California lawmakers reject bills to ban trans athletes' participation in girls sports
California lawmakers won’t change state policies allowing transgender kids and teens to play on sports teams consistent with their gender identities.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California lawmakers won’t change state policies allowing transgender kids and teens to play on sports teams consistent with their gender identities amid heated nationwide debates over the participation of trans youth in athletics.
Democratic lawmakers on the state Assembly’s Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports and Tourism rejected two proposals by Republican lawmakers on Tuesday after hours of impassioned debate and commentary.
One bill would have required the California Interscholastic Federation, the governing body for high school sports, to adopt rules banning students whose sex was assigned male at birth from participating on a girls school sports team. The other would have reversed a 2013 law allowing students to participate in sex-segregated school programs, including on sports teams, and use bathrooms and other facilities that align with their gender identity. It would have applied to K-12 and college students.
The hearing came a day after Transgender Day of Visibility, and weeks after Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom angered his political allies when he suggested on his podcast it’s unfair for transgender athletes to participate in girls sports.
Democratic Assemblymember Chris Ward, the committee chair who leads the legislative LGBTQ caucus, said the bills were part of a broader attack on the rights of transgender youth. He said they could also be invasive to cisgender girls who might be asked to prove their sex.
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