FALSE: California’s transgender athlete policies are out of line with other states.
Claim
California's policies for transgender athletes are wildly out of line with other states.
Fact
The California Legislature passed a bill in 2013 (becoming 1 of 22 states) that allows transgender students to participate in sports consistent with their gender identity.
Governor Gavin Newsom does not set high school athletic participation standards
- The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), which is independent, and not overseen by the state government, proposed a pilot policy for Track & Field competition where transgender girls could compete alongside other high school girls — as they have long done — but would not displace them in rankings.
- This pilot was in effect during the 2025 High School Track & Field State Championship competition — where a trans athlete and her competitor both secured 2nd place in the long jump, and reacted positively to the approach CIF took.
- In California’s 5.8 million-student K-12 public school system, the number of active transgender student-athletes is estimated to be in the single digits.