California State Assemblymember Kate Sanchez announced on Monday that she is introducing a bill to ban trans athletes from competing in girls' and women's sports.
Sanchez will propose the Protect Girls’ Sports Act to the state legislature. Currently, 25 states have similar laws in effect. But California has had a state law in effect since 2014 that has enabled trans athletes to participate in women's and girls' sports, and it even requires public institutions to protect trans athletes at the expense of biological female competitors.
"Young women who have spent years training and sacrificing to compete at the highest level are now forced to compete against individuals with undeniable biological advantages. It’s not just unfair – it’s disheartening and dangerous," Sanchez said in a statement announcing the bill.
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California's law, AB 1266, which has been in effect since 2014, gives California students at scholastic and collegiate levels the right 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."
California's Code of Regulations section 4910(k) defines gender as: "A person’s actual sex or perceived sex and includes a person’s perceived identity, appearance or behavior, whether or not that identity, appearance, or behavior is different from that traditionally associated with a person’s sex at birth."
California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Bylaw 300.D. mirrors the Education Code, stating, "All students should have the opportunity to participate in CIF activities in a manner that is consistent with their gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on a student’s records."
These current laws in the Golden Start have resulted in multiple scandals and national controversies involving trans athletes in women's sports in 2024 alone.
Martin Luther King High School in Riverside, California, is currently embroiled in one of the most contentious local controversies on the issue.
A recent school board meeting by the Riverside Unified School District on Dec. 19 featured a parade of parents berating the board for allowing a trans athlete on the Martin Luther King girls' cross-country team. A lawsuit filed by two girls on the team alleges that their T-shirts in protest of that player were compared to swastikas simply because they say "Save Girls Sports."
The father of a girl who lost her varsity spot to the trans athlete recently told Fox News Digital that his daughter and other girls at the school were told "transgenders have more rights than cisgender[s]" by school administrators when they protested the athlete's participation.
Stone Ridge Christian High School's girls' volleyball team was scheduled to face San Francisco Waldorf in the Northern California Division 6 tournament but forfeited in an announcement just before the match over the presence of a trans athlete on the team.
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A transgender volleyball player was booed and harassed at an Oct. 12 match between Notre Dame Belmont in Belmont, California, against Half Moon Bay High School, according to ABC 7. Half Moon Bay rostered the transgender athlete.
At the college level, San Jose State university's volleyball team was hampered by, arguably, the biggest scandal involving transgenderism in women's sports in recent history in 2024.
SJSU co-captain Brooke Slusser is engaged in multiple lawsuits against the university, the Mountain West conference and the NCAA, alleging the school had her share a team, changing spaces and even bedrooms with teammate Blaire Fleming without ever informing her or other players that Fleming was a biological male.
The team was the target of national attention this past season amid the controversy, as President-elect Trump even called out Fleming for how hard the trans athlete spiked the ball at an opposing player during a Fox News town hall event in October.
The team saw eight matches forfeited amid the scandal, including the semifinal round of the Mountain West Tournament after Boise State refused to face the Spartans for the third time. Slusser, Fleming and the rest of the team all ended up playing in the championship game, where they lost to Colorado State to end their season and the two players' respective college careers.
Slusser has told Fox News Digital that the entire experience involving Fleming was "traumatizing."
"This season has been so traumatizing that I don't even have a proudest moment," Slusser said.
Most of the team's remaining players have entered the transfer portal in the aftermath of the controversy.
Trump has pledged to instill a full-on ban on trans athletes in women's sports to the near unanimous support of Republican allies.
The new Republican-controlled Congress will hear arguments on a bill that would prohibit transgender athletes from competing in women's sports in its first 100 days after voting yes on a new rules package Friday.
Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., celebrated Friday's vote and will reintroduce the bill included in the rules package, the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., told Fox News Digital he is also reintroducing that measure in the Senate, and with the approval of leadership, it's expected to get a floor vote.
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