California will not ban transgender athletes from competing in K-12 school sports or change its anti-discrimination policies to exclude them, becoming the second state after Maine to defy the Trump administration over the issue.

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.

“The CDE respectfully disagrees with OCR’s analysis, and it will not sign the proposed Resolution Agreement,” General Counsel Len Garfinkle wrote to Bradley Burke, the regional director for OCR.

The Trump administration has zeroed in on transgender rights as a galvanizing culture war issue, to some success, and often cites it as a reason for withholding federal funds to states that refuse to amend their policies to ban trans athletes.

The California Interscholastic Federation, which governs school sports, piloted a program last month allowing cisgender female athletes to advance to a statewide championship track meet if they lost a qualifying position to a trans competitor after President Donald Trump singled out 16-year-old high jumper AB Hernandez online.

For more than a decade, California has allowed student-athletes to use any facility and play on sports teams that reflect their gender identity. That law, enacted in 2013 under former Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, has become the target of conservative legislators in recent years. The most recent attempt by former Republican legislator Bill Essayli, now the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, failed earlier this year. A complementary bill by Assemblymember Kate Sanchez, R-Rancho Santa Margarita, that would have blocked trans girls from sports also failed.

Trans inclusion in sports has split the Democratic Party, some of whom immediately blamed Kamala Harris’ loss in the 2024 election on the issue after Trump ran an attack ad that said “Kamala Harris is for they/them. Trump is for you.” Newsom said on his podcast in March that he thought allowing trans people to compete with their cis peers was “unfair.”

More recently, the party has shifted its messaging after successfully striking a provision from Trump’s mega budget bill that would have banned Medicare, called Medi-Cal in California, from covering trans health care.

Last week, the Supreme Court agreed to hear two cases challenging the constitutionality of Idaho and West Virginia’s bans on trans girls competing in sports.

California Republicans from the statehouse to Congress criticized the CDE, claiming California’s longstanding anti-discrimination policies jeopardized federal funds.

“Unbelievable,” said Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Roseville, in a post on X. “The (state) Education Department says it ‘disagrees’ with the federal civil rights laws. This reckless and illegal decision puts our state’s federal funding at risk.”

“This is about fairness, safety, and the rule of law,” said Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher, R-Yuba City. “Superintendent Thurmond and Governor Newsom are jeopardizing school sports programs across the state, all to appease a radical agenda and advance their political careers.”

McMahon accused Newsom of backtracking on his previous remarks, which she had cited in her letter last month.

“California has just REJECTED our resolution agreement to follow federal law and keep men out of women’s sports,” she said Monday. “Turns out Gov. Newsom’s acknowledgment that ‘it’s an issue of fairness’ was empty political grandstanding.”

She said that Newsom would be hearing from Attorney General Pam Bondi.

California’s refusal to violate its own laws now tees it up for a potential court battle over whether federal law prevents states from enacting laws protecting all students, including transgender ones, according to Shannon Minter, the legal director of the San Francisco-based National Center for LGBTQ Rights.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills told Trump she would “see him in court” in February when Trump singled the Democrat out at the White House after he issued an executive order threatening federal funding to states that do not ban trans athletes from women’s sports.

The Maine Human Rights Act, like California’s 2013 bill, protects trans people from discrimination. After Mills defied him, the administration launched a series of retaliatory investigations and suspended federal funds, prompting Attorney General Aaron Frey to sue. Federal courts have restored most of the funds.

“This administration is targeting California in an attempt to intimidate it into backing away from its strong anti-discrimination laws,” Minter said. “I’m encouraged to see the California Department of Education is standing up to that.”

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