California rejects Trump administration demand to ban trans athletes

July 8, 2025

By KAREN VELIE

California Department of Education officials on Monday rejected the Trump administration’s demand that the state ban transgender athletes from girl’s sports.

On June 25, the Trump administration announced that the California Department of Education had violated civil rights law by allowing transgender students to compete on girls sports teams. Federal laws require schools to provide girls an equal opportunity to compete in sports while laws in California allow boys and girls to compete in sports and use locker rooms of the gender they identify with.

The federal Education Department provided a proposed resolution that would require California to bar transgender women from participating in female sports and strip transgender athletes of any awards or records received in woman’s sports. The state had 10 days to comply or risk losing federal funding for schools.

On Monday, California officials formally rejected the Office of Civil Rights determination that California was violating the rights of female students.

“The California Department of Education … respectfully disagrees with OCR’s analysis and it will not sign the proposed resolution agreement,” wrote Len Garfinkel, general counsel for the department.

The Education Department could terminate federal education funding to California at a time many school districts are facing financial hardships.

“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,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in June. “The state must swiftly come into compliance with Title IX or face the consequences that follow.”

Title IX is a 1972 law forbidding sex discrimination based in education.