KALAMA, Wash. — Colorado and Washington are reliably Democratic states where elected officials have rejected moves to ban transgender women and girls from female sports competitions. Now activists have gone around lawmakers to put proposed bans on both states’ ballots.
At a time when some Democratic leaders nationwide are recalibrating their approach to transgender issues, particularly sports, and polls show Americans generally back the bans, supporters are optimistic they will pass and open the door to similar efforts in other places where lawmakers have blocked bans.
Though the issue has been debated in many legislatures, this is the first time it’s going to voters.
“What is happening in 2026 is a testing ground for the future,” said Chris Melody Fields Figueredo, executive director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, which supports LGBTQ+ rights.
Twenty-seven states — including all where Republicans control both the legislature and governor’s office — already have such laws.
The efforts are billed as a way to protect women and girls and keep separate spaces for them, tapping into a concern that’s gained momentum. President Trump has taken steps to roll back transgender rights. The Supreme Court has upheld state sports bans.
A June poll from Quinnipiac University found that about 7 in 10 registered voters think transgender women and girls should not be allowed to play on female sports teams. About one-quarter think they should. Democrats are divided, with about half saying transgender women and girls should be allowed and about half saying they should not.
Robert Preuhs, a professor of political science at Metropolitan State University of Denver, said the absence of public polls on Colorado’s ballot measure, which also covers college sports, makes it hard to predict whether it will pass. “It’s probably going to get more support than some of the Republican candidates that will run,” he said.
Since transgender restrictions gained traction this decade, states with Democratic-led governors’ offices and legislatures generally have rejected proposals such as banning transgender people from the bathrooms that match their gender identity and restricting gender-affirming care. Most Republican-led states have adopted those policies.
In addition to the two blue-state questions, a measure in Arizona would broaden an existing ban to include private schools, and one in Nebraska would add an existing state law to the state constitution.
There’s not a clear consensus on whether transgender women and girls have a competitive advantage. Factors include the age of the athlete, the sport, whether the athlete went through male puberty and how long they’ve received hormone therapy.
But the idea that girls are being cheated is personal for some athletes.
Ahnaleigh Wilson, a 17-year-old junior at Eastmont High School, about 25 miles north of Seattle, has been speaking out against allowing transgender girls to compete in girls’ sports since she was in junior high. She said she’d won all of her 1,600-meter races in seventh and eighth grade — until she finished second to a transgender athlete in a major meet.
“Women have fought for Title IX and our own categories and it’s very important that we keep the dignity of that, and let women have their own sports and their own spaces to be safe and completely fair,” she said, referencing the federal law that prohibits discrimination based on sex in education programs and activities.
Opponents say excluding transgender girls is also unfair.
“They will say that they want to protect kids and in particular, young girls,” said Nadine Bridges, executive director of One Colorado, which is leading the opposition to the measure there, “but I don’t understand how you can protect kids and discriminate against kids at the same time.”
The Washington measure would require that a healthcare provider verify the student’s “biological sex, relying only on one or more of the following: The student’s reproductive anatomy, genetic makeup, or normal endogenously produced testosterone levels.”
“We see that as being as simple as a checkbox,” said Let’s Go Washington spokesperson Hallie Herzberg. “Doctors can use the history of the patient from treating them all their lives or their medical history forms.”
But Dr. Libby Loft, who opposes the measure, says the language calls for a genital inspection as part of a physical, or expensive testing.
“I think it doesn’t make any sense to force the working families of … girl sports players in Washington to pay for unnecessary medical tests to be able to weed out an estimated five or 10 girls in the state of Washington, trans girls,” Loft said.
She fears the verification requirement will lead to fewer girls — transgender or not — playing sports.
Mulvihill and Cooper write for the Associated Press. Mulvihill reported from Haddonfield, N.J.
