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A day after the U.S. Department of Education announced it is opening a Title IX investigation into the California Interscholastic Federation for its policy allowing transgender high school athletes to play girls’ sports, a federal judge blocked President Trump’s executive order restricting gender-affirming healthcare for transgender youths.
The administration is expected to appeal the decision by U.S. District Judge Brendan A. Hurson to grant the temporary restraining order, which legal experts said could end up in front of the Supreme Court.
Hurson said during a hearing Thursday that stopping health treatments for transgender people would be “horribly dangerous for anyone, for any care, but particularly for this extremely vulnerable population.”
“This is a population with an extremely higher rate for suicide, poverty, unemployment, drug addiction,” he said.
A Riverside high school has become a key battleground in the raging national debate over transgender youth in sports. Two transgender girls at the center of the firestorm describe a harrowing few months.
Trump has signed orders to officially recognize only male and female sexes that are “not changeable” and to attempt to end federal support for providers of gender transition care for people under the age of 19. He also authorized the Department of Education to launch a Title IX investigation into the high school sports governing bodies in California and Minnesota.
Title IX is the federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools and universities that receive federal funds.
A lawsuit separate from the one ruled on by Hurson in Baltimore will be heard Friday in Seattle. Attorneys general in Washington state, Minnesota and Oregon will argue that Trump’s order on gender-affirming care represents an attack on transgender youths and their families.
The probe into the California Interscholastic Federation — the statewide governing body that oversees sports at more than 1,500 high schools — was prompted by a statement emailed to The Times a week ago that underscored its policy of allowing transgender girls to play female sports.
“The CIF provides students with the opportunity to belong, connect, and compete in education-based experiences in compliance with California law [Education Code section 221.5. (f)] which permits students to participate in school programs and activities, including athletic teams and competitions, consistent with the student’s gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the student’s records,” the statement said.
The Trump administration this week also called on the NCAA and the National Federation of State High School Assns. to strip transgender athletes of their records, titles and awards. The NCAA already has said it would comply with Trump’s executive order banning transgender female athletes from playing on women’s teams.
“We strongly believe that clear, consistent, and uniform eligibility standards would best serve today’s student-athletes instead of a patchwork of conflicting state laws and court decisions,” NCAA President Charlie Baker said in a statement. “To that end, President Trump’s order provides a clear, national standard.”
The NCAA has changed its participation policy for transgender athletes, limiting competition in women’s sports to athletes assigned female at birth, following an executive order by President Trump.
The stance is an about-face from NCAA rules adopted in 2022, which stipulated that transgender athletes must document sport-specific testosterone levels at the beginning of their season and again six months later. They also had to document testosterone levels four weeks before championship selections.
“We are steadfast in our support of transgender student-athletes and the fostering of fairness across college sports,” John DeGioia, then the chair of the NCAA board of governors, said at the time. “It is important that NCAA member schools, conferences and college athletes compete in an inclusive, fair, safe and respectful environment and can move forward with a clear understanding of the new policy.”
San José State followed that directive last fall when it allowed a transgender woman to play on its women’s volleyball team. Four Mountain West Conference opponents — Boise State, Wyoming, Utah State and Nevada — chose to forfeit or cancel matches rather than play San José State.
The transgender player was a senior and had been on the San José State roster for three seasons after transferring from a college on the East Coast. This was the first season opponents protested the player’s participation. The player is not being named by The Times because they haven’t publicly identified as transgender.
The issue became public when San José State co-captain Brooke Slusser joined a lawsuit in September against the NCAA filed by former All-American swimmer and anti-trans-athlete activist Riley Gaines. The suit alleged that NCAA transgender eligibility policies violated Title IX and the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. Slusser alleges in the lawsuit that the inclusion of a transgender player posed an unfair advantage and safety hazards.
The Colorado State women’s volleyball team was willing to play San José State, which has a transgender player, in the Mountain West Conference tournament final, and it ended the Spartans’ season.
Trump commented on the issue during the presidential campaign, declaring during a town hall on “The Faulkner Focus” on Fox News that if elected he would ban all transgender women from competing in women’s sports. He is following through on that pledge.
The Department of Education announced last week that it had opened an investigation into San José State for “reported violations of Title IX.” The University of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Assn. were also named as targets of that investigation.
Acting U.S. Assistant Education Secretary Craig Trainor said in a statement that “history does not look kindly on entities and states that actively opposed the enforcement of federal civil rights laws that protect women and girls from discrimination and harassment.”
The California Family Council, whose stated mission is “advancing God’s design for life, family and liberty through California’s church, capitol and culture,” praised the decision to launch the investigation into the CIF.
“For too long, CIF has turned a blind eye to the concerns of female athletes, parents and coaches, prioritizing radical gender ideology over fairness, safety and the integrity of women’s athletics,” the statement said. “This investigation is a crucial step toward restoring justice in high school sports.”
Donald Trump claimed during a town hall that a spike by a transgender player “hit the girl in the head.” San Diego State says that didn’t happen.
CFC Outreach Director Sophia Lorey said the investigation has made her cry “tears of joy.”
“As a four-year CIF varsity athlete and a three-year captain, I have been fighting for all girls to have the same athletic opportunities I had,” Lorey said. “CIF’s policies have undermined decades of hard-fought victories for female athletes, and it’s time for them to answer for the harm they’ve caused.”
In the fall, Lorey became involved at Martin Luther King High School in Riverside during the controversy surrounding a transgender athlete who took a varsity spot on the girls’ cross-country team from another runner, Taylor Starling.
Starling and a teammate made T-shirts that said “Save Girls Sports,” wore them to school and filed a lawsuit against the Riverside Unified School District when administrators allegedly chastised them for wearing the shirts. Starling’s father, Ryan Starling, expressed his gratitude to the Trump administration for taking action to investigate the CIF.
“We are so excited to see common sense prevailing,” he told Fox News Digital. “This has been a long-fought battle for so many people on so many fronts. The battle is not over in the state of California, but each day we are moving a step closer.”
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