Steve Hilton used a SLO County trans student as a political scapegoat. How cynical | Opinion

Taking a page from Donald Trump’s playbook, gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton recently vowed to put an end to the “insanity” of allowing transgender athletes to participate in girls sports.

“I will make it happen, because it’s insane, and we’ve put up with this insanity too long in California,” he said during last weekend’s campaign stop in San Luis Obispo.

He has made similar statements before, but this time, things got personal when the conversation devolved into a public shaming of a young transgender athlete from Arroyo Grande High School.

She wasn’t named, but given the context, it was easy enough to figure out that Lily Norcross, a track and field athlete, was being used to score political points.

‘I felt more comfortable changing in my car’

During his stop in SLO County, Hilton met briefly with Assembly candidate Shannon Kessler, who is crusading to “save” girls sports, and an Arroyo Grande High School student. She was introduced only as Audrey, though she identified herself as Audrey Vanherweg when she testified before Lucia Mar school board last year.

The groundwork was laid by Audrey, who complained that two years ago, a “boy” participating in track and field was changing in the girls locker room.

“He was a boy before, and then over winter break he was like, ‘You know what? I’m going to be a girl,’” she told Hilton.

“He wouldn’t really change,” she continued. “He would just go in there with his friends and just watch ... which is weird.”

“Are you serious?” Hilton interrupted. “He wasn’t even pretending?”

Audrey went on to say that she started changing in her car instead of going to the locker room.

“I felt more comfortable changing in my car, risking random people seeing me changing, then having his perverted mind looking at me,” she told Hilton.

The rest of the story

Hilton appeared to take it all as gospel. Except, he didn’t hear the entire story.

There was no mention of the private changing areas available inside the girls locker room at Arroyo Grande High.

Of the adult supervisor provided inside the locker room.

And most of all, no acknowledgement that this was not some random, faceless individual who was being accused of heinous behavior.

This was Lily, and thousands of people would be able to recognize that, given the publicity she’s received over past year.

Lily is the same track athlete who was the target of a public shaming at a school board meeting last year, when a different student tearfully accused Lily of watching girls undress.

That was widely reported as a culture war issue, particularly by conservative media.

‘These are all false allegations’

Rather than fade from public view, Lily and her family spoke out in support of transgender athletes, which they continue to do to this day.

After viewing the Hilton video, Lily’s father, Trevor Norcross, repeated what he’s been saying all along: His daughter is being unjustly maligned.

“These are all false allegations that this student is communicating,” he told us.

Lily took issue with several statements in the video.

She didn’t suddenly decide to transition over winter break; it was a months-long process, she said, that included multiple conversations with track coaches.

And while she confirmed that she did stop changing in the girls locker room — she did so after someone filmed her — she continued to use the restrooms in locker room because they are the only ones on campus that are supervised by adults. She avoids the other restrooms because she has been harassed and threatened there in the past.

She doesn’t spend much time inside the locker room, she added.

“I had actually timed myself for using the locker room,” she said. “I was never there longer than two minutes.”

Hilton automatically bestows victimhood

Some young women may feel uncomfortable changing in public, regardless of who else is around. That’s why there should be private spaces available.

But for Hilton to automatically assume that Audrey was the victim and Lily was somehow at fault is beyond disturbing, as was the entire conversation.

This was not a discussion about whether trans athletes have an unfair advantage when they compete against girls, who are generally smaller and not as strong.

This cut much deeper. Using ugly words like “weird” and “perverted” raises questions about moral character, and Hilton sat back and encouraged it. He allowed one student to disparage another who was not even around to defend herself.

We expect better from candidates for the state’s highest office, regardless of their political leanings.

If Steve Hilton makes it past Tuesday’s election — and polls indicate he will — he may want to spend some time talking with young transgender athletes about their experiences, rather than amplifying the voices of those who just want to see them gone.

This story was originally published May 31, 2026 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Steve Hilton used a SLO County trans student as a political scapegoat. How cynical | Opinion."