The Golden State is putting $44 billion in federal funding on the line by letting men continue to compete in women’s sports.
[UPDATE] The Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a lawsuit against the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) and the California Department of Education (CDE) after they refused to stop permitting males to compete in girls’ sports or to use girls’ locker rooms.
The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division filed the suit Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
The suit claims that by requiring California schools to permit male athletes to compete against females and to use their intimate spaces, CIF and CDE have violated Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972, which requires equal academic and athletic opportunities for males and females.
The suit cites several male athletes who have competed in women’s sports events, knocking numerous female athletes from teams and placements in competitions.
The suit is the latest development in an ongoing dispute between the Trump administration and California.
After President Donald Trump signed an executive order to protect the integrity of women’s sports in February and demanded that states comply with Title IX by barring males from women’s sports and intimate spaces, the United States Department of Education (USDOE) alerted CIF that it was commencing a Title IX investigation into its provision of athletics.
On April 4, USDOE also notified CDE that it was conducting a Title IX investigation.
In May, Trump made clear his opposition to California allowing male athlete AB Hernandez to compete in the girls’ track and field state championship.
California chose not to ban Hernandez, instead opting for a new pilot policy that allowed more girls to place in track meets and if a male athlete displaced a female athlete, the female athlete would receive the same place she would have received without the male’s competing. For example, if a male athlete won first place, California would name both the male athlete and the first female athlete as first place winners—even if she finished behind him.
On June 25, USDOE notified CIF and CDE that it had concluded its investigation and that both were in violation of Title IX. It offered a resolution agreement that required California to bar males from women’s sports and locker rooms.
On July 7, CDE said that it “respectfully disagrees” with USDOE’s investigation and refused to sign the resolution agreement. CIF officials said that they agreed with CDE.
Two days later, the DOJ filed suit.
The DOJ notes that California Gov. Gavin Newsom, D, admitted that allowing males to compete against females was “deeply unfair.” The suit argues that the pilot policy is an admission of guilt that CDE and CIF know that they are displacing girls.
In a press release, U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli of the Central District of California said,
“California is on the wrong side of the law and the wrong side of history. Women deserve dignity, respect, and an equal opportunity to compete on their own sports teams. The time for talk is over. California must comply with Title IX and end its civil rights violations against women. No person, no state, is above the law.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a video announcing the suit,
“No boys will be allowed in women’s locker rooms. No longer. We have sued Maine, we’re in litigation with Minnesota, we’ve sent multiple letters, and if you do not comply, you’re next. The Department of Education and the Department of Justice, we will protect girls in girls’ sports.”
When state departments of education receive federal funding, it is with the requirement that they adhere to Title IX. The federal government allocated $44.3 billion to CDE in fiscal year 2025.
ORIGINAL STORY
{Published on March 28, 2025} The Department of Education has warned California that its policy of hiding students’ gender transitions from their parents violates federal law and has cautioned Gov. Gavin Newsom, D, that the state is also in violation of Title IX due to its transgender policies on bathroom usage and sports teams.
Yesterday, Education Secretary Linda McMahon sent a letter to Newsom requesting “clarification on your stance as Governor of California” on the issue of males competing in women’s sports.
The letter referenced Newsom’s recent statement on his new podcast that men playing in women’s sports is “an issue of fairness.”
Later in the conversation, he admitted, “It’s deeply unfair.”
In her letter, McMahon explained,
“Many are confused…by your office’s silence on the harms of substituting ‘gender identity’ for sex in other areas of the school environment. After all, if men ‘identifying as women’ shouldn’t play women’s sports, why do California schools continue to let boys ‘identifying as girls’ use girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms, and sleep in girls-only overnight accommodations?”
She then challenged him:
“Take a stand on your convictions. Be clear about the harms of gender confusion. Protect female spaces. Do not encourage children to seek permanent medical interventions to their sex.”
McMahon also noted that California is violating the Family Educational Rights Privacy Act (FERPA) by preventing parents from learning about their child’s gender transition.
The department also issued a press release stating that it is investigating the California Department of Education (CDE) for the violations.