TUESDAY’S RESULTS First Round DIVISION 1 Oxnard 13, South Hills 6 Chaparral 26, El Modena 18 Beckman 33, Agoura 13 Camarillo 19, Redlands East Valley 6 Beaumont 32, Corona Santiago 20 El Toro 35, Warren 20 Sage Hill 28, Linfield Christian 12 Western Christian 13, Bishop Amat 12 Corona del Mar 24, Cajon 14 Etiwanda 34, St. Margaret’s 20 Trabuco Hills 14, Bonita 13 Yorba Londa 44, La Serna 40 Palos Verdes 20, Los Alamitos 6 Tesoro 32, Aliso Niguel 19 Long Beach Poly 25, Mission Viejo 20 Redondo Union 19, San Marcos 14
DIVISION 2 La Habra 12, Cypress 7 Oaks Christian 45, Portola 12 Upland 35, Aquinas 7 Gahr 24, Gardena Serra 12 Riverside King 26, Shadow Hills 12 Oxnard Pacifica 20, Simi Valley 0 Murrieta Mesa 34, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 6 Segerstrom 7, Santa Monica 0 Ayala 38, Fullerton 0 Anaheim Canyon 33, Torrance 7 Chaminade 26, Riverside Poly 7 Hart 24, Glendora 0 Millikan 26, Alta Loma 6 Villa Park 20, Santa Barbara 19 San Clemente 20, Santa Ana Foothill 0 Sonora 31, Eastvale Roosevelt 14
DIVISION 3 South Torrance 18, St. Paul 12 Cerritos 34, Covina 33 Rosary 26, Anaheim 12 Chino 37, San Juan Hills 26 Quartz Hill 20, Lakewood 0 Long Beach Wilson 6, Chino Hills 0 Inglewood 40, Adelanto 6 Murrieta Valley 20, La Canada 12 Compton 12, Los Altos 0 Patriot 25, Bishop Montgomery 7 Valencia 25, Temescal Canyon 6 Lawndale 20, Harvard-Westlake 19 Ontario Christian 19, Channel Islands 14 Moorpark 27, Laguna Beach 16 Schurr 6, California Military School 0 California 6, Placentia Valencia 0
DIVISION 4 Kaiser 7, San Marino 6 Serrano 12, Paloma Valley 6 Redlands Adventist 25, Highland 20 West Ranch 40, Temecula Prep 20 Garden Grove Pacifica 26, Azusa 0 Garden Grove 39, Northview 7 Hemet 24, Canyon Country Canyon 18 Baldwin Park 12, Palm Desert 6 Santa Paula 41, Whittier 7 Antelope Valley 20, Ramona 14 Moreno Valley 19, Monrovia 0 West Covina 40, North Torrance 7 Gabrielino 24, Yucaipa 19 Rancho Alamitos 30, Hueneme 20 El Rancho 22, Godinez 13 Cerritos Valley Christian 38, Brentwood 7
DIVISION 5 Tustin 22, Compton Early College 0 Santa Fe 6, Arlington 0 Village Christian 25, Garden Grove Santiago 6 Pasadena Poly 25, Montebello 14 Ontario 26, Eastside 0 Long Beach Cabrillo 14, La Quinta 6 Rialto 27, Palmdale 0 Loma Linda Academy 26, Westminster La Quinta 7 Peninsula 31, Saddleback 6 Grand Terrace 18, Paramount 8 Culver City 39, Indian Springs 0 La Sierra 33, Desert Hot Springs 32 Windward 13, South El Monte 0 Westridge 13, Orange 0 Nogales 14, San Gorgonio 13 Rancho Verde 25, Valley View 19
DIVISION 6 Riverside North 33, La Puente 0 Mountain View 37, Tahquitz 0 Buena Park 12, Xavier Prep 6 Elsinore 30, Workman 0 Alhambra 27, Pomona 6 Heritage 26, St. Bernard 6 Winchester Liberty 20, Shalhevet 14 Rim of the World 40, United Christian Academy 0 Don Lugo 27, Norwalk 20 Bolsa Grande 31, Eisenhower 18 Santa Ana Valley 31, Capistrano Valley Christian 6 St. Monica 31, Pacific 0 Glenn 33, San Jacinto Valley Academy 6 Arroyo Valley 30, Century 13 Cathedral City 25, Cantwell-Sacred Heart 0 St. Bonaventure 38, Jurupa Valley 0
WEDNESDAY’S SCHEDULE (Games at 5 p.m. unless noted) First Round
OPEN DIVISION Pool A #12 Sierra Canyon at #1 JSerra
Pool B #11 Dos Pueblos at #2 Newport Harbor
Pool C #10 Downey at #3 Orange Lutheran
Pool D #9 Lakewood St. Joseph at #4 Huntington Beach
Teams with byes in first round of pool play: #5 Mater Dei; #6 Woodbridge; #7 Westlake; #8 Edison.
