McMahon Threatens Newsom Over Transgender Athletes

The same day, he attended a glitzy event with Vogue editor Anna Wintour and announced plans to substantially increase film and television tax credits to win back some of this business, though the proposal still needs legislative approval.

Despite overseeing the growth of California’s government to a record size during his tenure, Newsom claimed during a podcast episode with liberal commentator Ezra Klein to be “the original DOGE” because he opened an office of digital innovation in 2019. He blamed California’s housing affordability crisis on NIMBYism and anti-housing density people “comfortable with their backyards.”

While weighing in on these myriad issues, Newsom, a presumed contender for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, has notably remained silent on whether his remarks about transgender athletes playing in girls’ and women’s sports would prompt him to alter the state’s laws allowing the practice.

U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon made it more difficult for Newsom to remain on the fence Thursday. She sent the governor a letter warning him that he must comply with President Trump’s executive order banning biological males from competing in women’s sports or risk losing federal funding for schools across the state.

At least $8 billion in federal education money to California hangs in the balance, while California is running what legislative analysts cited as a $46.8 billion budget deficit last year.

“Your recent comments about male athletes playing in women’s sports – that it is ‘deeply unfair’ – came to the attention of my office this week,” McMahon wrote. “I’m writing on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education to request a clarification on your stance as governor of California, and to inquire as to your intention to encourage California public schools to comply with federal law on this issue."

McMahon pointed to polls showing that an “overwhelming majority” of Americans believe men should not compete in women’s sports, and many citizens, she argued, are “confused” by “your office’s silence on the harms of substituting ‘gender identity’ for sex in other areas of school environment.”

“Allowing participation in sex-separated activities based on ‘gender identity’ places schools at risk of Title IX violations and loss of federal funding,” she asserted. “As governor, you have a duty to inform California school districts of this risk.”

McMahon ended her letter by asking Newsom to inform the department ‘whether you will remind schools in California to comply with federal law by protecting sex-separated spaces and activities” and to “assure parents that California teachers will not facilitate the fantasy of ‘gender transitions’ for their children.”

Charlie Kirk posted on X a copy of McMahon’s letter. Newsom spokeswoman Elana Ross did not respond to an inquiry about McMahon’s threat.

The matter is all the more pressing because the California Assembly will be holding hearings Tuesday on two GOP-sponsored bills aimed at banning biological boys and men from girls’ and women’s sports, though neither is expected to gain traction in the Democratic super-majority-controlled body. Proponents of the measure are rallying girl athletes who back the measures to show up at the hearings with their parents and press the legislature for action.

“California parents are tired of sending their kids to a government school system that fails them in every basic academic metric but would rather use our kids for public experiments in radical ideology,” Lance Christensen, president of the conservative California Policy Partners, told RealClearPolitics. “One would think that the legislature would have better understood the message of this last election when parents-rights candidates won across the state.”

Christensen, a Republican who ran an unsuccessful campaign for superintendent of public instruction in 2022, was also referring to a separate clash Thursday between McMahon and Newsom.

McMahon announced that the department’s Student Privacy Office launched an investigation into California over its law barring public school teachers and administrators from informing parents when their children as young as six are gender-transitioning at school.

McMahon said the probe would review whether the California Department of Education was violating the Family Educational Rights Privacy Act, which gives parents the right to access their children’s educational data.

“Teachers and school counselors should not be in the business of advising minors entrusted to their care on consequential decisions about their sexual identity and mental health,” McMahon said. “That responsibility and privilege lies with a parent or trusted loved one.”

“It is not only immoral but also potentially in contradiction with federal law for California schools to hide crucial information about a student’s wellbeing from parents and guardians,” she added. “The agency launched today’s investigation to vigorously protect parents’ rights and ensure that students do not fall victim to a radical transgender ideology that often leads to family alienation and irreversible medical interventions.” 

On this score, Newsom’s spokeswoman took a shot at the Trump administration’s attempt to dismantle the Department of Education and countered that California schools are not in violation of federal law because their policy allows parents access to all students’ education records, including those dealing with name or gender changes.

“Parents continue to have full, guaranteed access to their student’s education records, as required by federal law,” Ross said in a statement. “If the U.S Department of Education still had staff, this would be a quick investigation – all they would need to do is read the law the governor signed.”

Last year, Newsom signed a bill that prevents schools districts from adopting policies requiring teachers and administrators to notify parents when their children start using different pronouns or identify as a different gender from what’s on their school record.  

Prior to the law, several California school boards reacted to state Department of Education guidance barring the disclosure to parents of their children’s gender transitions by either considering or voting for policies that would require schools to disclose these types of changes in identity regardless of the student’s consent.

As the fight has played out across the state, California Attorney General Rob Bonta has sued school districts in Chino and Placer County over their parental notification requirements. Chino Valley School District has pushed back, counter-suing state officials over the new law barring teachers and school administrators from informing parents when their children begin gender-transitioning in school.

“School officials do not have the right to keep secrets from parents, but parents do have the constitutional right to know what their minor children are doing at school,” Emily Rae, senior counsel at the Liberty Justice Center, said after filing the countersuit on behalf of Chino Valley.

Proponents of gender transition notification laws say parental rights protections derive from the Constitution’s 14^th Amendment prohibition of a state’s laws depriving “life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”

The Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized the diminished capacity of minor children and upheld limitations on important matters that significantly alter their lives, including their need for medical care or treatment. The high court has designated parents as the authorities that must make those decisions.

But in recent years, this longstanding doctrine has faced legal challenges. State and local officials have overruled parents when it comes to gender-transitioning medicines when one divorced parent disagrees with the other. In Montgomery County, Maryland, parents can no longer opt their children out of gender and sexuality curriculum in schools. Parents sued Maryland over the new policy. In January, the Supreme Court decided to take up the case.

At least one state, New Hampshire, reacted to the Trump administration threat by banning transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports. Yet another, Maine, is standing its ground.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills and President Trump sparred over the issue last month during a meeting of governors at the White House. Trump, at the time, threatened to pull federal funding from Maine if the state fails to comply with his executive order barring transgender athletes from sports.

“We’ll see you in court,” Mills retorted. 

The U.S. Education Department has since concluded that Maine violated the Title IX antidiscrimination law and could face Justice Department prosecution. The U.S. Health and Human Services department gave Maine’s Department of Education and its Principals’ Association, which oversees high school sports in the state, 10 days to comply by banning the athletes.  

School officials in Maine said Thursday they would not do so, citing state law, including the Maine Human Rights Act.