The divisive national debate over transgender athletes took center stage in Sacramento on Tuesday when state Democrats killed two Republican-backed bills to restrict transgender players from girls’ and women’s school teams.
Democrats, who control the Legislature, allowed a heated hearing on the two proposals in the state Assembly after Gov. Gavin Newsom last month said transgender athletes in female sports is “deeply unfair.” Democrats on the nine-member arts and sports committee then quashed the proposals in party-line votes after hundreds of residents packed the hearing room to voice their opinions — some in opposition, others offering support — with many brandishing Newsom’s own comments.
Assembly Bill 89, introduced by Orange County Republican Assemblymember Kate Sanchez, would have required the California Interscholastic Federation, which oversees high school sports, to only allow those who were assigned female at birth to participate in sports for girls and women.
Riverside County Republican Assemblymember Bill Essayli had introduced a companion bill, Assembly Bill 844, to require that student athletes at all school levels play on teams and use locker rooms and other facilities that correspond to the sex they were assigned at birth — not their gender identity, which California has protected for more than a decade in state law.
If “ambiguity” arose about an athlete’s sex assigned at birth, “at most, heaven forbid, you might have to produce a birth certificate,” Essayli said.
Democratic Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas took the unusual step of substituting in for a Southern California Democratic committee member to condemn the bills and cast an opposing vote.
He and other Democrats said it’s unknown how many transgender students play sports in California but that the number is likely very small. Nationally, about 1% of people identify as transgender.
“There is no epidemic of transgender kids playing basketball, soccer or any other sport for that matter,” Rivas said during the hearing.
Cisgender female athletes and their conservative backers pushed back on that argument and said their own rights and safety were being ignored when transgender women, who formerly identified as male, compete in sports.
“Why do you not care about our safety, and why won’t you protect us?” Sophia Lorey, outreach director for the California Family Council, a Fresno-based Christian advocacy group, asked the committee’s Democrats when testifying. “Girls deserve to compete fairly and safely against other girls.”
The hearing lasted for more than three hours. One person opposing the package of bills was removed from the hearing after shouting at its members. The atmosphere intensified when Los Angeles Democratic Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur compared the bills’ supporters to Nazis, and again when national conservative activist Matt Walsh, who spoke on behalf of Essayli’s bill, said transgender women are simply “deluded or confused” men.
The bills were doomed to fail in the Democratic-controlled Legislature, where they hold a supermajority. The sports committee is chaired by San Diego Democrat Chris Ward, who also leads the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus that advocates for transgender residents.
That caucus condemned Newsom last month when the Democratic governor broke with his own party and implied that transgender girls unfairly compete against their cisgender opponents while speaking with conservative activist Charlie Kirk on his own new podcast. A spokesperson for Newsom said Tuesday the governor does not comment on pending legislation.
Supporters of the Republican proposals repeatedly brought up Newsom’s comments on Tuesday.
“Take the off-ramp that Governor Newsom gave you all,” said Charlotte Johnson, who identified herself as a mom concerned about transgender athletes during the lengthy public comment.
Republicans introduced the legislation as debates about gender identity and transgender students’ rights rock school communities and classrooms across the state. The administration of President Donald Trump is moving to restrict transgender athletes and states that allow them to compete based on their gender identity, including California.
Last year, a teacher in Cupertino was placed on leave after discussing gender identity in a transitional kindergarten classroom, and both Palo Alto Unified School District and San Jose Unified School District faced backlash over concerns about gender-neutral spaces on campus.
In the fall, San Jose State University made headlines over a controversy surrounding a transgender athlete on the women’s volleyball team. Her presence on the team sparked national backlash and led several college teams to forfeit their games against San Jose State in protest.
Among the hundreds of speakers who testified Tuesday was Melissa Batie-Smoose, former associate head coach of the San Jose State volleyball team. Batie-Smoose left the team and later joined a lawsuit accusing San Jose State officials of trying to silence anyone questioning the transgender player’s presence on the team.
Batie-Smoose said Tuesday she was “fired for standing up for women and women’s sports and my team” and supported Sanchez’s proposal.
Dozens of people who said they were transgender or queer, or parents of transgender children, asked lawmakers to reject the bills.
“As a former varsity captain of two women’s sports, including one state-champion-winning team, I think this bill is discriminatory and against the spirit of sportsmanship,” said Noah Hoffman, who identified as non-binary.
Though polls suggest the issue is a liability for Democrats, Melissa Michelson, a professor of political science at Menlo College, said state Democrats likely expected they’d elicit a positive response from the public by “standing with transgender people” during the lengthy hearing.
“They think this is a winning issue for them,” she said.