As the department explained,
“FERPA gives parents the right to access their children’s education records, the right to request record corrections or amendments, and the right to control, with important exceptions, disclosure of personally identifiable information in education records.”
According to the department, CDE and local education associations (LEAs) have adopted policies of hiding students’ gender identity from parents as required by the new state law California Assembly Bill 1955.
Newsom signed the bill, which prohibits schools from requiring staff to tell parents if their child has adopted a new gender identity, into law last year.
According to the California Justice Center, “every public school in California has a policy of denying, or effectively preventing, the parents of students…the right to inspect and review the education records of their children”.
McMahon stated in her letter, “You have a duty to inform California educators and school officials that the creation of so-called ‘gender plans’ that are kept secret from parents is against federal law.”
She said that “bureaucratically” managing a child claiming to be a different gender without parental knowledge violates FERPA.
“More importantly,” she argued, “it undermines the parent-child relationship and deprives parents of involvement in a critical aspect of their child’s youthful development. This is morally wrong, and as a parent, you should be naturally appalled, as I am, by the attempt to cut parents out of their children’s lives.”
She encouraged Newsom to work to repeal the law and to assure parents that teachers will not facilitate gender transitions.
The Department also stated yesterday that it is investigating Portland Public Schools (the District) and the Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) for allowing a male student to compete in high school girls’ track and field and win state championships two years in a row.
The investigation comes as a result of a complaint filed with the Office of Civil Rights (OCR).
Leodis V. McDaniel High School in Portland has allowed a male athlete claiming to be female to compete against girls and use the girls’ locker room the past two seasons. Last season, the male athlete won both the 200-meter and the 400-meter dashes at the 6A-1 Portland Interscholastic League Championship.
He was allowed to compete against girls again this year and won the 200- and 400-meter events again this season. The male athlete crushed his competition, beating the closest girl by more than seven seconds in the 400-meter dash with a time of 57.62, besting the top girl, who ran a time of 1:05.72.
Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights, responded to this news by saying,
“We will not allow the Portland Public Schools District or any other educational entity that receives federal funds to trample on the antidiscrimination protections that women and girls are guaranteed under law. President Trump and Secretary McMahon have been steadfast in their commitment to protect the rights of women and girls. OCR will use every lawful means to ensure that no female athlete is denied equal athletic opportunities or robbed of her rightful accolades.”
Several federal agencies have already paused funding and launched investigations into schools in other states, including the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Maine System, which has since agreed to comply with Title IX and the president’s executive order reinstating sex-segregated sports and spaces.
When will enough be enough for liberal states and school districts? How many more girls and young women must face demoralizing defeat, violence, and invasions of their privacy before they begin caring about women’s rights?
Why is it permissible for a male to bully a woman on the athletic field, expose himself in her locker room, or ogle her while she changes if he identifies as a girl but impermissible for a male who does not identify as transgender to be a peeping tom or a domestic abuser?
Males are eradicating females’ opportunities in athletics and their privacy and safety in locker rooms, bathrooms, overnight accommodations, battered women’s shelters, and prisons.
We all know this is wrong.
It’s long past time that rational people take control, and that’s exactly what the Department of Education is doing by launching these investigations and freezing funding.
However, it isn’t enough to only protect women’s sports and locker rooms.
While males invading women’s spaces is the larger problem, considering their greater physical size, strength, and athletic ability, males also deserve to have sex-segregated sports and spaces.
No male should be forced to compete against a female who identifies as male, forcing him to choose between violating his conscience and possibly hurting her — or sitting out his own sports competition. And no male should have his privacy taken due to a female invading his bathroom or overnight accommodation.
Thankfully, the Department is working to guard students from such invasions of privacy.
Maybe soon, California and Oregon officials will do so as well.
As seen in this article, many K-12 schools now embrace the secular woke agenda and are hostile to Christian beliefs and parental rights. Fortunately, parents don’t have to settle for this. Liberty University Online Academy is a K-12 program designed to educate your children in the ways of the Lord while preparing them to stand firm in their faith when they graduate. Our flexible online curriculum ensures that your student is trained at your convenience and keeps YOU the ultimate educator of your children.
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