Trump administration sues California over transgender athletes in schools

By Andrew Goudsward

WASHINGTON, July 9 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on Wednesday sued California over state policies allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls' school sports, alleging that their participation violates federal anti-discrimination laws.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, claims that California's policies violate Title IX, which affords legal protection against sex discrimination.

Attorney General Pam Bondi in a statement took aim at California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Trump antagonist seen as a potential Democratic presidential candidate in 2028. Newsom in a March podcast interview with right-wing activist Charlie Kirk called transgender participation in girls' sports "deeply unfair."

"Not only is it ‘deeply unfair,’ it is also illegal under federal law," Bondi said in a statement. "This Department of Justice will continue its fight to protect equal opportunities for women and girls in sports."

A spokesperson for Newsom said the state is following a 2013 law and that no court has accepted the legal theory advanced by the Trump administration. The California Department of Education declined to comment, citing pending litigation.

Trump, a Republican, has signed a series of executive orders restricting transgender rights, including a February directive to strip federal funding from any school that allows transgender women or girls to compete in female sports.

The Justice Department under Trump has already filed a similar lawsuit against Maine and has made challenging transgender rights a major civil rights priority.

The lawsuit alleges that state policies "ignore undeniable biological differences between boys and girls" and diminish the integrity of girls' sports.

Advocates for LGBT rights have said transgender athletes comprise a small minority of all school athletes and bans on their participation further stigmatize a vulnerable population.

"This lawsuit is legally baseless and nothing more than yet another attempt by this administration to politicize the law and bully states that are disfavored by the president," said Shannon Minter, the legal director of the National Center for LGBTQ Rights.

California's policies drew national attention earlier this year when a transgender girl competing in the state track and field championship won the high jump and triple jump and finished second in the long jump, an episode cited in the Justice Department's complaint.

The lawsuit cites five alleged instances of transgender athletes taking part in girls' school sporting events in a state with nearly 6 million public school students, according to state data.

It seeks a court order barring any school under the California Interscholastic Federation from allowing transgender athletes to take part in girls' sports competitions and to establish a process to compensate female athletes it alleges have been harmed by the state's policy.

The majority of Americans do not support transgender athletes competing in girls' and women's sports, polling has shown. Just 26% of respondents to a February Reuters/Ipsos poll agreed that they should at the elementary and high school level, with 55% opposed and the rest unsure.

Newsom has repeatedly clashed with Trump, most recently over the president's decision to deploy National Guard troops to Los Angeles, California's largest city, to quell anti-deportation protests that erupted after the Trump administration carried out workplace raids in the city.

The feud has prompted several legal battles between the Trump administration and the largest U.S. state.