California Dem compares 'Save Girls Sports' law to Nazi Germany, as two trans athlete ban bills fail to pass

Fox News

01-04-2025

The California state legislature failed to pass two separate bills aimed at protecting girls sports from trans inclusion on Tuesday. During debate for one of the bills, a Democratic state lawmaker compared the proposals to practices employed by Nazi Germany in the holocaust.
California assembly member Rick Chavez Zbur made the comparison while arguing against the first bill, AB 89.
"This is really reminiscent to me of what happened in Nazi Germany in the 1930s. We are moving towards autocracy in this country. In Nazi Germany, transgender people were persecuted, barred from public life," Zbur said.
Zbur was then interrupted by mediators who protested his comparison and argued it was out of order. But Zbur continued his analogy.
"This is about this, this is about this bill," Zbur argued. "They were barred from public life. They were detransitioned. They were imprisoned and killed in concentration camps. And the way it started was the same kind of things that are happening in this country by the Trump administration."
California Republican assembly member Kate Sanchez, who proposed AB 89, said she heard audible gasps in the assembly chamber during Zbur's argument, and that one attendee had to excuse herself from the room.
"There was a lot of gasps and shock," Sanchez told Fox News Digital.
"It was very tone-deaf. We had a mother who had been in the holocaust itself, so she had to leave the committee hearing because it was so offensive to hear… she stood up and left because she was just so uncomfortable with the situation."
Multiple Democrat residents, including a member of the LGBTQ community, appeared on the assembly floor Tuesday to advocate in support of the bill.
But AB 89 was ultimately struck down by the Democratic majority. However, it will be allowed for reconsideration at a later date.
"I am just so disgusted that my Democrat colleagues were unable to stand for the protection of women and girls," Sanchez said. "Not only are they ignoring the will of the people… they're ignoring the everyday mom, dad, girl in sports. They are ignoring their wants.
Democrat assembly member Avalino Valencia was absent from Tuesday's vote. Speaker of the Assembly Robert Rivas inserted himself in the committee to vote in Valencia's absence. Valencia's office has not responded to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Just moments after Democrats struck down Sanchez's bill, the committee voted on AB 844, which would also ban trans athletes from girls sports and was proposed by California Republican assembly member Bill Essayli. Debate for Essayli's bill featured testimony from conservative activist and filmmaker Matt Walsh.
And like Sanchez's bill, Essayli's was also struck down by the Democrat majority. Essayli told Fox News Digital that he believes the Democrat's resistance to the two bills was intended to send a message to Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Newsom prompted backlash from those in his own party with comments on his podcast last month, expressing his belief that trans athletes in girls sports was "deeply unfair," but defended allowing it anyway.
"I think there really is a civil war here brewing within the Democrat Party on how to address these issues. You have the governor going in one direction, and I think what you saw today with the leadership in the legislature, which tends to be even more radical and progressive than the governor, taking a completely different approach. And I think they wanted to send a message to the governor that they're not budging on this issue," Essayli said.
"Today they wanted to send a message to their progressive, extremist base that they're not abandoning them."
The Democratic majority prevented both bills from passing just days after President Donald Trump's Education Secretary Linda McMahon sent a formal warning to Newsom and the rest of the state, suggesting federal funding may be cut to the state if it continues to enable trans inclusion in girls sports.
"Allowing participation in sex-separated activities based on 'gender identity' places schools at risk of Title IX violations and loss of federal funding. As Governor, you have a duty to inform California school districts of this risk," McMahon wrote in the letter.
"As Secretary of Education, I am officially asking you to inform this Department whether you will remind schools in California to comply with federal law by protecting sex-separated spaces and activities. I am also officially asking you to publicly assure parents that California teachers will not facilitate the fantasy of 'gender transitions' for their children."
The state's high school sports association, the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), is currently under federal investigation for potential Title IX violations after several controversial incidents involving trans athletes occurred over the last year.
The CIF was one of the first state athletic associations to announce it would continue allowing trans athletes to compete with girls after Trump signed the "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports" executive order on Feb. 5. The CIF stated an 11-year-old state law, AB 1266, which has been in effect since 2014 and gives trans athletes the right to participate in the gender category based on gender identity and not birth sex, for its non-compliance.
Both Sanchez and Essayli told Fox News Digital they expect the Trump administration to amplify its pressure on the state and potentially cut funding in order to enforce the executive order after their bills failed to pass Tuesday.
"I think a lot will come down the pipe over the next week or so," Sanchez said. "There will be a lot of development from what I've been told."
Essayli envisions a situation playing out in California similar to the one that has been playing out in Maine over the last month, as a public feud between Trump and Gov. Janet Mills has resulted in a hostile back-and-forth between the state and federal agencies over the issue of trans inclusion.
"None of us really went in thinking the Democrats in the legislature were going to change their position on this today, but what we wanted to do is make a clear record, make our arguments and show the world where they stand, where the Democrats stand on this, expose their position on this," Essayli said. "And I think we accomplished that."
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