A Nebraska Youth Soccer Tournament Disqualified A Team Because They Didn't Believe One Of Their Players Was A Girl

WOWT-  Mili Hernandez is 8 years-old. She loves soccer - and her short haircut. Mili told WOWT 6 News: "When my hair starts to grow I put it short because I've always had short hair. I didn't like my hair long."

Mili plays soccer for Omaha's Azzuri Cachorros girls club team. She's so good that she plays on the 11 year-old roster even though she's 8. Her father, Gerardo Hernandez, couldn't be more proud. He told WOWT 6 News: "It's what she likes. It's what she always wants to do - play soccer."

This weekend Mili helped lead her team to the final day of the Springfield Soccer Club girls tournament. However, before taking the field on Sunday, Mili and her team were suddenly disqualified. Springfield soccer organizers insisted Mili was a boy. 

Mili added: "Just because I look like a boy doesn't mean I am a boy. They don't have a reason to kick the whole club out."

Mili's family claims they showed her insurance card to tournament organizers in an effort to prove she's a girl. It wasn't enough. 

Mili's brother, Cruz Hernandez, told WOWT 6 News: "They didn't want to listen. They said the president made his decision and there wasn't any changing that."

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Middle America, for the loss! I suppose assuming that more...um...understanding regions of the country aren't capable of mistaking a short haired girl as a boy based on looks alone is a dangerous proposition. However, being presented with official documentation and responding by essentially saying "uhh, we know the difference between boys and girls, idiots!" just seems very characteristic of the type of person walking around town with a piece of straw sticking from their mouth. 

Like, if this happened in the Northeast then some organizer easily would have let a 'Jawanna Man' situation take place just to avoid being taken to task over gender generalizations. If this had happened in California the tournament officials would have been like "you are whatever you say/think/or believe you are". In Nebraska, on the other hand, even children have to check all the stereotypical boxes of their birth sex or not even a government issued identification can save them from being put in a gender specific box. I don't mean to say that every person whose residence is commonly flown over doesn't realize that every little girl isn't running around with hair half way down her back while wearing a shin-length dress, but it's certainly a viewpoint that is more likely to be held in the heartland.