Rep Kevin Kiley reflects on impact of California trans athlete conflict amid state's battle with Trump
The state rejected the Trump admin's proposal to comply with Title IX on Monday, and now, a referral to the U.S. Department of Justice is likely. The DOJ already launched a lawsuit against the state of Maine in April for similar defiance.
The tension between the state and Trump heightened at the end of May, before the state's track and field championship, which saw a trans athlete take first place in two girls' events. Trump himself sent two lengthy Truth Social posts addressing the girls' track and field controversy, in warnings to Newsom.
Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., is well aware of the anxiety his constituents have faced amid that. Prior to the track and field championships, several other had confirmed controversial incidents involving trans athletes competing in girls' high school volleyball, basketball and cross-country.
"We need to absolutely look at what's going on in our schools," Kiley said.
"We see in a lot of these cases, that there were influences within the school system in some cases, ultimately had an impact on the young person's thinking," he added, regarding how a male athlete could have ended up competing in girls' sports amid the wave of incidents in his state.
Additionally, the presence of those trans athletes have pushed many of the state's female athletes to speak out or protest. Multiple athletes wore shirts that read "Protect Girls Sports" or "Save Girls Sports" at postseason track meets this past spring, and Stone Ridge Christian High School's girls' volleyball team even forfeited a playoff game to a team with a trans athlete last fall.
"I think it made a big difference. I think the student athletes themselves are the most powerful voice for bringing about the change that we're now starting to see," Kiley said.
The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), the governing body of high school sports in the state, acknowledged that its officials made athletes who wore the "Protect Girls Sports" shirts during a postseason meet in early May.
"Per the CIF Southern Section Playoff Bulletin, all athletes must be dressed in proper, school issued, track uniforms. The student-athletes were asked to comply with this while in the on-field event area, as they were wearing said shirts over their school-issued uniform," the CIF said in a statement previously provided to Fox News Digital.
However, multiple girls' athletes who competed at the event previously told Fox News Digital that other athletes who wore non-school-issued shirts without the activist messaging, such as college shirts, were not given the same orders.
Kiley sided with the female athletes in that debate.
"That's absolutely outrageous! I mean to say, we're not just going to deprive them of the opportunity to compete in a fair environment, but now we're going to take away their voice to actually advocate for fairness. That adds insult to injury and likely raises first amendment issues as well," Kiley said.
The issue also manifested in California's state universities last fall, when San Jose State University came under a national microscope for allowing trans athlete Blaire Fleming to compete on the women's volleyball team.
As California has tax-payer-funded institutions, Kiley hopes the university is held "accountable" and wants to see a similar outcome to the one recently made by the University of Pennsylvania, which agreed to rescind all women's records earned by former trans swimmer Lia Thomas, and apologize to all the women who had to compete with Thomas.
"It's outrageous that this one university thinks it can compromise the integrity of university competition for all student athletes," Kiley said. SJSU is currently under an ongoing Title IX investigation by the U.S. Department of Education.
As the rest of the state faces potential legal action from the DOJ on the issue, Kiley is anxious about the possibility of the state losing federal funding, and hopes it "doesn't come to that." Other major GOP figures in the state have joined his cause as well.
State Reps. James Gallagher and Kate Sanchez released statements condemning the California Department of Education and Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday.
Gallagher said the issue of having trans athletes in girls' sports boiled down to fairness.
"California continues to push the dangerous insanity of letting men compete in women's sports," he said. "This is about fairness, safety, and the rule of law. Superintendent (Tony) Thurmond and Governor Newsom are jeopardizing school sports programs across the state, all to appease a radical agenda and advance their political careers."
Sanchez added, "Newsom's department of education is blatantly violating Title IX" and was "doubling down."
"They refuse to protect girls' sports for biological girls. It's a shocking civil rights violation that could cost California billions in federal education funding."
Mark Trammell, CEO of the Center for American Liberty, provided a statement to Fox News Digital addressing the state's conflict.
"California can 'disagree' all it wants but it won't make the state's actions miraculously legal. The law is clear, Title IX demands equal opportunities for women and girls. California must abide by federal law and cease its discriminatory practices," Trammell said.
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