Los Angeles County leaders have addressed the recent discovery of anti-LGBTQ and antisemitic graffiti outside of the Long Beach Pride headquarters over the weekend. The graffiti was found on a utility box outside of the building, which helps Long Beach put on their annual Pride festival. The language included a swastika, which could be seen in photos seen on Long Beach Pride’s Facebook page.
Mayor Rex Richardson called the graffiti “not just an attack on a symbol, but an attack on our LGBTQ+ family, friends, and neighbors.” “This vile act of hate has absolutely no place in Long Beach,” his post on X said. After learning of the incident, Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn committed to providing $2,500 to Long Beach Pride to upgrade and expand their security camera system.
Read the full article. The messages read in part, all “all quers [sic] should die. MAGA!”
A lawsuit has been filed by three California students over the inclusion of a transgender teammate on their high school track and volleyball teams.
Filed in the US District Court for the Central District of California on Tuesday (9 September), the lawsuit has been brought by Madison McPherson, a former student at Jurupa Valley High School who now plays volleyball at the collegiate level. She used to compete one the track, field, volleyball, and soccer teams.
The other defendants listed in the filing are referred to by their initials “A.M” and “H. H,” though CNN confirmed they were Alyssa McPherson, the younger sister of Madison, and Hadeel Hazameh. Both of their mothers, Maribel Munoz and Hanan Hazameh, are also named in the lawsuit. Like Madison, Alyssa and Hadeel are both multi-sport athletes.
The lawsuit has been brought against the California Department of Education, the Jurupa Unified School District, and the California Interscholastic Federation. The plaintiffs are claiming to have suffered violations of Title IX of the Education Amendments Act 1972, the free speech and free exercise clauses of the First Amendment, and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
While the trans student in question has not been named, they are referred to throughout the lawsuit as “A. H.” suggesting the student is none other than A.B. Hernandez, who studies at Jurupa Valley High School.
Hernandez has faced the scrutiny of Donald Trump and conservatives over her participation on the girls volleyball team claiming she has an unfair advantage. The US President has even threatened to hold back “large-scale” funding for Californian schools if the state refused to comply with his executive order to prevent trans women taking part in female sports.
“Defendants have knowingly permitted a male student to compete on the JVHS varsity girls’ track and field and volleyball teams, access female locker rooms and bathrooms, and engage in harassing conduct toward female athletes,” Tuesday’s filing reads.
“As a result of Defendants’ actions, Plaintiffs have suffered sex discrimination, including sexual harassment, unsafe and unfair athletic environments, viewpoint discrimination, and infringements on their religious liberty and safety. These actions have deprived them of equal opportunities and their civil rights guaranteed by Title IX, the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and the First Amendment,” it continues.
Trans teen athlete AB Hernandez. (Kirby Lee/Getty Images)
The plaintiffs claim that when they approached their coach to say that they were uncomfortable sharing a locker room with Hernandez they were kicked out of group chats.
One plaintiff was allegedly told, “If you want to be a captain and a member of our team, then be one.” They also argue they have been “bullied” into censoring their differing opinions on Hernandez’s inclusion.
The lawsuit alleges that Hernandez’s inclusion on the volleyball team led other school teams to forfeit matches “further depriving Plaintiffs of fair athletic opportunities.” It also says the plaintiffs abstained from events due to their own objections. They also had lower rankings in various events due to “biological advantages” the lawsuit claims.
People hold Save Girls Sports signs in protest of transgender athlete AB Hernandez. (Getty)
It also raises objections to the inclusion of a trans athlete on the team due to the McPherson’s Catholic faith, as well as the Hazameh’s Muslim faith. The document also alleges that Hernandez engaged in “unwelcome and offensive contact” by slapping female players’ buttocks during games.
The plaintiffs have also expressed discomfort sharing a locker room with Hernandez arguing that using the nurse’s office “deprived them of the comradely, instruction, and discussion” of the locker room. The plaintiffs allege that school staff ignored or dismissed any of their concerns.
As far as relief, the lawsuit states the plaintiffs are seeking unspecified monetary damages and preventing the Jurupa Unified School District from “allowing any male student to participate or compete in any female sports.” They have also demanded a jury trial on the matter.
