Showdown in California over bills aiming to ban transgender athletes in female sports, facilities

A clash at the California Capitol unfolded on Tuesday over two transgender-related bills as female athletes and parents encouraged lawmakers to protect women’s spaces and sports.

The Assembly Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports and Tourism held a hearing to discuss AB 89, which would ensure that only biological females can compete in girls’ sports, and AB 844, which would keep biological boys out of female-designated school locker rooms, showers, and bathrooms.

Although the bills did not advance out of committee, where Democrats outnumber Republicans 7-2, Tuesday’s public comment period marked a significant moment for the Golden State to debate an issue that has roiled the nation.

The hearing opened with a slew of parents, female athletes, and women’s groups urging legislators to support the bills and protect biological women from unfair competition, while LGBT advocates said it would lead to the erasure of transgender people. A number of former Democrats attended the hearing to support the legislation, telling lawmakers they broke with the party and registered as Republicans because of liberal support for transgender ideology.

The hearing took place just a few weeks after Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, widely viewed as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, called transgender athletes in sports “deeply unfair.”  

“I think it’s an issue of fairness, I completely agree with you on that,” he told conservative commentator Charlie Kirk in early March, in remarks distancing himself from the Democratic party’s stance on the issue. “It is an issue of fairness, it’s deeply unfair. We’ve got to own that. We’ve got to acknowledge it.”  

The Trump administration recently warned Newsom and the rest of the state that its permissive stance toward transgender athletes violates federal law. 

​​“Allowing participation in sex-separated activities based on ‘gender identity’ places schools at risk of Title IX violations and loss of federal funding,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon wrote, The Lion reported. “As Governor, you have a duty to warn California school districts of this risk.” 

Tuesday’s already-heated hearing intensified when one Democratic committee member compared protecting girls sports to Nazi Germany. 

“In Nazi Germany, transgender people were persecuted, they were barred from public life, they were de-transitioned, they were imprisoned and killed in concentration camps,” Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur said, sparking anger from hearing attendees. “And the way that it started was the same kinds of things that are happening in this country, by the Trump administration.” 

Assemblymember Kate Sanchez, who sponsored AB 89,  said that transgender athletes participating in sports was not only unfair but “disheartening and dangerous.”  

“When biological men are allowed to compete in women’s sports, it creates an unfair playing field,” she said ahead of the hearing. “Young women who have spent years training, sacrificing and earning their place to compete at the highest level are being forced to compete against individuals with undeniable biological advantages.”  

She said that it was an issue of “safety,” not just competition. “Whether in contact sports, locker rooms, or shared spaces these policies place our daughters at risk,” Sanchez said. 

Political commentator Matt Walsh testified in support of AB 844, which was sponsored by Assemblymember Bill Essayli.  

“You must keep men out of women’s sports and out of their facilities for the simple reason that they are men. Men are not women. A man who claims he is a woman is still not a woman,” Walsh said. “Compelling women to take part in this untruth is evil, perverse, and predatory.”