California in violation of Title IX over trans athletes, Trump administration says

The U.S. Department of Education on Wednesday formally declared California in violation of Title IX for allowing transgender females to compete in girls’ and women’s sports.

“Although Gov. 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,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement.

The administration gave California’s Department of Education 10 days to agree to several changes or “risk imminent enforcement action.” Those changes include immediately barring biological males from girls’ and women’s sports and rescinding all titles awarded to trans female athletes.

Title IX, a civil rights law enacted in 1972, prohibits sex discrimination in education programs and activities that receive federal funds, primarily public schools.

“It wouldn’t be a day ending in ‘Y’ without the Trump Administration threatening to defund California,” Gov. Newsom’s office said in a statement to KTLA 5 News. “Now, Secretary McMahon is confusing government with her WrestleMania days — dramatic, fake, and completely divorced from reality. This won’t stick.”

Newsom’s office noted that the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) is an independent non-profit that does not fall under the purview of his administration. It also stated that the scope of the issue is narrow, with the number of transgender student-athletes in California in the “single digits.”

The Education Department’s announcement comes less than a month after AB Hernandez, a 16-year-old transgender athlete from Southern California’s Jurupa Valley, won the girls’ long jump and triple jump at the state high school track and field championships.

President Donald Trump criticized the CIF’s decision to allow Hernandez to compete and threatened to withhold federal funding for violating an executive order he signed in February banning transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports.

In response to Trump’s order, the CIF, which governs high school sports in California, said at the time it would continue allowing trans athletes to compete on teams that match their gender identity, consistent with a 2013 California law.

“The Trump administration will relentlessly enforce Title IX protections for women and girls, and our findings today make clear that California has failed to adhere to its obligations under federal law,” McMahon said. “The state must swiftly come into compliance with Title IX or face the consequences that follow.”

Newsom, a former San Francisco mayor, has been a staunch supporter of LGBTQ+ rights. However, he drew some criticism from the left in March when, on the debut episode of his podcast, he said he believes that transgender athletes participating in girls’ sports is “deeply unfair” – a comment McMahon referenced in her statement.