Note: Open Division second round pool play Saturday; Third round pool play Wed., Oct. 28. Semifinals Oct. 31; Finals Sat., Nov. 7 at Huntington Beach High.
Southern Section Agoura 38, Calabasas 6 Aquinas 12, Hillcrest 0 Ayala 33, Claremont 0 Azusa 19, Baldwin Park 18 Beaumont 32, Citrus Valley 0 Bishop Montgomery 59, Mary Star of the Sea 6 Buena Park 12, Costa Mesa 6 Burbank Providence 32, YULA 18 Cajon 42, Redlands 6 California 27, Whittier 0 California Military Institute 47, Entrepreneur 0 Camarillo 39, Simi Valley 6 Castaic 18, Golden Valley 0 Chaminade 46, Alemany 0 Channel Islands 26, Del Sol 13 Chino Hills 27, St. Lucy’s 6 Compton 26, Compton Early College 6 Covina 43, Hacienda Heights Wilson 13 Dos Pueblos 48, Rio Mesa 6 El Rancho d. Bell Gardens, forfeit Elsinore 24, West Valley 12 Etiwanda 42, Rancho Cucamonga 6 Garden Grove Pacifica 31, Brea Olinda 19 Garey 26, Duarte 7 Great Oak 13, Corona 6 Hawthorne 19, Environmental Charter 6 Hart 18, Canyon Country Canyon 13 Inglewood 47, Beverly Hills 0 Jurupa Valley 54, Rubidoux 0 Laguna Beach 53, Capistrano Valley Christian 0 Lakewood St. Joseph 18, Bishop Amat 13 Lawndale 34, Leuzinger 0 Long Beach Cabrillo 14, Compton Centennial 0 Mater Dei 37, Santa Margarita 6 Mira Costa 18, Torrance 12 Montebello 30, Arroyo 0 Newbury Park 32, Thousand Oaks 24 North Torrance 2, West Torrance 0 Northview 14, Rowland 7 Ontario Christian 18, Serrano 0 Palos Verdes 27, Redondo Union 26 Pasadena Poly 34, Rio Hondo Prep 6 Patriot 57, Miller 0 Peninsula 26, Wiseburn-Da Vinci 0 Pomona 12, La Puente 0 Portola 25, Northwood 7 Redlands Adventist Academy 29, United Christian Academy 6 Redlands East Valley 43, Yucaipa 12 Royal 20, Oak Park 12 San Clemente 40, Dana Hills 0 San Dimas 13, Colony 6 San Gorgonio 34, Indian Springs 7 San Jacinto Valley Academy 20, Nuview Bridge 19 San Juan Hills 27, Capistrano Valley 7 San Marcos 12, Ventura 0 Santa Barbara 12, Buena 0 Santa Monica 34, Culver City 7 Santa Paula 32, Fillmore 0 Shadow Hills 33, Valley View 7 Shalhevet 44, SEED LA 6 Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 57, Flintridge Sacred Heart 6 Sierra Canyon 60, Louisville 0 Sonora 19, La Habra 6 South Hills 50, Alta Loma 8 South Torrance 27, El Segundo 0 Tahquitz 24, San Jacinto 13 Temecula Prep 20, Eastvale Roosevelt 20 Trabuco Hills 28, Tesoro 26 Tustin 34, Katella 6 Upland 51, Los Osos 0 Valencia 28, West Ranch 0 Village Christian 19, Westridge 0 West Covina 14, Charter Oak 6 Westlake 39, Oaks Christian 13 Westminster La Quinta 39, Savanna 0
MONDAY’S RESULTS
City Section Angelou 30, West Adams 0 Bell 22, Legacy 0 Bernstein 7, Roybal 6 Bernstein 32, Mendez 0 Carson 19, Wilmington Banning 7 Cleveland 13, Taft 6 Eagle Rock 41, SOCES 9 Eagle Rock 74, Sylmar 0 El Camino Real 14, Birmingham 6 Fairfax 32, WISH Academy 6 Foshay 34, Los Angeles 0 Garfield 31, South Gate 0 Hollywood 13, Contreras 12 Jefferson 34, Manual Arts 7 Lincoln 20, Los Angeles Marshall 0 Los Angeles Roosevelt 26, South East 6 Los Angeles Wilson 27, Franklin 6 Maywood CES 25, Marquez 0 Mendez 26, Roybal 0 Palisades 14, Los Angeles University 12 Panorama 13, Granada Hills Kennedy 12 Panorama 44, Reseda 6 RFK Community 12, Hollywood 7 RFK Community 12, Contreras 0 Santee 18, Diego Rivera 6 SOCES 40, Sylmar 0 Sotomayor 20, Maywood Academy 6 Torres 20, Elizabeth 6 Venice 21, Westchester 12
