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California Democrats Kill Bills to Protect Girls Sports, Despite Pressure on Newsom
California Democrat lawmakers killed two bills meant to protect girls sports Tuesday despite pressure on Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom to limit girls and women’s sports in the state to biological females.
Just this week, the state of Maine lost education funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for violating federal law and President Donald Trump’s executive orders by continuing to allow males in female-only sports. If California does not comply, it could face similar penalties.
Assembly Bill 89, introduced by Republican Assemblywoman Kate Sanchez, would amend the California Education Code to bar male students from girls interscholastic teams. Assembly Bill 844, introduced by Republican Assemblyman Bill Essayli, would amend the code to require that participation in sex-segregated school programs, athletic programs, and facility use be based on a student’s biological sex rather than his or her gender identity. The change would apply to K-12 programs and postsecondary education.
Both bills failed 6-2 along party lines in the Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports, and Tourism after hours of debate and public comment. Democrat Assemblyman Christopher Ward, the chair of the committee, opposed both pieces of legislation and called on his fellow committee members to do the same.
“I don’t think anybody should be gender-policing women and girls. … I do see this bill, AB 844, as an opportunity to invade individuals’ right to privacy, to run a fowl some of our nondiscrimination laws in the state. And really and importantly, it would decimate some of the public safety and well-being of all women,” Ward said before the vote for Essayli’s bill.
The legislation would have brought California in line with federal law under Title IX , which prohibits discrimination based on sex in educational programs and activities that receive federal funding. Trump issued his executive order, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” in January, mandating that Title IX must be interpreted according to biological sex rather than the sex that someone chooses to identify as.
“The vast majority of Californians and Americans agree: Keep boys out of girls sports,” Essayli said in a statement on X after the vote. “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.”
Essayli resigned from the Assembly hours later after Trump tapped him to be the next U.S. attorney in Los Angeles.
The legislation came before the Assembly as the California Interscholastic Federation, the governing body for school sports in the state, and San Jose State University undergo an ongoing investigation from the federal government into their compliance with Title IX.
U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon issued a letter March 27 to Newsom, pressuring him to support the legislation and take a stand for women’s sports after he admitted on his “This is Gavin Newsom” podcast that the inclusion of males in women’s sports is “deeply unfair.”
“As secretary of education, I am officially asking you to inform this department whether you will remind schools in California to comply with federal law by protecting sex-separated spaces and activities,” McMahon said in the letter, in which she explicitly urged the governor to support Essayli’s bill.
Newsom told The Sacramento Bee Wednesday he did not pay attention to the committee hearing for the legislation. When asked if state law should restrict transgender athletes from playing in women’s sports, he did not give a direct answer.
“These kids just want to survive,” Newsom told CBS Sacramento in response to the question. “And so, the question you’re asking is the question we’ve been asking ourselves for months and haven’t been able to answer. What is that? How can you make this fair? And I haven’t been able to figure it out.”
Erin Friday , a registered Democrat who wrote AB 844 with her team from the Protect Kids California initiative, said the courts will decide the issue of protecting girls sports in California if legislators do not act. She said she expects the federal government to freeze federal education funding in California as it did earlier this week in the state of Maine.
“The same thing is going to happen in California,” Friday said. “I can guarantee it.”
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