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California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Monday authorizing an investigation into potential disparities in youth sports, including “race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, income or geographic location.”
The Youth Sports for All Act, AB749, calls for the creation of a commission to conduct “an assessment of the need and potential for a centralized entity to improve access to and involvement in sports for all youth, regardless of race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, income or geographic location, that addresses issues in youth sports.”
Topics listed include “How to Foster a Safe, Supportive and Inclusive Environment for Youth Sports.”
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Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office is doubling down amid controversy over transgender athlete AB Hernandez in the San Jurupa Valley School District. (Mario Tama)
The law also establishes a fund in the state treasury that the commission must use to pay for its research.
The California Assembly’s vote to pass AB749 comes months after its Democratic majority voted to block two bills that would have banned biological males from girls’ sports on April 1. All Democratic members voted against it at the time.
Now the new law comes as the state is embroiled in a divisive culture war over trans athletes in girls’ sports. The US Department of Justice has sued state education offices over policies that allow biological males to compete in girls’ sports, while 17 school districts have now passed a resolution opposing those policies.
California has been the largest state to defy President Donald Trump’s “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order, joining Democratic strongholds like Minnesota, Maine and Illinois in upholding state laws to protect trans inclusion. The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) has allowed trans athletes to compete in girls’ high school sports since 2014, when state law AB 1266 was passed.
As a result, the 17 school boards have made it a point to speak out against the state’s Democratic leaders and express their support for protecting girls’ sports.
The Oakdale Joint Unified School District became the latest district in California to pass that type of Title IX resolution on Monday when it passed unanimously among the district’s trustees. Oakdale Joint Unified School District Board of Trustees President Clayton Schemper led the initiative.
“As chairman of the board, I put forward this decision because to me it’s just common sense. There is clearly a biological difference between boys and girls, and it’s no more obvious than on the playing field,” Schemper told Pakinomist Digital. “All we ask is that the CIF stand up for what is right and uphold its protections by ensuring fairness in girls’ sports. Tonight, I call on all school boards in California to do the same and to fight not just for, but with our girls.”
Earlier in October, the largest high school district by enrollment and land area in the state passed a similar resolution. The Kern High School District regularly enrolls more than 40,000 students and employs more than 1,700 staff a year across its 31 schools, becoming the 16th district to do so on Oct. 6. Kern High School District (KHSD) Trustee Derek Tisinger told Pakinomist Digital that he and his colleagues had to witness a Christian school lost to one of the schools in its district over a trans athlete last month.
INSIDE GAVIN NEWSOM’S TRANSGENDER VOLLEYBALL CRISIS
Bakersfield Christian lost its freshman/secondary game to Ridgeview High School in the last week of September with the explanation that “As a school based on the authority of Scripture, we affirm the biblical view that sex is determined by God at conception.”
“People try to say, ‘hey, it only affects a small amount of people,’ but there were probably 30 girls who practiced and dreamed their whole lives about playing volleyball and they didn’t get to play,” Tisinger said.
Opposition to the participation of trans athletes is believed to have prompted other volleyball losses at various levels across the state dating back to last year.
This season, Jurupa Valley High School’s girls volleyball team has seen 10 regular-season games dropped from its schedule, Pakinomist Digital previously reported. The team is currently embroiled in a national controversy after two of its senior players filed a lawsuit against the Jurupa Unified School District (JUSD), citing their experience with a trans athlete.
Last season, a Northern California Christian high school girls volleyball team, Stone Ridge Christian, lost a playoff game to San Francisco Waldorf, which had a trans athlete on its team.
Newsom’s office previously provided a statement to Pakinomist Digital deferring responsibility for the situation to CIF, CDE and the state legislature.
“CIF is an independent, nonprofit organization that governs high school sports. The California Department of Education is a separate constitutional office. Neither is under the governor’s authority. CIF and CDE have stated that they follow existing state law — a law passed in 2013 and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown (not Newsom) and consistent with 21 other states to which the law must be changed in order to Do must be changed. they do not have the bill, the statement read.
ONE two-part study by the Public Policy Institute of California found that the majority of Californians oppose biologically male trans athletes competing in women’s sports.
That number included more than 70% of the state’s school parents.
“Most Californians support requiring transgender athletes to compete on teams that match the gender they were assigned at birth,” the poll said.
“Solid majorities of adults (65%) and likely voters (64%) support requiring transgender athletes to compete on teams that match the gender they were assigned at birth, not the gender they identify with. An overwhelming majority of elementary school parents (71%) support such a requirement.”