Southern Section Alhambra 26, Rosemead 0 Aliso Niguel 7, El Toro 6 Anaheim 22, Estancia 0 Anaheim Canyon 18, Crean Lutheran 0 Antelope Valley 14, Knight 0 Arlington 33, Lakeside 19 Arrowhead Christian 28, Riverside Notre Dame 13 Azusa 6, Duarte 0 Baldwin Park 20, Sierra Vista 2 Beckman 30, Mission Viejo 26 Bell Gardens 6, San Gabriel 0 Bolsa Grande 22, Garden Grove Santiago 12 Bonita 26, Glendora 6 Brentwood 37, YULA 0 Buena Park 19, Ocean View 13 Calvary Baptist 19, Public Safety Academy 13 Capistrano Valley Christian 2, Vista Meridian 0 Cathedral City 26, Rancho Mirage 0 Cerritos 25, Paramount 0 Cerritos Valley Christian 14, Rosary 13 Chaparral 47, Murrieta Mesa 6 Chino 18, Don Lugo 6 Corona Centennial 22, Corona 6 Corona del Mar 34, Los Alamitos 19 Corona Santiago 32, Eastvale Roosevelt 26 Costa Mesa 35, Katella 0 Covina 40, Northview 0 Culver City 31, Leuzinger 0 Desert Hot Springs 25, Indio 13 Downey 26, California 6 Eastside 46, Littlerock 0 Edgewood 13, La Puente 6 El Modena 18, Sunny Hills 6 Etiwanda 30, Chino Hills 0 Fountain Valley 19, Marina 7 Gabrielino 33, South Pasadena 6 Garden Grove 35, Laguna Hills 18 Glenn 66, Pioneer 6 Great Oak 91, Vista Murrieta 48 Harvard-Westlake 39, Flintridge Sacred Heart 15 Hemet 33, Canyon Springs 19 Hillcrest 12, Temescal Canyon 0 Irvine University 20, Irvine 0 La Canada 19, Monrovia 12 Lakewood 12, Long Beach Wilson 7 Lancaster 21, Palmdale 7 La Serna 18, Gahr 16 Liberty 13, Heritage 6 Linfield Christian 45, Woodcrest Christian 7 Long Beach Cabrillo 14, Dominguez 0 Long Beach Poly 12, Inglewood 6 Los Altos 19, Alta Loma 14 Los Amigos 18, Savanna 6 Magnolia 33, Western 13 Miller 14, La Sierra 8 Millikan 45, Long Beach Jordan 0 Mountain View 12, El Monte 7 Moreno Valley 6, Vista del Lago 6 Murrieta Valley 33, Temecula Valley 20 Newport Harbor 40, Huntington Beach 21 Ontario 20, Montclair 12 Oxnard Pacifica 26, Santa Paula 7 Palm Desert 7, Palm Springs 6 Placentia Valencia 20, Westminster 13 Pomona 12, Bassett 6 Quartz Hill 22, Highland 13 Ramona 14, Norte Vista 6 Rancho Alamitos 24, Orange 20 Rancho Christian 20, Citrus Hill 19 Rancho Cucamonga 24, Los Osos 6 Rancho Verde 46, West Valley 6 Riverside King 18, Norco 12 Riverside Poly 54, Riverside North 0 Rowland 25, Charter Oak 12 San Marino 20, Burbank Burroughs 6 Santa Ana Foothill 12, Troy 6 Santa Ana Valley 20, Century 0 Santa Fe 19, Artesia 0 Schurr 46, Keppel 0 Segerstrom 26, Fullerton 6 Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 51, Immaculate Heart 6 South El Monte 18, El Rancho 8 South Hills 20, Colony 6 St. Anthony 12, St. Mary’s Academy 6 St. Bernard 30, Sacred Heart of Jesus 0 St. Monica 21, Cantwell-Sacred Heart 20 Temecula Prep 49, Desert Christian Academy 0 Tustin 20, Godinez 0 Upland 62, St. Lucy’s 0 Villa Park 26, El Dorado 7 Warren 46, Mayfair 6 West Covina 21, Hacienda Heights Wilson 6 Westminster La Quinta 6, Saddleback 0 Westridge 32, Chadwick 0 Whittier 12, Norwalk 6 Windward 41, Shalhevet 14 Wiseburn-Da Vinci 13, Bellflower 6 Woodbridge 48, St. Margaret’s 25 Yorba Linda 48, Esperanza 13