A.B. Hernandez. (Getty)
As reported by CNN, the defendants have declined to comment. Julianne Fleischer, an attorney for the plaintiffs has said, “California continues to ignore the rights and protections federal law affords female athletes, sidelining them in the name of ‘inclusion’. But the rights of female athletes are not second-class. This is not about politics—it is about protecting fairness, safety, opportunity, and the hard-won rights of young women in sports.”
AB Hernandez’s mother, Nereyda, sent a statement reminding people “there is a real child at the center of this issue.” She added, “Regardless of personal opinions, no child should be subjected to public scrutiny, targeted, or used as a political symbol.”
AB Hernandez recently spoke out against the vitriol aimed at them. “I’m just a normal kid,” she said. She then said, “People just see one thing and they’re like, ‘Oh, that’s what you are’. They don’t take the time to get to know me. So, it’s just a little frustrating.”
The federal government has ended a major grant for California sex education over the state’s refusal to eliminate trans and gender identity content from course materials.
A letter from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) states that “the funded programs and services include gender ideology, which is outside the scope of the statute.”
The letter quotes California officials’ response to its initial request it remove the material, which declared the state would “not make any such modifications at this time.”
HHS also claims that “gender ideology” is “irrelevant to teaching abstinence and contraception and unrelated to any of the adult preparation subjects” the grant covers. Yet, those subjects – listed in the letter – include “adolescent development,” “parent-child communication,” “healthy relationships,” and other topics in which a student’s gender identity would play a role.
“The statute does not require, support, or authorize teaching students that gender identity is distinct from biological sex or that boys can identify as girls and vice versa; thus, gender ideology is outside the scope of the authorizing statute,” HHS wrote.
An HHS press release announcing the revocation of the grant took it even farther, claiming the state’s “disturbing and egregious abuse of federal funds” was using taxpayer dollars to “encourage kids to contemplate mutilating their genitals.”
In reality, the curriculum merely instructs teachers to remind children that not all people feel on the inside like the sex they were assigned at birth on the outside.
The grant was part of the federal Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP), which supports states in teaching students about both contraception and abstinence. The program has a special focus on places with high rates of teen birth as well as on working with kids who are homeless or in foster care, Reuters reported.
According to Andrew Gradison, acting assistant secretary at HHS’s Administration for Children and Families, the grant was worth about $12 million.
Gradison appeared on Fox News to discuss the revocation of California’s grant. Referring to the state’s refusal to comply, he joked to the host, “FAFO,” an acronym for the phrase, “f**k around and find out.”
“If you continue to push radical ideology on our children, we will not pay for it anymore,” he said, adding that about 40 more states will soon be put on notice regarding their PREP curriculum.
“Stop indoctrinating the next generation,” he said. “They deserve better. They need to learn how to read and write, not this anti-science agenda.”
The move comes as the administration sued the state over its refusal to ban trans girls from school sports. The state of California has had a law allowing trans kids to participate in school sports as their gender since 2013 and has refused to violate it despite funding threats from the federal government.
Similarly, the California Healthy Youth Act mandates teaching about gender identity and expression in sex education classes.
Last week, the president re-emphasized his threats to the state on Truth Social. “Any California school district that doesn’t adhere to our Transgender policies, will not be funded. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” he stated with no further explanation.
Over the past week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has been trolling him on social media, which may have motivated the highly sensitive president’s message Thursday morning.
Police in Los Angeles have no suspects as an LGBTQ+ youth center continues to be vandalized with dog poop.
Unknown individuals have been leaving dozens of bags containing feces outside the entrance of Mi SELA over the past several months, according to the center’s parent organizations, the Los Angeles LGBT Center and Latino Equity Alliance (LEA). There are currently no leads in the case, with law enforcement saying it is unable to act.
“This senseless harassment is abhorrent and unacceptable,” LEA said in a statement. “In 2025, it is shocking that young people and community organizations continue to face such targeted hate and intimidation. While law enforcement has emphasized that action cannot be taken without catching the perpetrators in the act, this does not diminish the urgent need for vigilance, awareness, and a public stance against hate in our communities.”
“LEA calls on our neighbors, city leaders, and all members of the Bell community to stand together, speak out, and make clear that attacks on LGBTQ+ youth, their spaces, and their safety will never be tolerated. Every young person deserves to feel safe, supported, and celebrated in their community,” it continued.
Mi SELA, located in Bell, California, is an organization dedicated to “building power within the Latine LGBTQ+ community,” according to its website. It offers mental health, substance abuse, and legal counseling among other community workshops.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn issued a grant of $2,500 to Mi SELA on Friday, equipping the center to upgrade its security cameras in the hopes of catching the perpetrator or perpetrators.
