Earlier this month, the Trump administration filed a lawsuit against California for disregarding Title IX and continuing to endanger girls in schools by allowing biological boys to still compete in their sports.
If California officials refuse to reverse course, then they should lose their federal education funding as a result.
On Feb. 5, President Donald Trump signed an executive order interpreting Title IX as prohibiting biological males from competing in female sports, which was the original intent of the law passed by Congress in 1972. California Governor Gavin Newsom appeared to agree at first.
In a March episode of his podcast, Newsom said that biological men competing against women was “deeply unfair.”
The governor’s words appeared to lack sincerity as he never took any action to ensure that only women could play in sports explicitly designated for females. In fact, a transgender athlete identifying as female won two gold medals in California’s high jump and triple jump competitions for high school girls on May 31.
The issue is not just relegated to California’s K-12 schools either. In late 2024, four universities forfeited their women’s volleyball matches against San José State University due to the school having a biological male on the team. During the ongoing controversy, an associate athletics director from the University of California, Davis reached out to San José State University asking how to bring a transgender athlete on board to one of her teams.
This is a dangerous situation for girls as there have been incidences where males have seriously injured female athletes in competitions. At the Paris Olympics last year, Italian boxer Angela Carini was forced to quit her bout after only a few punches from her opponent who was a biological male.
In another incident last year in a girls’ basketball game between two Massachusetts high school teams, one team had to forfeit at halftime after a series of injuries caused by a transgender player on the opposing team. A few years ago in North Carolina, a biological male spiked a ball into Payton McNabb’s face during a high school volleyball game, causing a brain injury and partial paralysis.
Biological men competing in women’s sports is no joke. While Newsom and California officials may not take the situation seriously, the Trump administration thankfully does.
In June, the U.S. Department of Education concluded an investigation into the California Department of Education (CDE) and the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) over “allegations of discrimination against women and girls on the basis of sex.” The Education Department (ED) proposed a resolution agreement to both California entities to resolve the Title IX violations. This agreement would have required both to follow Title IX going forward, rescind guidance that conflicts with Title IX, restore records and awards to female athletes that were won by men, and apologize to these specific women.
The CDE and CIF refused to sign the resolution agreement with ED. Previously on June 3, California State Superintendent Tony Thurmond sent a letter to the state’s local superintendents alerting them that they did not need to abide by the Trump administration’s Title IX guidance.
He stated that California’s state law “requires that students be permitted to participate on athletic teams that are consistent with their gender identity.”
As a result of the state’s refusal to follow Title IX, the Department of Justice (DOJ) sued CDE and CIF on July 9. The DOJ explained that both entities “have engaged in illegal sex discrimination against female student athletes by allowing males to compete against them.”
The DOJ stated that ED has allocated $44.3 billion in federal funding to CDE for fiscal year 2025. As part of the lawsuit, the DOJ is seeking “declaratory, injunctive, and damages relief for violations of Title IX.”
The Trump administration is taking the correct course of action in holding California officials accountable for their actions. Allowing biological males to continue participating in female sports is unfair and dangerous and has caused undeniable harm to women in the past.
If California is not willing to comply with Title IX, the Trump administration should move forward with eliminating the state’s federal education funding altogether – similar to how the administration is in the process of eliminating Maine’s K-12 funding.
Endangering the health and safety of young women is incomprehensible and should never be accepted by our elected officials. If Newsom and his statewide administration continue to push their luck and refuse to protect their female athletes, the DOJ and ED should use every tool at their disposal to bring California’s officials to their knees.
Casey Ryan is a writer and investigative reporter at Defending Education.
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