October 3, 2025
FFS (Female Free Speech) Friday honors women and girls who are speaking out about the harms that “gender identity” poses to women and girls as a sex class. FFS Friday posts are free and shareable.
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Today’s FFS Friday celebrates Lesley Ledesma. Lesley recently led a walk-out at her school, Esperanza High School, in Anaheim California, because the school allowed a male student to use the girls’ bathroom.
Photo: Screenshot from video posted by Sophia Lorey
As a student at Esperanza High School, I am not okay with the fact that a male has been entering and using our girls’ restrooms. I am leading this walkout so our voices can be heard. I am fighting for the female right to enter a bathroom without danger.
I first learned about this story thanks to a post from Sophia Lorey (@SophiaSLorey) from September 30. She stated:
Tomorrow in Anaheim, CA, HS students are taking a stand. They’re WALKING OUT because a male has been allowed in the girls’ bathrooms.
“As a student at Esperanza High School, I am not okay with the fact that a male has been entering and using our girls’ restrooms. I am leading this walkout so our voices can be heard. I am fighting for the female right to enter a bathroom without danger.”
- Lesley Ledesma, Junior at EHS
And walk out they did.
This saga began with the enactment of AB 1266 in California, the School Success and Opportunity Act, which went into effect on January 1, 2014. According to a press release issued by the ACLU of Northern California in 2013, when the law was enacted:
Today, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed the historic School Success and Opportunity Act into law, ensuring transgender youth have the opportunity to fully participate and succeed in schools across the state. Assembly Bill 1266 was authored by Assemblymember Tom Ammiano and passed the California State Senate and Assembly earlier this summer. The law is the first of its kind in the country, and requires that California public schools respect students’ gender identity and makes sure that students can fully participate in all school activities, sports teams, programs, and facilities that match their gender identity.
That’s gender-speak for “anyone can use whatever bathroom they like, in accordance with their opposite-sex ‘gender identity.’” It’s nonsense, and it means that boys in California get to use the girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms on the basis of their say-so.
On three separate occasions, the US Supreme Court has refused to take up the question of whether schools may or must maintain single-sex bathrooms and locker rooms. Once was in the matter of Grimm v. Gloucester County (that’s in the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that kids can use opposite-sex bathrooms if they feel like it). Another was in Doe v. Boyertown (that’s in the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled the same way). The third was A.C. v. Martinsville (from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, which also ruled the same way).
The only US Court of Appeals to have ruled in the opposite direction is the 11th Circuit, which ruled in 2022 that schools don’t have to accommodate students’ opposite-sex “gender identities.”
So, kids are having to take matters into their own hands, and on October 1, a group of kids, led by Lesley Ledesma, did so. This is how one teenage girl introduced the speeches:
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for tuning in and joining all the students who are here at Esperanza High School in Anaheim California.
Unfortunately, the girls have been faced with having to deal with a male in the girls’ restroom. And when the girls said they didn’t want that, when they said no more, they were told that they would then have to make accommodations; they would have to go use the nurses’ restroom. That they would have to deal with feeling unsafe while they are at school.
This is due to the fact that California passed AB 1266 as a state law in 2013, which has allowed males to use girls’ restrooms, locker rooms, and athletics. Our California legislators had the opportunity to fix that this year, and unfortunately, the California Democrats in the legislature did not allow for the protection and safety of girls.
So now, these students have taken it into their own hands by leading a student walk-out to stand strong and say that they are not okay with boys in the girls’ restroom.
Then she introduced Lesley.
These pages celebrate women and girls who are speaking out, but I would be remiss not to mention the fact that numerous boys had the girls’ backs this time. This is what one teenage boy said:
Hello, everyone, and good morning.
My name is Eddie and I’m a freshman here at Esperanza High School, and I want to start by thanking everyone who came today to support and listen.
This situation at our school has made a lot of students uncomfortable. Restrooms are supposed to be private and safe, but when a male student goes into a girls’ restroom, it doesn’t feel that way anymore. For the girls here, it creates stress and discomfort. As a brother, it is very hard for me to see my sister struggling with this, especially when I can’t fix it for her. That’s why I’m speaking up. I want her and all the other girls here to feel safe in a place that should be private.
This isn’t about hate, it’s about respect. Respect means listening when students say they don’t feel comfortable. Girls deserve to feel secure in their own restroom without worrying about who might walk in. That’s why I’m here, to be a voice and to ask that our school makes sure every student feels safe.
Thank you again to everyone who came. Together, we can all make a difference.
This kid is a freshman at the school. He’s likely only fourteen years old. And because the adults at the school cannot bring themselves to stand up for girls and for material reality, this is how he felt compelled to spend his Wednesday morning. The school administrators should be absolutely ashamed of themselves.
The entire nineteen-minute walk-out is available here, if you’d like to watch.
It cannot be said loudly enough: It should not be falling on teenagers to keep bathrooms separated by sex. This is absolute insanity. These high school students should not have to be doing this. They should be focused on academics, clubs, whatever activities in which they participate, and preparing for their next stage of life. CALIFORNIA ADULTS: GET YOUR HOUSE IN ORDER. Repeal AB 1266. This law demeans women and girls, as well as material reality.
In the meantime, Lesley, if you are reading this: Well done. Thank you for taking a stand for yourself and for all the girls at your school. You should not have to be doing this. The adults in the room should have done it long ago. However, since they didn’t, I’m very happy that you are doing what you’re doing. Today’s FFS Friday is for you and for all the girls who took a stand with you.
Ah, yes, good ole Governor Moonbeam Brown.
My future-husband and I met him once. We were invited to his house in Oakland for dinner by a friend of my husband's, who volunteered for Jerry's organization We the People. There were six of us there: us, our friend, a very meek older woman volunteer, Jerry, and another man whom we were told was his "partner."
Jerry was hoping we would volunteer for his organization. That's why we were invited. He was already past middle life then, with scraggly hair. (He's sure cleaned himself up since.)
We found him to be a pompous sexist jerk--typical of so-called liberal men leaders of the 1960s and '70s among whom I grew up (just like Bernie Sanders). Jerry wasn't interested in us, but focused solely on trying to sell us on his organization. His "partner" showed us the rooftop garden of his building. We somehow missed the auditorium.
At dinner, Jerry went around the table barking aggressively at each of us, "What do you do?" I said, "I'm a technical writer." He barked at my husband, "What do you do?" He said, "I'm a technical writer." Jerry said, "What does that entail?" Neither of us missed the fact that he was only interested in the man's definition of our job.
After dinner, Jerry commented on my favorite old black leather boots that I'd bought at a sidewalk sale in San Francisco and wore on my husband's motorcycle. He said, "They're non-PC, you know." He meant you're not supposed to buy leather. Yes, duh, Jerry. Unless you buy it second-hand, like at a frigging sidewalk sale. But he couldn't be bothered to learn what I knew about the leather industry.
Aside from asking me what I did at dinner, those were the only words he addressed to me all evening. He was just making it clear that he didn't like that my husband treated me as an equal. I needed to be put in my place.
Right before we left, Jerry suddenly realized he hadn't sold himself particularly well to us and started snowing my husband on how great his organization was. But by that time, we were disgusted and couldn't wait to see the back of him.
I had a San Francisco literary agent at the time, and when I told her this story, she said she'd once been among the press interviewing Jerry during his first gubernatorial term, and she asked him a hard question about nuclear power (which he officially opposed), and he refused to answer it.
Governor Moonbeam indeed.
Kara, this report is very inspiring. Good for these young people...of both sexes. Gives me hope.