“The fact that this person is going out of their way to do this says everything about them and nothing about our LGBTQ community in Southeast LA,” Hahn said in a statement. “This is gross and cowardly. I hope that the people who depend on Mi SELA know how much they are loved and supported in this community and do not take this hate to heart.”
Anyone with information about the incidents is encouraged to contact the Bell Police Department at (323) 585-1245.
While every city’s neighborhoods change, few have experienced such thorough erasure from collective memory as San Francisco’s original gayborhoods. The gender-nonconforming stage acts of the Barbary Coast made North Beach home to some of the city’s earliest queer spaces. The Tenderloin was ground zero for the Gay Liberation Front and remains a hub for trans activism and culture. Polk Street hosted the discos of Sylvester, the drunken tales of Tennessee Williams, and more than a hundred queer-owned bookstores, clothing shops, bathhouses, and bars.
So why do we only talk about The Castro?
Join Unspeakable Vice’s Shawn Sprocket in conversation with Dr. Nan Alamilla Boyd, Marga Gomez, and Carolina Osoria as they discuss these often forgotten histories—and consider the reasons that have caused them to fade from public memory.
This program is part of Speaking Of, a new quarterly series from the GLBT Historical Society and Unspeakable Vice Walking Tours, bringing historians, researchers, and the community together to explore today’s questions through the lens of the past.
For more than four years, theFoundation for California Community Collegeshas partnered with Crisis Text Line to help spread mental health awareness and to support students in their time of need. Crisis Text Line is a nonprofit organization that provides free, 24/7, confidential text-based mental health support in both English and Spanish. Anyone—students, faculty, and staff— seeking support can text COURAGE to 741741 to reach a live, volunteer Crisis Counselor.
Crisis Text Line data shows that school-related stress or anxiety is quite common, as 30% of texters (among the ages 18 through 24) discussed this issue. When discussing school-related stress, texters talked specifically about financial stress, having to find a job, failing, as well as specific mental health diagnoses. Every year, these conversations surge when school is in session.
“Partnering with Crisis Text Line has been a vital step in advancing our mission to provide equitable and holistic support for California Community College students, including 24/7 mental health care,” said Iris Aguilar, Vice President of Equity and Community Impact at the Foundation for California Community Colleges. “In just the past academic year, Crisis Text Line supported over 700 students through more than 1,100 conversations and safely de-escalated 13 serious mental health crises. This year alone accounts for nearly 17 percent of all crisis de-escalations since 2018, with 67 percent being first-time texters, underscoring the growing demand for timely, confidential support. That’s why this partnership matters: it ensures students don’t face mental health challenges alone. We are meeting them where they are, when they need us most.”
Since launching the partnership in July 2021, Crisis Text Line has handled more than 16,000 conversations with members of the California Community Colleges community. Nearly half of the conversations (46%) were about anxiety and stress, and one-third of the conversations (33%) mentioned depression or sadness.
More than half of our conversations (59%) were with students aged 18-24, while about a fifth (19%) were with students aged 25-34. These numbers reflect a growing demand for accessible, 24/7 mental health care, especially around issues like anxiety, academic stress, and isolation.
“Crisis Text Line is ready to support students with whatever the semester brings,” said Jana French, Community Partnerships Director at Crisis Text Line. “We’ve trained more than 85,000 volunteer Crisis Counselors—many of them college students themselves—who bring texters from a hot moment to a cool calm through empathy, active listening, and by empowering each texter to use their own strengths and coping strategies.”
Crisis Text Line’s text-based service supports people of all ages but was specifically created for young people, allowing for on-demand support through text message – a medium most people use and trust. The nonprofit organization uses a triage algorithm to identify texters at high risk of imminent harm. It moves them to the front of the queue, just like a mental health emergency room.
Those seeking free, 24/7 confidential mental health support through Crisis Text Line can connect via text, web chat and WhatsApp in English and Spanish. To reach a live, trained volunteer Crisis Counselor, text COURAGE to 741741, or 443-SUPPORT in WhatsApp, or to 442-AYUDAME in WhatsApp for Spanish, or connect with us via web chat.
