The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has found that California’s Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation have violated Title IX by allowing transgender athletes to compete against biological females, officials announced Wednesday.
“Although Governor Gavin Newsom admitted months ago it was `deeply unfair’ to allow men to compete in women’s sports, both the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation continued as recently as a few weeks ago to allow men to steal female athletes’ well-deserved accolades and to subject them to the indignity of unfair and unsafe competitions,” U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said.
“The Trump administration will relentlessly enforce Title IX protections for women and girls, and our findings today make clear that California has failed to adhere to its obligations under federal law. The state must swiftly come into compliance with Title IX or face the consequences that follow.”
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 requires schools to ensure equal opportunities for girls, including in athletic activities, but federal officials say California has actively prevented this equality of opportunity by “allowing males in girls’ sports and intimate spaces.”
“It wouldn’t be a day ending in `Y’ without the Trump administration threatening to defund California,” Izzy Gardon, director of communications for Newsom, said in a statement provided to City News Service. “Now Secretary McMahon is confusing government with her WrestleMania days — dramatic, fake, and completely divorced from reality. This won’t stick.”
Newsom’s office also pointed out that California is one of 22 states that have laws requiring transgender students to participate in sports consistent with their gender identity. AB 1266 was passed in 2013 and signed into law by former Gov. Jerry Brown.
Gardon also claimed that among 510,000 NCAA student-athletes, only about 10 are transgender.
The CIF declined to comment on the decision.
Liz Sanders, director of communications at the California Department of Education, said in a statement, “The California Department of Education believes all students should have the opportunity to learn and play at school, and we have consistently applied existing law in support of students’ rights to do so.”
Federal officials said the OCR has issued a proposed Resolution Agreement to the California Department of Education and CIF to resolve their Title IX violations, offering both entities an opportunity to voluntarily agree to change their practices within 10 days or risk imminent enforcement action, including referral to the U.S. Department of Justice for proceedings.
The OCR planned to issue a notice to all recipients of federal funding that operate interscholastic athletic programs in California requiring them to comply with Title IX, including that recipients must adopt biology-based definitions of the words “male” and “female.”
The federal agency also said it requires all recipients to “restore to female athletes all individual records, titles, and awards misappropriated by male athletes competing in female competitions” and to “send a personalized letter apologizing on behalf of the state of California for allowing her educational experience to be marred by sex discrimination.”