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California Governor Gavin Newsom
The bill also seeks to look at inequities based on race, income, and geography, but Republicans say the goal is to rig research for transgender athletes.
California will conduct a study on potential inequities in youth sports and improve access, including for transgender athletes.
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The research was authorized by the Youth Sports for All Act signed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat with a mixed record when it comes to trans rights. The bill directs a commission to explore the need for the state to improve access to sports for all groups “regardless of race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, income, or geographic location.”
But Republicans have already questioned whether this bill will run against an executive order signed by President Donald Trump that forbids transgender girls and women from participating in female-only sports.
California Republican Senate Minority Leader, Sen. Brian Jones, encouraged Newsom to veto the bill.
Related: Pete Buttigieg weighs in on ‘fairness’ of transgender kids playing girls’ sports
“The author and supporters of AB 749 know if they were upfront and put forth a straightforward bill allowing biological males to compete against young women and girls, it would be easily defeated,” Jones said in an open letter. “So instead, they are trying to establish a stacked commission to indirectly rig the issue in their favor.”
The bill’s sponsor, Democratic Assemblymember Tina McKinnor, told the Los Angeles Times the assault on LGBTQ+ athletes was misguided.
“Senator Brian Jones’s time would be better spent writing to the Republican controlled Congress to end the Trump Shutdown and reopen the federal government, rather than attacking trans students,” she wrote in an email to the newsletter.
Earlier this year, Newsom received backlash from transgender rights advocates while on a podcast with conservative activist Charlie Kirk, months before the Turning Point USA founder’s shooting death in Utah.
Related: Think transgender women have an advantage in sports? A new study disputes the idea
When Kirk asked about allowing trans women and girls to compete in sports, Newsom responded, “I think it’s an issue of fairness. I completely agree with you on that. It is an issue of fairness, it’s deeply unfair… I revere sports. So, the issue of fairness is completely legit.”
Notably, the legislation in question also examines racial disparities in access to youth sports. The study is supported by the Los Angeles Rams, San Diego, USC Schwarzenegger Institute, YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles, and the Boys and Girls Clubs of West San Gabriel Valley and Eastside, according to the Los Angeles Times.
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