California defied the Trump administration’s stance on Monday on transgender-identifying biological males being allowed to compete against females in women’s sports, rejecting a chance to resolve its dispute with the Department of Education.
The Education Department had sent California a resolution agreement aiming to “follow federal law and keep men out of women’s sports.” After California rejected the proposal, Education Secretary Linda McMahon noted Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D-CA) comment earlier this year that requiring female athletes to compete against biological males is unfair.
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“California has just REJECTED our resolution agreement to follow federal law and keep men out of women’s sports,” McMahon posted on X. “Turns out Gov. Newsom’s acknowledgment that ‘it’s an issue of fairness’ was empty political grandstanding. @CAgovernor, you’ll be hearing from @AGPamBondi.”
The California Department of Education and the state’s athletics body, the California Interscholastic Federation, sent the Trump administration letters denying a chance to sign the resolution agreement.
The Education Department said last month that California had violated Title IX, which protects against gender discrimination in women’s sports. The Trump administration argues that allowing transgender-identifying biological males to compete in women’s sports deprives female athletes from having their own sex-segregated sports, while men get to have their own, thus constituting discrimination.
The alleged violation came after transgender athlete AB Hernandez won two first-place medals and a second-place medal at the state’s female track and field championships in May.
President Donald Trump said Hernandez’s participation “IS NOT FAIR, AND TOTALLY DEMEANING TO WOMEN AND GIRLS.” He then threatened to cancel “large-scale” federal funding to California if the state didn’t comply with his executive order barring transgender athletes from sports that do not correspond to their sex.
He cited Newsom’s statement from earlier this year, which McMahon had also pointed to, that transgender athletes competing in women’s sports is “deeply unfair.”
“I think it’s an issue of fairness. I completely agree with you on that. It is an issue of fairness. It’s deeply unfair,” Newsom said in March. “I’m not wrestling with the fairness issue. I totally agree with you.”
The CIF allowed Hernandez to compete, but it enacted some changes to allow more biological girls to participate.
“I can tune it out pretty well. I don’t really care,” Hernandez said. “It’s weird when reporters come, and I’m like, I forgot I’m famous now. But for the most part, I’m living a normal life, and then I go on social media, and I’m like, wait, I’m known.”
As McMahon indicated, the Department of Justice is now expected to get involved and potentially punish California and the CIF for their decision.
“I think the attorney general is well poised and ready for a fight to go down,” said Kathie Moehlig, founder and executive director of TransFamily Support Services. “California believes in equal rights, and we’re going to fight for the rights of the people in our state.”
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Sophia Lorey, outreach director for California Family Council, indirectly countered Moehlig’s statement by saying it was an “embarrassing hill” for California to “die on.”
“It’s a really embarrassing hill for the state of California to die on and lose that money simply because they want to allow males to be in girls locker rooms and girls sports teams,” she said.