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The fight against trans athletes’ participation in youth sports came to Sacramento on Tuesday as state lawmakers rejected two bills aimed at maintaining sports teams that are consistent with gender identity.
Lawmakers voted to block a bill calling for an inter-Calif. Federation of Governance, the governing body for high school sports.
Rep. Kate Sanchez, a Republican who wrote the bill, said the proposal was about fairness.
“AB 89 is about protecting women,” she said. “Full stop, that’s all.”
Rep. Sharon Quirk-Silva, a Democrat on the committee, supports research into the participation of trans athletes in sports, but said the proposed ban was an attack on transgender youth.
“This is wrong, this is cruel,” she said.
Lawmakers also rejected the proposal for a ban that appears to overturn a 2013 law that would allow students to participate in sports teams of gender that match their gender identity, regardless of gender listed on the records. It would have been applied to K-12s and university students.
The Republican-backed bill gathered a massive crowd on the state legislature’s Arts, Entertainment, Sports and Tourism Hearing Committee, filling up the committee room and lined up outside to testify about the bill. Conservative political commentator Matt Walsh and trans runners say they have taken her spot to the high school’s signature cross-country team. Advocates and parents of LGBTQ+ transgender children opposed the proposal.
Supporters of the bill featured multiple times in recent comments. Democrat Gavin Newsom, who he did on his podcast, questioned the fairness of trans athletes taking part in Girls Sports, and angered the party’s allies. Newsom has not directly called for a reversal of state law and has not commented on the generally pending law.
The hearing is the day after Vision Transgender Day.
Chris Ward, the committee chairperson of the legislative LGBTQ+ Caucus, said before the hearing he hoped that “it would provide a balanced environment where both sides could present discussions and engage in reasonable deliberations.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has stepped out of progress by using the first episode of his new podcast to make a statement by allowing trans women and girls to compete in women’s sports. Jonathan Gonzalez reports on NBC4 News at 6pm on March 6, 2025.
At least 24 states have book laws that prohibit transgender women and girls from participating in sports competitions for certain women or girls. The judges temporarily blocked the ban in Arizona, Idaho and Utah. New Hampshire and West Virginia were allowed to compete for students who sued those states via the ban.
At the federal level, President Donald Trump signed an executive order last month that aimed to ban transgender athletes from participating in women’s and women’s sports.
The ban is part of the national battle for transgender rights, with some states also imposing gender-affirming care and requiring schools to share student gender identity with parents without the consent of the students.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon proposed a ban on California. She wrote to Newsom last week, saying that his comments on his podcast caught her attention, demanding that he clarified his stance and support a bill that would reverse the 2013 law.
“I will stand up to your beliefs,” she wrote. “Be clear about the harms of gender confusion. Protect women’s spaces. Don’t encourage children to seek permanent sexual intervention. Let parents know.”
Last week, the U.S. Department of Education released a state education department’s investigation into a law that prohibits districts from requiring teachers and staff to notify parents if a district changes gender identity at schools.
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