About the Foundation for California Community Colleges
The Foundation for California Community Colleges works to benefit students, colleges, and communities by accelerating paths to economic and social mobility, strengthening communities, and reducing barriers to opportunities for all Californians. FoundationCCC is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization founded in 1998. It serves as the official statewide nonprofit organization supporting the California Community Colleges, the largest system of higher education in the nation. For more information, visit www.foundationccc.org.
About Crisis Text Line
Crisis Text Line is a leading nonprofit organization that provides free, 24/7, confidential text-based mental health support in English and Spanish. Since its launch in 2013, we have supported over 11 million conversations in the United States and more than 15 million globally together with our affiliates in Canada, the UK and Ireland. Crisis Text Line’s more than 85,000 live, trained volunteer Crisis Counselors bring texters from a hot moment to a cool calm through nonjudgmental support and empowers each texter to use their own strengths and coping strategies. We are committed to creating an empathetic world where nobody feels alone. Individuals seeking confidential support can connect with us via text, web chat and WhatsApp. To be connected to a live, trained nonjudgmental volunteer Crisis Counselor, text HELLO or HOLA to 741741 or 443-SUPPORT in WhatsApp or text HOLA to 741741 or 442-AYUDAME in WhatsApp for Spanish or connect with us viaweb chat.Visit Crisis Text Line onInstagram,Twitter andFacebook.Additional information, including how to become a volunteer or how to support Crisis Text Line through donations or partnerships, is available atwww.crisistextline.org.
Two Zen-inspired senior living communities are embracing the reality of aging — consciously. Ensō Village, open since 2023 in Sonoma County, and Ensō Verde, now taking shape in a hidden corner of Simi Valley.
These communities — a collaboration of the renowned San Francisco Zen Center and Kendal, a visionary provider of communities, programs and services founded on Quaker values — focus on mindful aging, the joys of nature, environmental stewardship, contemplative care and healthy life choices for adults aged 60 and higher.
Former actor and film producer Susan O’Connell spent a lifetime living, creatively in the film industry, and then intentionally as a Zen Priest and President of the San Francisco Zen Center. Now, in her third professional chapter, she is the visionary behind Ensō Verde and Ensō Village. Encouraging elders to gracefully and consciously age, she oversees the development of Ensō Verde and resides at Ensō Village.
Different from conventional retirement communities, Ensō Village and Ensō Verde provide contemplative spaces for encouraging meditation, acreage to sustain a healthy farmer-to-chef-to-consumer relationship, and core programming that promotes mindfulness.
ZEN AND QUAKER VALUES
Based on Quaker and Zen values, both communities encourage residents to explore spirituality, as part of “whole body wellness.” Welcoming diversity, inclusion and belonging, each living community strives to create a safe, non-judgmental space for individuals to be themselves.
“We say Zen-inspired, not required. We’re setting a baseline emphasis on contemplative practices and mindfulness, but you can go as far in or away as you want. We have a wide variety of people on different spiritual paths, including no spiritual path,” O’Connell says.
FARM FRESH FOOD
Ensō Verde sits on 20 acres of pristine land that’s never been built on — a purchase that O’Connell considered rare to find and in perfect alignment with the values and mission of Ensō Verde.
“The beauty of this land, it’s not far from Los Angeles, so you’re not isolated from cultural activities, and you’re immersed in nature. “We insisted on having an area where we actually grow food, so the awareness of the cycle of food and composting and sustainability is very strong here.”
CONTINUUM OF CARE
Both properties offer memory support, assisted living and in-home health services for residents.
“The goal, of course, is to provide high-quality healthcare up through assisted living. We’re a place that supports the continuum of care. You can age in place without necessarily needing to leave where you are for assisted care because of our Residential Care for the Elderly (RCFE) license,” O’Connell says.
WORTH THE INVESTMENT
As people age, the burden to maintain their homes given limited resources and decreasing mobility is heavy. When considering independence versus living in community, the tradeoff is beneficial both socially and financially, O’Connell says.
“Residents essentially sell their homes as an entrance fee, but when you leave the community, or if you pass away, the beneficiaries of your estate will receive 75-80% of the value back. It’s an investment in your health.” O’Connell says.
To learn more about Ensō Village in Sonoma County and Ensō Verde, coming soon to Simi Valley, visit https://verde.kendal.org/.
California will partner with the Trevor Project to provide suicide prevention support to LGBTQ+ youth, state officials announced Wednesday. The announcement comes weeks after the Trump administration said it will no longer provide national suicide and crisis hotline services to LGBTQ+ youth.
