By Jack Phillips
Contributing Writer
President Donald Trump vowed to place “large-scale fines” on California after a transgender athlete competed in a girls’ high school track and field event and won gold.
“A biological male competed in California girls state finals, WINNING BIG, despite the fact that they were warned by me not to do so,” Trump wrote on the social media platform Truth Social on Tuesday, telling Gov. Gavin Newsom that “large-scale fines will be imposed.” The president did not provide more details about the fine.
The president’s comment was made days after he wrote that he may withhold federal funding if California doesn’t comply with an executive order he signed months ago, which bans transgender athletes from competing in women’s and girls’ sports. The order specifically directs federal agencies to cut off funding to states that refuse to enforce the ban, although some states have yet to comply.
“This is not fair, and totally demeaning to women and girls. Please be hereby advised that large-scale federal funding will be held back, maybe permanently, if the executive order on this subject matter is not totally adhered to,” Trump told Newsom and California officials on May 27.
On Feb. 5, Trump signed the Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports executive order, which bars educational institutions that receive federal funding from allowing transgender athletes to compete in women’s and girls’ sports.
“It is the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy,” the order states.
While Trump’s post on Truth Social did not name anyone in particular, a transgender athlete, AB Hernandez, won gold in the girls’ triple jump and high jump at the California state championships over the past weekend. The California Interscholastic Federation had said that it would allow one extra competitor in three events featuring Hernandez.
“The CIF values all of our student-athletes and we will continue to uphold our mission of providing students with the opportunity to belong, connect, and compete while complying with California law and Education Code,” the organization said in a May 28 statement.
Following the rule changes, Hernandez shared first place in the high jump with co-winners Jillene Wetteland and Lelani Laruelle, and in the triple jump with Kira Gant Hatcher, who trailed by just more than a half-meter.
Some people in the crowd of the competition wore pink bracelets and held signs that stated, “Save Girls’ Sports” to protest against Hernandez’s participation, according to photos from the event.
Earlier this week, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who heads the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, said in a letter posted online that public school districts in California must tell the agency they won’t adhere to the CIF’s rules on “gender identity participation.”
“Knowingly depriving female students of athletic opportunities and benefits on the basis of their sex would constitute unconstitutional sex discrimination under the Equal Protection Clause,” Dhillon said in the letter. “Scientific evidence shows that upsetting the historical status quo and forcing girls to compete against males would deprive them of athletic opportunities and benefits because of their sex.”
A recent AP-NORC poll found that about seven in 10 U.S. adults think transgender athletes should not be allowed to participate in girls’ and women’s sports at high school, college, or professional levels. That view was shared by about nine in 10 Republicans and roughly half of Democrats.
Newsom earlier this year told conservative host Charlie Kirk that allowing transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s sports is “deeply unfair,” breaking with much of the Democratic Party.
“I think it’s an issue of fairness. I completely agree with you on that. It is an issue of fairness. It’s deeply unfair,” he said in March. “I’m not wrestling with the fairness issue. I totally agree with you.”
The Department of Justice has also launched a civil rights investigation into California’s law that has allowed males to compete in girls’ sports.
The DOJ announced on May 28 that its investigation aims to determine whether California, along with its senior legal, educational, and athletic organizations, was “engaging in a pattern or practice of discrimination based on sex.”
At the heart of the probe is AB 1266, a 2014 California law that permits students to participate in school sports in accordance with their gender identity and not their sex.
The DOJ contends this policy may unlawfully allow males to displace females from team rosters, scholarships, and podium finishes — outcomes that DOJ officials argue run afoul of Title IX, the landmark federal civil rights law.
The Associated Press and Aldgra Fredly contributed to this report.
