California Lawmakers Block Ban on Transgender Athletes in Women’s Sports Amid Federal Funding Threats

California lawmakers have blocked a pair of proposals that would have banned transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports in school — a decision that could put the Golden State’s federal funding in jeopardy.Assembly Bill 89, if passed, would have established a full-on ban on high school sports, while AB 844 would reverse the current law that allows transgender athletes to participate in female sports from the elementary school level through college.Before the decision to block was made, public debates over both bills occurred at a hearing held by the State Assembly’s Arts, Entertainment, Sports, and Tourism Committee, according to KCRA.The hearing room where both bills were under consideration was fully occupied, with advocates and opponents lined up outside.Committee Chairman, Chris Ward, a Democratic state assemblyman from San Diego who initially called the hearing, said that the bills would place a target on the backs of both cisgender and transgender female athletes, citing cases in Utah and Idaho where female student-athletes were harassed under the suspicion of being trans.“The safeguarding of sports isn’t achieved by demonizing one of the smallest parts of the population,” he said during the hearing. “This hysteria needs to stop.”“What would you do if your niece/daughter or sister lost a scholarship to a biological boy,” Republican Assemblywoman Kate Sanchez said in her opening remarks. “Even Gov. Gavin Newsom, considered one of the most pro-LGBTQ governors in our state’s history, said recently, ‘It’s an issue of fairness. It’s deeply unfair.’”The decision comes after Governor Newsom recently broke with the ideologies of the democratic party, saying on his podcast during an interview with conservative Charlie Kirk that it was “deeply unfair” to allow transgender athletes to participate in women’s sporting events. Just last week, Education Secretary McMahon sent a letter to Mr. Newsom. She urged him to call on California legislature topass AB 844, warning that they would likely lose federal funds if the state continued to allow transgender athletes to compete in female sports. She cited the governor’s recent comments as the reason for reaching out.“Take a stand on your convictions,” she wrote in the letter. “Be clear about the harms of gender confusion. Protect female spaces.”

California Lawmakers Block Ban on Transgender Athletes in Women’s Sports Amid Federal Funding Threats

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