A California county office of education has rejected a state policy and sided with federal law by banning biological males from competing in female sports.
The Kern County Board of Education voted to stand with the original intent of Title IX, which is to protect individuals within educational programs from sex-based discrimination.
Board President Mary Little told Fox News Digital that California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s refusal to comply with Title IX is “Illegally defying federal law.”
“We’ve talked about it on and off, especially since there’s been a problem with how Gov. Newsom has been responding to the federal law,” Little said. “He’s not following the original intent of Title IX … so those laws are supposed to trump California laws, and we’re supposed to obey those before we follow an illegal California law.”
Newsom, permitting trans-identifying males to compete in women’s sports through state policy, ignored President Donald Trump’s January executive order. The order states that the “the Executive Branch will enforce all sex-protective laws” to promote the reality that “sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”
The order mandates that in such laws, “‘Female’ means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell” and “‘Male’ means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell” in all laws, including Title IX.
Trump’s executive order rejects gender ideology, which “includes the idea that there is a vast spectrum of genders that are disconnected from one’s sex.”
“I see it affecting families with girl athletes who are frustrated about having to compete against a biological male,” Lori Cisneros, board trustee, told Fox News Digital. “And they’re frustrated because biological males, naturally, are stronger, bigger and just different than how girls are designed.”
At the board meeting, eight speakers opposed the rule. However, the resolution still passed unanimously with a 6-0 vote.
According to a Public Policy Institute of California poll, 71% of California’s public school parents believe athletes should compete based on sex assigned at birth.
Currently, California’s Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation are facing a lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Education for refusing to comply with federal law.
