The Trump administration on Wednesday said California is defying federal law in permitting transgender girls to compete on girls’ school sports teams, escalating a roughly monthlong battle between the state and the White House over transgender students.
The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) said California’s Education Department and the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), which governs high school sports in the state, were found to be “in clear violation” of Title IX following two separate investigations.
OCR opened an investigation into the CIF in February after the organization said it would not follow President Trump’s executive order to ban transgender student-athletes from girls’ and women’s sports teams. In April, the federal departments of Education and Justice launched a joint investigation into California’s Education Department after receiving what Education Secretary Linda McMahon said was a “staggering number of complaints” about trans students in the state.
California state officials and the CIF have said implementing Trump’s order would conflict with state laws against discrimination, including for transgender young people. A 2013 California law explicitly allows trans students to participate in sports and use bathrooms and other school facilities that align with their gender identity.
The Justice Department is investigating whether that law, signed by former Gov. Jerry Brown (D), violates Title IX, the landmark civil rights law against sex discrimination in schools and education programs that receive federal funds.
OCR said Wednesday that a proposed resolution agreement had been sent to both California’s Education Department and the CIF, neither of which immediately returned The Hill’s request for comment.
The agreement, which each entity must sign within 10 days or risk “imminent enforcement action,” including from the Justice Department, includes a requirement for the state Education Department to instruct school districts across California to ban transgender girls from girls’ sports teams and adopt “biology-based” definitions of the words male and female.
Schools should also be informed that the Trump administration’s interpretation of Title IX supersedes the state law that allows trans students to play sports or access facilities that match their gender identity, and records or titles won by trans girls in California should be given to whichever next place finisher is not transgender.
Under the agreement, the California Department of Education must send personalized letters to the new winners “apologizing on behalf of the state of California for allowing her educational experience to be marred by sex discrimination.”
OCR’s announcement comes roughly a month after Trump threatened to pull federal funding from California over a transgender high school track and field athlete who qualified for a state championship meet. The student, 16-year-old AB Hernandez, shared the second- and first-place podiums with other girls at the state finals in Clovis, Calif. after CIF changed its competition rules to allow additional students to compete and medal in events where Hernandez qualified.
A spokesperson for California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), who in March broke with most other Democrats in saying it is “deeply unfair” for trans athletes to compete in girls’ sports, said the governor approved of the new rules, which are temporary but could be extended.
McMahon referenced Newsom’s earlier comments in a statement on Wednesday.
“Although Governor Gavin Newsom admitted months ago it was ‘deeply unfair’ to allow men to compete in women’s sports, both the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation continued as recently as a few weeks ago to allow men to steal female athletes’ well-deserved accolades and to subject them to the indignity of unfair and unsafe competitions,” she said, adding that the state “must swiftly come into compliance with Title IX or face the consequences that follow.”
In an earlier letter to Newsom that followed his comments on trans athletes, McMahon said the governor should “stand on your convictions.”
“Be clear about the harms of gender confusion. Protect female spaces. Do not encourage children to seek permanent medical interventions to their sex. Inform parents,” McMahon wrote.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), who announced in May that he is running for governor of Alabama, similarly wrote in a March 27 letter to Newsom that he was pleased to hear Newsom’s views on transgender athletes and called for him to bar trans women from competing in women’s events at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Responding to Wednesday’s OCR announcement, Newsom’s communications director, Izzy Gardon, said, “It wouldn’t be a day ending in ‘Y’ without the Trump Administration threatening to defund California.”
“Now Secretary McMahon is confusing government with her WrestleMania days — dramatic, fake, and completely divorced from reality. This won’t stick,” she said.
