California Democrats voted down two bills on Tuesday that would have banned biological men from participating in women’s sports and entering girls’ locker rooms.
Assembly bills 844 and 89 sought to restore sex segregation for school athletics in the California education code and ban male athletes from competing on girls’ interscholastic sports teams, respectively. The two bills, authored by Assemblyman Bill Essayli and Assemblywoman Kate Sanchez, failed 2-7 along party lines at a committee hearing on Tuesday.
Republicans hoped they might find an ally in California Governor Gavin Newsom, who called male participation in female sports “deeply unfair” on a recent podcast. Although Secretary of Education Linda McMahon urged the governor to support AB 844, or risk losing federal funding if transgender-identifying males continue to compete in girls’ sports, Newsom did not comment on or announce public support for the legislation.
“Assembly Democrats are so committed to allowing biological boys into girls sports and locker rooms rather than protecting our daughters,” Essayli said in a statement. “The vast majority of Californians and Americans agree: keep boys out of girls sports. Assembly Democrats are radically out of touch with commonsense Californians and the voters will hold them accountable to restore justice and fairness in girls sports.”
Dozens of parents and student-athletes showed up to testify in support of the bills, which many called “common sense.”
One student, a female high school track-and-field athlete named Jayden, said that she doesn’t “feel like there’s such thing as girls sports anymore.”
“Through my hard work and dedication, I’ve worked my way up to being fifth statewide for long jump and eighth for high jump, which increases my likelihood of being recruited for college sports. Now, my dream of competing at the California state track and field championship in two months is at risk because a biological male who is currently ranked first place for both long jump and triple jump is allowed to compete in the girls category,” Jaden said, while testifying in support of AB 89. “Years of training, of long days on the track and of long weekends at meets, of tough fought victories, all now feel diminished.”
“The opportunities I and so many other female athletes have worked so hard for now feel out of reach,” she continued. “I don’t feel like there’s such thing as girls sports anymore. It feels wrong. I don’t understand how my hard work, my dedication, my very best, can be rendered meaningless by a policy that ignores differences between males and females.”
Conservative commentator and Daily Wire talk-show host Matt Walsh also testified in support of AB 844.
“You must keep men out of women’s sports and out of their facilities for the simple reason that they are men,” said Walsh, who produced the documentary What is a Woman? “Men are not women. A man who claims he is a woman is still not a woman. So, why shouldn’t men play in women’s sports? Because they aren’t women.”
“We should not allow men into women’s sports for the same reason we shouldn’t go around claiming that two plus two equals seven — it’s just not true, it is a lie,” Walsh added.