At the Republican Party’s midterm convention, President Trump said he would make his crusade against transgender rights a major campaign issue ahead of the Nov. 3 election — calling the message that “men should not be playing in women’s sports” one of his party’s “great sound bites of all time.”
During a recent campaign trip, Gov. Gavin Newsom, a longtime LGBTQ+ advocate and likely Democratic contender for president in 2028, stood by his remark last year that allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls’ sports is “deeply unfair,” saying, “I haven’t been able to figure out how to make it fair from my perspective.”
For the second election cycle in a row, the rights of transgender people have taken center stage politically, despite their accounting for only about 1% of the U.S. population and many voters identifying other issues as far more important — splitting Republicans and Democrats, but also Democrats among themselves and putting the party on the defensive.
Transgender athlete AB Hernandez, third from right, sits with other athletes at the CIF State Track Championship finals in Clovis on May 30, 2026.
(Tomas Ovalle / For The Times)
The politics are part of a much broader, international battle playing out in education, sports and the law, from local California classrooms and high school sports to the Olympic stage and the U.S. Supreme Court. Polling for years has shown most Americans oppose discrimination against transgender people, but also that a majority — including a substantial portion of Democrats — oppose transgender athletes participating in girls’ sports and children receiving gender-affirming care such as surgery or puberty blockers.
Republicans are pushing a well-funded message that transgender rights should be dismantled across the board, in healthcare, education, sports, the military and public spaces such as restrooms. Conservative mega-donors such as Elon Musk have spent millions amplifying that message in competitive races from Alaska to Ohio to Texas.
And to some degree, those tactics have worked. While many Democrats have ardently defended transgender rights, particularly in California, others in the party have sided with Republicans or softened their support.
Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico appears with Jeffrey Epstein abuse survivors in Dallas on Sept. 10.
(Anja Schlein / Dallas Morning News )
James Talarico, the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate in Texas, backpedaled from past votes by saying young transgender athletes shouldn’t be allowed to play “if it risks safety or fairness,” while others including Rob Sand, a candidate for Iowa governor, and Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) have said they shouldn’t play.
