President Donald Trump and California, led by Gov. Gavin Newsom, have been locked in a policy disagreement over male athletes in girls’ high school sports, leading to legal action and a possible loss of federal funding for the state.
The power struggle hit a fever pitch after high school athlete AB Hernandez, a transgender-identifying student in California, qualified for and competed in multiple female high school events in the California Interscholastic Federation state track-and-field championships.
Trump cited his Feb. 5
executive order, titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” that requires protection for girls and women in sports, banning male athletes from participating in events for females.
California allowed Hernandez to participate in two girls’ events at the May 31 championship, which Hernandez
won, despite Trump’s threat to rescind federal funding if the state violated his executive order.
The Dispute
Trump’s executive order conflicts with a 2013 California law signed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown, who allowed students to participate in sex-segregated programs and use school facilities that aligned with their preferred gender identities.
Trump issued a
warning to the state of California on May 27, saying he would revoke federal education funding if the state did not adhere to his executive order prohibiting male athletes from participating in female sports, no matter their chosen gender identities.
“California ... continues to ILLEGALLY allow MEN TO PLAY IN WOMEN’S SPORTS,” the president
wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social. “THIS IS NOT FAIR, AND TOTALLY DEMEANING TO WOMEN AND GIRLS.”
The president said the state’s federal funding, which totals about $13.6 billion annually, could be cut, possibly permanently, because of the lack of compliance.
After the president’s action, the California Interscholastic Federation announced a policy change that allows additional “biological female” athletes to compete in the state championships for each transgender-identifying athlete who places in races, attempting to address concerns about
competitive fairness.
Newsom’s office offered support for the program change, with spokesperson Izzy Gardon telling The Epoch Times by email: “[The] proposed pilot is a reasonable, respectful way to navigate a complex issue without compromising competitive fairness—a model worth pursuing. The governor is encouraged by this thoughtful approach.”
Following Hernandez’s wins in several categories, Trump renewed his
promise to impose fines, saying in a June 2 post that the state could see “large-scale fines.”
Newsom on June 6 floated the idea that California could withhold tens of billions of dollars in federal taxes, in response to a CNN
report that the Trump administration was considering canceling large amounts of federal funding for the state.
“Californians pay the bills for the federal government,” Newsom
wrote in a post on social media platform X. “We pay over $80 BILLION more in taxes than we get back. Maybe it’s time to cut that off.”
A July
report from the Rockefeller Institute of Government think tank found that California paid $83 billion more to the federal government than it received in 2022.
The Legal Landscape
Trump’s February executive order states that it aims to preserve female sports and prohibit the use of female locker rooms by male students.
“It is the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy,” the order reads.
California’s 2013 law, called the “
School Success and Opportunity Act,” requires schools to allow students to be involved in programs and school facilities “consistent with his or her gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the pupil’s records.”
Harmeet K. Dhillon, assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, said in
a letter sent to the California Interscholastic Federation, which governs school sports, that there could be legal fallout from the state’s actions.
According to Dhillon, it is the federal government’s view that allowing transgender-identifying athletes to compete in girls’ sports violates the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
“Knowingly depriving female students of athletic opportunities and benefits on the basis of their sex would constitute unconstitutional sex discrimination under the Equal Protection Clause,” she wrote.
More recently, Newsom, who is seen as a likely 2028 presidential candidate, has said that he also believes that it is “
deeply unfair” to allow male athletes who identify as transgender to compete in female-only sports.
Newsom told Charlie Kirk on the first episode of the governor’s new “This is Gavin Newsom” podcast, “I revere sports, and so the issue of fairness is completely legit.”
Similar Issues
The same issue is being debated nationwide, including in Oregon, where Zachary Rose, a male student who identifies as transgender, took fifth place in the girls’ varsity high jump at the Oregon School Activities Association high school track-and-field state championships on May 31.Reese Eckard of Sherwood High School and Alexa Anderson of Tigard High School, who finished third and fourth in the same event, stepped down from the podium and turned their backs, seemingly in protest.
The state also
made headlines in 2024 when Aayden Gallagher, a male who also identifies as transgender, took first place in the women’s 200-meter race at the 2024 track-and-field state championships.
States across the nation have seen similar issues with gender separation in sports, including
Minnesota and
Maine, which have found themselves involved in recent legal actions.
The issue of biological males participating in women’s sports has been downplayed by some, including Newsom’s office, which asserts that fewer than 10 transgender-identifying college athletes are playing nationwide out of more than 510,000 participants.
However, an August 2024
report from the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights shows that transgender-identifying athletes have won nearly 900 medals in competitions across amateur athletics against women over the past five years.
Travis Gillmore contributed to this report.
