently entered a man into a women’s surfing competition in a sarcastic protest of transgender inclusion in women’s sports. The stunt made the female contestants feel “uncomfortable,” but the woman who did it defended her decision. 

Emily Pillari, a chiropractor in San Jose, penned an op-ed for Look Out Santa Cruz, defending her recent stunt to sign up male swim coach Calder Nold for the recent Women on Waves (WOW) surf contest. Nold, 40, is 6-foot-2, 220 pounds. 

“Certainly, the fear of offending the transgender community and its allies, and the risk that comes with doing so (more on that, below), is tying the hands and smothering many voices of reason when it comes to this discussion. By entering an apparently male surfer in Women on Waves, I sought to give people a safe chance to express their sentiments … and they did,” Pillari wrote. 

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The chiropractor’s op-ed was a response to another op-ed for the same outlet penned by one of the contestants who agonized about her experience competing against Nold. 

The surfer who penned that piece, local author Liza Monroy, described what it felt like seeing the shirtless Nold next to her ahead of the competition. 

“I competed alongside Nold that sunny Saturday morning. He wore the requisite jersey wrapped around his neck and was bare-chested and in board shorts. A participant asked why he was there. What was he trying to do or prove by competing in Women On Waves? Did he identify as a woman? Nold brushed it off, saying a friend had “nominated” him,” Monroy wrote. 

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“He seemed to be there to make women uncomfortable on purpose.”

Monroy also criticized Pillari for being anti-transgender, expressing pro-transgender sentiment in her piece. 

“Competing against a cis man was not the intimidating part to me; I love the contest and surfing, and I’m happy to surf against anyone. What hurt me personally about his participation was the intent behind it,” Monroy wrote. “To enroll a man in a women’s event to protest the inclusion of trans women in women’s events is a harmful act, hands down.”

Monroy suggested transgender athletes are not at a physical advantage over female competitors and even criticized former college swimmer and OutKick contributor Riley Gaines for her activism in protecting women’s sports from transgender inclusion. 

Nold has said the process for registering for the competition as a man did not have any barriers, and he was allowed to compete despite being male. 

“We were not sneaking. We did not lie. We did not have to fabricate anything. I did not even have to identify as anything. I participated based on the exact requirements,” Nold told Reduxx. “The only place the word ‘woman’ appears is in the contest title. Everything else referred to ‘people who love the water’ or ‘people who support women’s surfing.’ That’s me. I fit that bill.”

Nold was disqualified from the competition after leading in the first two heats, but not because he is a man. Nold was disqualified because judges determined he was not wearing his jersey properly. 

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The issue of transgender inclusion in women’s sports became one of the nation’s most volatile political issues of the most recent election cycle, with a concentration of controversies based in northern California. 

The most prominent controversy has played out 35 miles northeast of Capitola Beach, where the surf contest took place, at San Jose State University. The university’s volleyball team just wrapped up a season that stirred national controversy over a transgender athlete on the team.

San Jose State co-captain Brooke Slusser has filed two lawsuits alleging the university kept her teammate’s birth sex secret from her and other players while being made to share sleeping and changing spaces with that player. 

Stone Ridge Christian High School, located in Merced, California, forfeited a state playoff volleyball game against a team that was said to have a biological male transgender athlete on its team. Stone Ridge Christian was commended for the decision and even held a ceremony with Gaines to celebrate the decision. 

A recent lawsuit by female athletes at Martin Luther King High School in Riverside, California, has alleged their “Save Girls Sports” T-shirts were likened to a swastika by school officials. The plaintiffs wore the shirts after a transgender athlete, who had not consistently attended practices or met key varsity eligibility requirements, was placed on the varsity team, displacing one of the girls from her spot, the complaint alleged.

A girls cross country runner at the school, Rylee Morrow, gave an impassioned plea at a school board meeting Nov. 21, saying the way things have been handled makes her feel “unsafe.” 

“The whole LGBTQ is shoved down our throats,” Morrow cried.

“It is not OK that I have to be in position, and I have to see a male in booty shorts and having to see that around me. As a 16-year-old girl, I don’t see that as a safe environment,” Morrow said. “Going into a locker room and seeing males in there, I don’t find that safe. I don’t find going to the bathroom safe when there’s guys in there. It’s not OK. I’m a 16-year-old girl.”

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