“While the Trump administration continues its attacks on LGBTQ kids, California has a message to the gay community: we see you and we’re here for you,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement. “We’re proud to work with the Trevor Project to ensure that every person in our state can get the support they need to live a happy, healthy life.”
California said Wednesday the Trevor Project will train the state’s 988 crisis counselors on how to support LGBTQ youth. The state said 12 national call centers are currently staffed across California with counselors trained to respond to callers needing support during suicide and behavioral health crises.
Read the full article. Democrats help, Republicans hurt.
“I hated my body,” the nonbinary 16-year-old said. “I hated looking at it.”
When therapy didn’t help, Pitchenik, who uses the pronoun they, started going to the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, the country’s biggest public provider of gender-affirming care for children and teens. It changed their life.
But in response to the Trump administration’s threat to cut federal funds to places that offer gender-affirming care to minors, the center will be closing its doors July 22. Pitchenik has been among the scores of protesters who have demonstrated regularly outside the hospital to keep it open.
Sage Sol Pitchenik in Santa Clarita, Calif., on Monday.Jae C. Hong / AP
“Trans kids are done being quiet. Trans kids are done being polite, and trans kids are done begging for the bare minimum, begging for the chance to grow up, to have a future, to be loved by others when sometimes we can’t even love ourselves,” Pitchenik said, prompting cheers from dozens of protesters during a recent demonstration.
They went to the center for six years.
“There’s a lot of bigotry and just hate all around, and having somebody who is trained specifically to speak with you, because there’s not a lot of people that know what it’s like, it meant the world,” they told The Associated Press.
The center’s legacy
In operation for three decades, the facility is among the longest-running trans youth centers in the country and has served thousands of young people on public insurance.
Patients who haven’t gone through puberty yet receive counseling, which continues throughout the care process. For some patients, the next step is puberty blockers; for others, it’s also hormone replacement therapy. Surgeries are rarely offered to minors.
“I’m one of the lucky ones,” said Pitchenik, who received hormone blockers after a lengthy process. “I learned how to not only survive but how to thrive in my own body because of the lifesaving health care provided to me right here at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.”
Many families are now scrambling to find care among a patchwork of private and public providers that are already stretched thin. It’s not just patient care, but research development that’s ending.
“It is a disappointment to see this abrupt closure disrupting the care that trans youth receive. But it’s also a stain on their legacy,” said Maria Do, community mobilization manager at the Los Angeles LGBT Center. “I think it showcases that they’re quick to abandon our most vulnerable members.”
Maria Do, community mobilization manager at the Los Angeles LGBT Center, outside Children’s Hospital Los Angeles on Thursday.Jae C. Hong / AP
The closure comes weeks after the Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors, amid other efforts by the federal government to regulate the lives of transgender people.
The hospital initially backed off its plans to close after it announced them in February, spurring demonstrations, but later doubled back.
The center said in a statement that “despite this deeply held commitment to supporting LA’s gender-diverse community, the hospital has been left with no viable path forward” to stay open.
“Center team members were heartbroken to learn of the decision from hospital leaders, who emphasized that it was not made lightly, but followed a thorough legal and financial assessment of the increasingly severe impacts of recent administrative actions and proposed policies,” the statement said.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta has warned that by closing the center, the hospital is violating state antidiscrimination laws, but his office hasn’t taken any further actions. Bonta and attorney generals from 22 other states sued the Trump administration over the executive order in February.
“The Trump administration’s relentless assault on transgender adolescents is nothing short of an all-out war to strip away LGBTQ+ rights,” Bonta told the AP in an email. “The Administration’s harmful attacks are hurting California’s transgender community by seeking to scare doctors and hospitals from providing nondiscriminatory healthcare. The bottom line is: This care remains legal in California.”
LGBTQ protesters and health care workers offer visibility
Still wearing scrubs, Jack Brenner, joined protesters after a long shift as a nurse in the hospital’s emergency room, addressing the crowd with a megaphone while choking back tears.
“Our visibility is so important for our youth,” Brenner said, looking out at a cluster of protesters raising signs and waving trans pride flags. “To see that there is a future, and that there is a way to grow up and to be your authentic self.”
Jack Brenner, an emergency room nurse at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, on Thursday.Jae C. Hong / AP
Brenner, who uses the pronoun they, didn’t see people who looked like them growing up or come to understand what being trans meant until their mid-20s.
