U.S. Dept. Of Education Finds California is Violating Title IX With Trans Athletes In Women’s Sports

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced on Wednesday that they have concluded their investigations into Title IX violations in California, finding that both the California Department of Education (CDE) and the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) are violating the law by letting transgender athletes, biological males, compete in girls’ sports.

According to the DOE Office for Civil Rights, the California’s Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation have shown discrimination against women and girls on the basis of sex. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 requires schools to ensure equal opportunities for girls, including in athletic activities. California is preventing equality by allowing transgender males in girls’ sports and intimate spaces.

“Although Governor Gavin Newsom admitted months ago it was ‘deeply unfair’ to allow men to compete in women’s sports, both the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation continued as recently as a few weeks ago to allow men to steal female athletes’ well-deserved accolades and to subject them to the indignity of unfair and unsafe competitions,” explained U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon on Wednesday. “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. The state must swiftly come into compliance with Title IX or face the consequences that follow.”

Both the CDE and the CIF now have 10 days to voluntarily change the practices around allowing transgender males to compete in women’s sports. Should they not comply by July 5th or agree to a proposed Resolution Agreement to resolve their Title IX violations with the OCR, they will face imminent enforcement action. The DOE mentioned multiple consequences as a result, with the primary consequence being referred to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for legal proceedings.

In total, the federal government wants 6 things done in their proposed Resolution Agreement:

(i) The CDE will issue a Notice to all recipients of federal funding (Recipients) that operate interscholastic athletic programs in California requiring them to comply with Title IX. This will specify that Title IX and its implementing regulations forbids schools from allowing males from participating in female sports and from occupying female intimate facilities, and that Recipients must adopt biology-based definitions of the words ‘male’ and ‘female’;

(ii) The CDE will issue a Notice advising Recipients that any interpretation of California state law conflicting with the Department’s Resolution Agreement is preempted by federal law under Title IX;

(iii) The CDE and CIF will rescind any guidance that advised local school districts or CIF members to permit male athletes to participate in women’s and girls’ sports to reflect that Title IX preempts state law when state law conflicts with Title IX;

(iv) CDE will require all Recipients, including CIF, to restore to female athletes all individual records, titles, and awards misappropriated by male athletes competing in female competitions;

(v) To each female athlete to whom an individual recognition is restored, CDE will send a personalized letter apologizing on behalf of the state of California for allowing her educational experience to be marred by sex discrimination; and

(vi) The CDE will require each Recipient and CIF to submit to CDE an annual certification that the Recipient and CIF have complied with Title IX. Accordingly, CDE will also propose to OCR a Monitoring Plan to ensure that Recipients are fully complying with Title IX.

An issue over transgender athletes

As of Wednesday afternoon, neither the CIF or CDE has released an official statement on the federal action. However, a spokeswoman for the CDE did respond, defending the CDE’s earlier stances and saying there were no plans to change current policies.

“The California Department of Education believes all students should have the opportunity to learn and play at school, and we have consistently applied existing law in support of students’ rights to do so,” said CDE spokeswoman Liz Sanders on the DOE’s findings.

The issue over California allowing transgender students from competing in Women’s sports has been a hot button issue for years, dating all the way back to 2013 when AB 1266 was signed into law by then-Governor Jerry Brown, letting males to participate on female sports teams and to use female spaces. In recent years, this practice has reached federal attention, most recently with the Trump administration pushing to end the practice. This included an executive order banning the practice in February and threating to cut California’s federal funding in May.

The latter action created a major effect, with the CIF drastically altering their transgender athlete policy in less than a day after Trump’s threat. However, transgender athletes were still allowed to compete in their non-biological gender sports, pushing the federal government to ramp up pressure and continue on with investigations. This all led to OCR’s findings on Wednesday.

In addition to the OCR’s findings and ultimatum on Wednesday, the state is also currently facing withheld federal funding and a federal order to remove gender identity from all sex education materials.

The state is expected to release an official response soon.