California announced that the state would not be protecting girls’ K-12 sports from transgender-identifying athletes and would continue to allow them to participate in girls’ sports.
Len Garfinkel, who serves as the general counsel for the California Department of Education (CDE), informed Bradley Burke, the regional director for the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) in a letter that CDE “respectfully disagrees” with the OCR’s analysis, according to the Sacramento Bee.
The letter from Garfinkel came after the Department of Education under Secretary of Education Linda McMahon “gave California 10 days from June 27 to rescind any sports prizes awarded to trans athletes and ban them” from participating in girls’ sports:
U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon gave California 10 days from June 27 to rescind any sports prizes awarded to trans athletes and ban them after the agency’s Office of Civil Rights said that the state had violated federal anti-discrimination law by allowing transgender girls to compete with cisgender girls.
The state Department of Education’s top attorney said Monday that it would not comply with a federal agreement requiring the state to rescind any trans-inclusionary guidelines and send cisgender female athletes who lost to a trans opponent personalized apologies. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office called McMahon’s proposed agreement a “political document” that carried no weight and would force the state to illegally violate its own anti-discrimination laws.
🚨 BREAKING: California has officially REJECTED a proposal from the Trump administration to ban men from women's sports.
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) July 7, 2025
Linda McMahon has now announced that Gavin Newsom will be "hearing from AG PAM BONDI."
Lay down the hammer. Revoke federal funding. pic.twitter.com/236aaBHMmW
In a post on X, McMahon shared a letter from Diane Marshall-Freeman, the general counsel for the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), to Burke, stating that the CIF concurred “with the response of the California Department of Education.”
“The office of the General Counsel for the California Interscholastic Federation (‘CIF’) is in receipt of your letter, dated June 25, 2025, directed to Dr. Ronald W. Nocetti, Executive Director of the CIF,” Marshall-Freeman said. “I write in response to your request that the CIF inform you ‘in writing by 12:00 pm noon, eastern time, July 7, 2025′ as to whether the CIF will sign the United States Department of Education’s, Office of Civil Rights’ (‘OCR’) proposed resolution agreement in the above-entitled matter.”
California has just REJECTED our resolution agreement to follow federal law and keep men out of women's sports.
— Secretary Linda McMahon (@EDSecMcMahon) July 7, 2025
Turns out Gov. Newsom’s acknowledgment that “it’s an issue of fairness” was empty political grandstanding.@CAgovernor, you'll be hearing from @AGPamBondi. pic.twitter.com/wa945HtmG6
The response from California comes as Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) has faced a lawsuit from President Donald Trump and the Department of Justice (DOJ), as Maine has allowed transgender identifying athletes to compete in women’s sports.
Breitbart News has previously reported that Maine Democrats want to change the state’s constitution so that transgender identifying athletes would “permanently” be allowed to compete in women’s sports.