“It’s something I definitely didn’t have a language for when I was a kid, and I didn’t know what the source of my pain and suffering was, and now looking back, so many things are sliding into place,” Brenner said. “I’m realizing how much gender dysphoria was a source of my pain.”
Trans children and teens are at increased risk of death by suicide, according to a 2024 study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Brenner described encountering young patients in the emergency room who are trans or otherwise on the gender-nonconforming spectrum and “at the peak of a mental health crisis.” Brenner wears a lanyard teeming with colorful pins emblazoned with the words “they/them” to signal their gender identity.
Jack Brenner shows their lanyard decorated with pronoun pins and buttons.Jae C. Hong / AP
“I see the change in kids’ eyes, little glints of recognition, that I am a trans adult and that there is a future,” Brenner said. “I’ve seen kids light up when they recognize something of themselves in me. And that is so meaningful that I can provide that.”
Beth Hossfeld, a marriage and family therapist, and a grandmother to an 11- and 13-year-old who received care at the center, called the closure “patient abandonment.”
“It’s a political decision, not a medical one, and that’s disturbing to me,” she said.
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon gave the state 10 days, beginning June 27, to sign on to an agreement “to rescind any trans-inclusionary guidelines and send cisgender female athletes who lost to a trans opponent personalized apologies,” The Sacramento Bee reports. The U.S. Department of Education’sOffice for Civil Rights had determined that California had violated federal nondiscrimination law by letting trans girls and women compete against cis females. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 bans sex discrimination in educational programs that receive federal funds. Democratic administrations have interpreted it as preventing anti-trans discrimination, while Trump’s administration is using it to enable anti-trans discrimination.
But California will not go along. “The [California Department of Education] respectfully disagrees with OCR’s analysis, and it will not sign the proposed Resolution Agreement,” CDE General Counsel Len Garfinkle wrote Monday to OCR Regional Director Bradley Burke, according to the Bee.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s staff termed the proposed agreement a “political document” and said it had no legal validity. It would also make the state violate its own trans-inclusive nondiscrimination laws, Newsom’s aides said. California passed a law in 2013 allowing students to play on sports teams consistent with their gender identity.
The Trump administration has threatened loss of federal funds to K-12 schools, colleges, and universities with trans-inclusive sports policies, and some have agreed to ban trans athletes, such as, recently, the University of Pennsylvania.
Newsom, usually a strong LGBTQ+ ally, received criticism this year for questioning the fairness of letting trans girls compete with cis girls. Now, with his state standing up for trans girls, he’s catching fire from McMahon.
“California has just REJECTED our resolution agreement to follow federal law and keep men out of women’s sports,” she wrote on X. “Turns out Gov. Newsom’s acknowledgment that ‘it’s an issue of fairness’ was empty political grandstanding.” She said he would hear from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.
California is already suing the federal government over the demand to change the state’s trans-inclusive policy. Changing that would violate state antidiscrimination law and the U.S. Constitution, according to California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
And just two weeks ago, a spokesman for Newsom downplayed McMahon’s threat of withholding federal funds. “It wouldn’t be a day ending in ‘Y’ without the Trump administration threatening to defund California,” Newsom’s director of communications, Izzy Gardon, told The Advocate at the time. “Now Secretary McMahon is confusing government with her WrestleMania days — dramatic, fake, and completely divorced from reality. This won’t stick.”
California has made one concession. In May, the California Interscholastic Federation quietly changed the rules for competing in the girls’ state track championships, with a pilot program allowing cis girls who narrowly missed qualifying — allegedly due to the inclusion of a trans competitor — a chance to compete. But a trans girl targeted by Trump, Jurupa Valley High School junior AB Hernandez, was still allowed to participate as well. Hernandez won two gold medals and one silver at the state finals, and her fellow athletes offered no objections.
Maine has already stood up to Trump’s attacks on trans athletes. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills said the state would not change its trans-inclusive policies and that she would see Trump in court. After a federal court intervened in the administration’s attempt to withhold school meal funding from Maine, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced it would restore the funds.
Shannon Minter, legal director at the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, praised California’s latest action. “This administration is targeting California in an attempt to intimidate it into backing away from its strong anti-discrimination laws,” he told the Bee. “I’m encouraged to see the California Department of Education is standing up to that.”