Such messaging has dismayed transgender people and their families, as well as LGBTQ+ rights groups who have been trying to refine Democratic messaging on trans issues since Vice President Kamala Harris — another longtime LGBTQ+ advocate from California — responded to Trump’s anti-trans attacks in 2024 with a message some considered muddled.
Imara Jones, a transgender journalist and founder of TransLash Media, a platform built to spotlight trans people’s own experiences, said the party’s conflicting messaging “underscores the degree to which the Republicans have actually successfully weaponized trans issues.”
“You’re seeing a really sharp political calculus among Democrats,” Jones said, with those “in tight races, where they need to have Republican votes,” bending one way, and others who “want to make a statement about principle” and defending LGBTQ+ rights moving in the other.
Many Democrats in California say they believe the issue is a moral one and that Democrats only hurt themselves by ceding ground on human rights.
A volunteer for Toni Atkins, the former president pro tempore of the California State Senate, is silhouetted holding a Pride flag at the Harvey Milk Coachella Valley Diversity Breakfast, at the Palm Springs Convention Center in Palm Springs Thursday, May 8, 2025.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
“The solution is not to be ambiguous, but to be firm that we support basic human rights and the basic humanity of trans people,” said state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), a leader on pro-LGBTQ+ legislation running to replace retiring Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco). “Then go on to talk about the big issues facing our country, like this illegal war, like the fact that Congress has done nothing to regulate AI, like the explosive cost of energy and child care and housing.”
A national conversation
Trump has signed executive orders to bar transgender athletes from competing in girls’ sports, prohibit federal funding for gender-affirming care for youth, oust transgender service members from the military and deny recognition of transgender and nonbinary identities on critical documents such as passports.
The Justice Department has sued California and other states over their trans-inclusive sports policies, and successfully threatened large hospitals into ending gender-affirming care programs. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services barred federal Medicaid spending on gender-affirming medication or surgeries for minors.
Martin Makary, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, speaks at Health and Human Services headquarters in Washington on Dec. 18, 2025.
(Stefani Reynolds / Bloomberg)
Trump campaigned on such policies, and he and other Republicans clearly see them as helpful in the midterms. In his convention speech, Trump said he’s been surprised more Democrats haven’t abandoned transgender rights given polling showing a majority of Americans oppose transgender athletes in girls’ sports.
“They say it’s an 80/20 issue,” Trump said, in an apparent reference to a January 2025 New York Times/Ipsos poll that found 79% of respondents believed transgender athletes should not be allowed to compete in women’s sports. More recent polls have shown a smaller majority opposed.
Demonstrators at a Rainbow Families Action march in Emeryville, Calif., on Dec. 8, 2025.
(Jessica Christian / San Francisco Chronicle )
Arne Johnson, a Bay Area father of a transgender child who helps run the advocacy group Rainbow Families Action, said being targeted by Republicans is scary, but watching Democrats “find ways to be more flexible about the rights of human beings” has been profoundly disappointing.
But he said he’s also been encouraged by some more recent polling showing Americans moving back toward the middle on transgender rights, which he believes is in part due to people being deluged with anti-trans ads getting frustrated that the political conversation isn’t focused on issues they care more about, like affordability and healthcare.
Ramiro Sarmiento, a spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign, which has tracked at least $50 million in anti-trans political ads this cycle, agreed, saying, “MAGA wants to talk about trans kids because they’re losing the conversation voters actually care about.”
Conservative groups reject that framing. Many deny tht transgender people exist, while others say they are working to protect cisgender children or defend religious beliefs. They have also scoffed at Democrats who have changed their positions in the lead-up to the election, with the conservative American Principles Project accusing Talarico of only pretending to shift away from his “gender radicalism” on sports in order to win votes.
Allison Schuster, a White House spokesperson, said the Biden administration “spent four years pushing a radical agenda” of gender-affirming care for children, while Trump “pledged to restore common sense” and has since “delivered by consistently taking strong action to protect children from these dangerous, life-altering medical practices.”
