Dear CalMatters reader,

Last week California Assemblymember Kate Sanchez introduced her first bill of the session, which would ban transgender females from playing on girls’ high school sports teams. 

Congressional Republicans were on the same page; on Tuesday they passed a bill to ban transgender athletes from women’s sports at the elementary through college level, which would jeopardize federal funding for schools that don’t comply. 

Sanchez says her bill and other legislation like it would assure a safe, fair playing field for girls. 

“There is a definite difference between biological boys and females in sports, especially at this age,” said Sanchez, a Rancho Santa Margarita Republican who represents Temecula and Murrieta. “This is the intent of the bill, to protect the integrity and fairness of girls' sports.”

Civil rights and LGBTQ advocates argue that the bill would turn civil rights protections against vulnerable students. Kel O'Hara, an attorney with Equal Rights Advocates, a San Francisco-based gender justice organization, said more than half the states have passed restrictions on transgender students’ participation in sports. Those bills target “a problem that doesn’t exist,” they said.

About 3.3% of high school students identified as transgender in 2023, and only a small number of students of any gender are elite athletes.

“It’s a dog whistle from our perspective,” O’Hara said. “There’s no evidence that trans students, particularly trans girls, are dominating girls' sports.”

Pushback against transgender rights, particularly in schools, has become a conservative call to arms. More than a dozen red states have sued the Biden administration over changes to the federal education rights law, Title IX, which extended its discrimination protections to LGBTQ students. On Thursday a federal judge in Kentucky ruled in the states’ favor, striking down the new rules.

President-elect Donald Trump suggested at campaign rallies that he would “keep men out of women’s sports" using executive power to implement a ban.

Sanchez said she’s committed to her legislation and expects that it will align with upcoming federal policies on transgender rights, including Tuesday’s House bill. But O’Hara argued that protecting female athletes doesn’t have to come at the expense of transgender girls.

“Why does protecting some students have to mean discriminating against others?” they asked. “Why are we approaching civil rights laws as a zero-sum game?”

With a red flag warning predicting heightened fire risk in the Inland Empire and Orange County through Wednesday evening, a Riverside County Assembly member highlighted his to-do list for wildfire prevention.

Last week Assemblymember Bill Essayli, a Corona Republican, urged Gov. Gavin Newsom to convene a special legislative session on wildfire response, as massive blazes consumed Los Angeles neighborhoods. On Monday Newsom expanded the scope of an ongoing special session to include wildfire recovery measures along with efforts to “Trump-proof” the state.

Essayli called for reducing flammable vegetation, increasing controlled burns, speeding efforts to underground power lines and waiving environmental rules for wildfire prevention. He also wants to avoid planned power shutoffs, which are used as a fire-prevention strategy but leave many residents, including older and disabled people, without electricity.

“It’s not sustainable to continue on this path where every time it gets windy we shut off power,” Essayli said.

A Las Vegas man detained at a Trump rally in Coachella for a suspected assassination attempt has sued the Riverside County Sheriff in a Nevada court over civil rights violations.

Sheriff Chad Bianco said his deputies “probably stopped another assassination attempt” after they arrested Vem Miller, 49, outside the Oct. 12 rally. Miller had a shotgun and pistol in his vehicle but said he was a Trump loyalist, not an assassin. He was released without charges the same day. 

Miller’s lawsuit against Bianco, the department and Riverside County argued the arrest was “malicious, and plainly unconstitutional” and said Bianco and his department were “engaging in a meritless and gratuitous sensational story.”

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