California will not block trans athletes from school sports, defying White House
California will not ban transgender athletes from competing in K-12 school sports or change its anti-discrimination policies to exclude them, becoming the second state after Maine to defy the Trump administration over the issue.
U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon gave California 10 days from June 27 to rescind any sports prizes awarded to trans athletes and ban them after the agency’s Office of Civil Rights said that the state had violated federal anti-discrimination law by allowing transgender girls to compete with cisgender girls.
The state Department of Education’s top attorney said Monday that it would not comply with a federal agreement requiring the state to rescind any trans-inclusionary guidelines and send cisgender female athletes who lost to a trans opponent personalized apologies. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office called McMahon’s proposed agreement a “political document” that carried no weight and would force the state to illegally violate its own anti-discrimination laws.
“The CDE respectfully disagrees with OCR’s analysis, and it will not sign the proposed Resolution Agreement,” General Counsel Len Garfinkle wrote to Bradley Burke, the regional director for OCR.
The Trump administration has zeroed in on transgender rights as a galvanizing culture war issue, to some success, and often cite it as a reason for withholding federal funds to states that refuse to amend their policies to ban trans athletes.
The California Interscholastic Federation, which governs school sports, piloted a program last month allowing cisgender female athletes to advance to a statewide championship track meet if they lost a qualifying position to a trans competitor after President Donald Trump singled out 16-year-old high jumper AB Hernandez online.
For more than a decade, California has allowed student-athletes to use any facility and play on sports teams that reflect their gender identity. That law, enacted in 2013 under former Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, has become the target of conservative legislators in recent years. The most recent attempt by former Republican legislator Bill Essayli, now the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, failed earlier this year. A complimentary bill by Assemblymember Kate Sanchez, R-Rancho Santa Margarita, that would have blocked trans girls from sports also failed.
Trans inclusion in sports has split the Democratic Party, some of whom immediately blamed Kamala Harris’ loss in the 2024 election on the issue after Trump ran an attack ad that said “Kamala Harris for they/them. Trump is for you.” Newsom said on his podcast in March that he thought allowing trans people to compete with their cis peers was “unfair.”
More recently, the party has shifted its messaging after successfully striking a provision from Trump’s mega budget bill that would have banned Medicare, called Medi-Cal in California, from covering trans health care.
Last week, the Supreme Court agreed to hear two cases challenging the constitutionality of Idaho and West Virginia’s bans on trans girls competing in sports.
California Republicans from the statehouse to Congress criticized the CDE, claiming California’s longstanding anti-discrimination policies jeopardized federal funds.
Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Roseville, paid a visit to the state Legislature Monday afternoon to stand with Sanchez and Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher, R-Yuba City.
“The governor himself has said that this is unfair, and yet the governor is putting politics over fairness,” Kiley said, evoking Newsom’s comments on his podcast.
He warned the U.S. Department of Justice would soon be taking action to bring California into compliance with federal law, and as the chair of the House Education subcommittee that covers K-12 education, said he would also try to “ensure accountability.”
“I want to hear testimony on Capitol Hill from the California politicians who believe that they have the right to defy the civil rights laws of our country,” he said.
Sanchez called California an “outlier” compared to Utah and Tennessee, where the Supreme Court recently said lawmakers can block trans youth from accessing gender-affirming health care.
“Most states are abiding by common sense,” she said. Twenty-seven states ban trans students from participating in sports that reflect their gender identity, though five are blocked pending litigation, according to the Movement Advancement Project, which tracks policies on LGBTQ rights.
Gallagher said Republicans would look at “all options” for forcing policy changes through the legislative session after Democrats previously blocked Sanchez and Essayli’s bills.
“We think it’s that important. It’s very urgent, especially now with the prospect of losing federal funds, we need to resolve this issue,” he said. “Democrats need to let people know. Like, do you support this? Do you support this radical policy that is unfair and that is risking our federal dollars? Yes or no?”
McMahon accused Newsom of backtracking, and said he would be hearing from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“California has just REJECTED our resolution agreement to follow federal law and keep men out of women’s sports,” she said Monday. “Turns out Gov. Newsom’s acknowledgment that ‘it’s an issue of fairness’ was empty political grandstanding.”
California’s refusal to violate its own laws now tees it up for a potential court battle over whether federal law prevents states from enacting laws protecting all students, including transgender ones, according to Shannon Minter, the legal director of the San Francisco-based National Center for LGBTQ Rights.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills told Trump she would “see him in court” in February when Trump singled the Democrat out at the White House after he issued an executive order threatening federal funding to states that do not ban trans athletes from women’s sports.
The Maine Human Rights Act, like California’s 2013 bill, protects trans people from discrimination. After Mills defied him, the administration launched a series of retaliatory investigations and suspended federal funds, prompting Attorney General Aaron Frey to sue. Federal courts have restored most of the funds.
“This administration is targeting California in an attempt to intimidate it into backing away from its strong anti-discrimination laws,” Minter said. “I’m encouraged to see the California Department of Education is standing up to that.”
This story was originally published July 7, 2025 at 2:42 PM with the headline "California will not block trans athletes from school sports, defying White House."