The fight in California
In California, transgender athletes competing in youth sports has been raised as an issue in the governor’s race, where Republican hopeful Steve Hilton has rallied against their inclusion, and featured prominently in the races for the next state attorney general and the next state superintendent of public schools.
Transgender athlete AB Hernandez competes for Jurupa Valley High School at the 2025 CIF state track and field championships.
(Tomas Ovalle / For The Times)
Several Democrats running for Congress in the state have been criticized for their records on transgender rights, including San Diego City Councilmember Marni von Wilpert, who is seeking the redistricted congressional seat of departing Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Bonsall), as well as Reps. Adam Gray (D-Merced) and Derek Tran (D-Orange).
Christian Martinez, a National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson, has accused Von Wilpert of having a “perverted agenda [that] pushes hormone treatments on kids,” and Gray of being “for they/them, not for Californians.”
Marni von Wilpert, a Democratic candidate for California’s 48th Congressional District, canvasses in a neighborhood Friday, May 29, 2026, in San Marcos, Calif.
(Gregory Bull / Associated Press)
California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta’s office is fighting on multiple fronts to protect gender-affirming care and successfully rebuffed a Justice Department lawsuit over the state’s transgender sports policies. But pressure is coming not only from the Trump administration.
The California Interscholastic Federation, which oversees high school athletics, also revised its rules to ensure that transgender athletes in individual sports do not displace cisgender ones from rankings or medal podiums. And after local California teachers sued, the U.S. Supreme Court in March ruled against a controversial California student privacy law that precluded teachers from revealing a child’s interest in presenting in gender nonconforming ways in school to their parents if the child requested confidentiality, finding that the policy infringed on parents’ rights and the free exercise of religion.
Meanwhile, state lawmakers just passed at least a dozen measures aimed at bolstering LGBTQ+ rights, including by restoring an LGBTQ+ youth suicide and crisis hotline; helping discharged LGBTQ+ service members find housing and jobs; requiring California gender-affirming healthcare providers who are subpoenaed to inform Bonta’s office if they intend to respond; improving access to HIV prevention care and enhancing LGBTQ+ data privacy.
Newsom signed all those measures into law — his office said California “will not stand” for Trump’s “all-out assault on the LGBTQ community” — but vetoed a bill that would have barred future governors from allowing the extradition of abortion or gender-affirming care providers in California to states where such care is illegal, citing concerns about reduced executive discretion.
The 2026-27 state budget appropriated $66 million for gender-affirming care, including up to $30 million for underinsured patients in the Uncompensated Care Program, $26 million to assist organizations that provide such care and $10 million to cover care for poor children who lost it under the new Medicaid rules. Wiener called the latter a “short-term solution” that will protect kids while the state figures out a more permanent billing pathway under Medi-Cal.
A.W., a Bay Area mother of a transgender teenager who requested anonymity because she fears being targeted by the Trump administration, said her child’s gender-affirming care — a lifeline for him in recent years — was disrupted by the Medicaid rule change, and the state’s temporary fix was too little, too late.
A.W. said families like hers “shouldn’t have to make medical decisions based on politicians in Washington,” particularly for care so critical to her son and other kids. “If he had not had access to gender-affirming care, I don’t know where we would be,” she said. “It scares me to think about it.”
Times staff writer Dakota Smith contributed to this report.
KATIE Price told her ex-husband Kieran Hayler’s alleged child rape victim she would “make her a little star”, a court heard today.
The former glamour model, 48, made the comment in a message while quizzing the girl about whether she had kissed Hayler, jurors were told.
Katie Price said she would make Kieran Hayler’s alleged child rape victim a ‘little star’Credit: GettyHayler has denied the allegationsCredit: Gary Stone
The message exchange happened in May 2017 – eight months after the last alleged attack by Hayler, it was said.
The former stripper is accused of three counts of rape and one count of sexual assault against the girl between June and October 2016 – when she was 13 and Hayler and Katie were married.
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In the May 2017 exchange, mother-of-five Katie asked the girl if she and Hayler, 39, had kissed.
Katie wrote: “I WON’T say anything and I PROMISE I’ll protect you!
