A Republican lawmaker introduced legislation on Monday that would prohibit transgender students from participating on girls’ sports teams.
The measure faces significant opposition in the California Legislature, where Democrats hold a supermajority, but it ensures that the issue will continue to dominate public discourse in a state that has sought to position itself as a champion of transgender rights.
The Protect Girls’ Sports Act, introduced by Assembly Member Kate Sanchez, R-Rancho Santa Margarita (Orange County), would require the California Interscholastic Federation and other organizations that regulate high school sports to enact rules “ensuring that only individuals assigned female at birth are permitted to participate in female sports,” according to a statement from Sanchez’s office.
The bill comes amid several ongoing legal battles involving transgender students and athletes in California and elsewhere.
The San Jose State women’s volleyball team has come under fire after one of its members filed a lawsuit seeking to prohibit transgender women from competing on NCAA women’s sports teams.
In Southern California, two teammates of a transgender high school cross-country runner sued Riverside Unified School District, claiming that the player “unfairly” took their spot at a team event and that their free speech rights were violated when they were told to stop wearing T-shirts with transphobic messages.
Since the lawsuit was filed, Republican leaders and anti-trans activists have increased their criticism of the district, encouraging more students to wear the shirts to school.
Two other Republican Assembly members, Bill Essayli and Leticia Castillo, have called on Riverside Unified School District Superintendent Renee Hill to resign.
A 2013 California law requires schools to allow transgender students to use restrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity.
Federal appeals courts in Oregon and Pennsylvania upheld schools’ authority to allow transgender students to use restrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their gender identity. In 2019, the Supreme Court denied review of the Pennsylvania case.
Essayli has been a staunch opponent of transgender rights, and in 2023, he introduced legislation that would have required schools to notify parents if a student began to identify as a gender other than the one assigned at birth.
It died without a hearing. Earlier this year, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation that effectively does the opposite: it prohibits schools from requiring teachers to disclose students to their parents without their consent.
Nonetheless, some districts are finding ways around the law, and lawsuits over the issue are ongoing.
Sanchez’s bill, combined with the San Jose State and Riverside lawsuits, demonstrates how right-wing efforts to target transgender people are focusing on student-athletes.
In a social media video announcing her new legislation, Sanchez claimed that women are forced to compete against “individuals with undeniable biological advantages.” Sanchez, who referred to trans athletes as “biological males,” claimed that “fairness” in female sports is being taken away.
“Women’s sports have always been a space where dedication, perseverance, and opportunity thrive,” Sanchez informed the crowd. “It’s not just unfair — it’s disheartening and dangerous.”
According to CalMatters, California is one of 24 states that protects transgender students’ rights to participate in gender-specific sports.
It’s unclear how Sanchez’s proposal would reconcile with state education code language requiring students to participate “in sex-segregated school programs and activities, including athletic teams and competitions, and use facilities consistent with his or her gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the pupil’s records.”
“I am devoted to protecting girls’ sports and am fully committed to advancing this bill,” Sanchez said in a statement. “There will be lots of discussion as to how this policy will take shape, and conflicting laws may need to change.”
Daisy Gardner, a parent of an LGBTQ student in Los Angeles, spoke with the parents of transgender students in Riverside and read a statement on their behalf at a school district meeting on the incident on December 19.
“They were in hell, and their kids were in hell,” Gardner said.
A parent of a transgender student at the Riverside school stated that the student’s experience with hatred led her to quit sports entirely.
“It’s just not right for these kids to be going through this,” said the parent, whom the Chronicle agreed not to identify for safety reasons and in accordance with its policy on anonymous sources. “They robbed her of being able to participate.”
Gardner, who also serves as outreach director for Our Schools USA Los Angeles, a group that helps elect candidates who oppose conservative policies, said she has noticed a shift in anti-trans circles from focusing on parental notification laws to individual cases of trans student athletes.
At Jurupa Valley High School, one woman used Instagram to target a transgender soccer player.
Recently, groups targeted a transgender volleyball player in Half Moon Bay. Gardner said that when a high school team has a transgender player, people will typically post on social media “alerting” families on opposing teams.
