Gavin Newsom signs California law to study youth-sports inclusion and trans athletes
Gov. Gavin Newsom and the California State Legislature will appoint over a dozen people to study sports inclusion and trans athletes. The post Gavin Newsom signs California law to study youth-sports inclusion and trans athletes appeared first on Outsports.
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A California bill requiring a commission to study inclusion in youth sports — including trans youth — was signed into law by Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday.
The Youth Sports for All Act, AB749, calls for a formation of a committee that aims to bring in people who work in youth sports in the state — appointed by the Governor and the state senate and assembly — to look at how to build more opportunities for participation. Specific issues cited in the bill include strengthening certification requirements for coaches, greater synergies among organizations, and ways to bridging economic gaps and and financial barriers to participation.
The major principle according to the bill is to “improve access to and involvement in sports for all youth,” regardless of demographic, including race, orientation, gender identity, disability, income or geographic location.
For oppositions, largely Republican, “gender identity” is the sticking point. For GOP legislators, the bill is seen as a means to further oppose the President’s executive order calling for a nationwide blanket ban on transgender women and girls in women’s and girls’ sports.
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“The author and supporters of AB 749 know if they were upfront and put forth a straightforward bill allowing biological males to compete against young women and girls, it would be easily defeated,” State Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones said in an open letter to the Governor last month. “So instead, they are trying to establish a stacked commission to indirectly rig the issue in their favor.”
Governor Gavin Newsom will be appointing 10 members of the commission, with six more from the Democratic-controlled legislature.
The co-author of the bill, Democratic State Assembly Member Tina McKinnor, chided Jones and noted the consistent tenor of the national Republicans over this year.
The state has publicly opposed and ignored the President’s executive order despite threats coming from Washington, citing California state law and the regulations of the California Interscholastic Federation, the state governing body for high school sports.
Trans advocates have noted some mixed messages in 2025 as well. While the CIF has stood for inclusion, it also put forth a rule last May that would add cisgender girls to a championship field or call for additional awards be given to cisgender girls who finish behind a transgender girl in certain sports.
Newsom supported the CIF compromise regulation but also publicly stated an opinion that transgender girls competing in girls sports was “unfair” on an edition of his podcast “This is Gavin Newsom” in March.
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The post Gavin Newsom signs California law to study youth-sports inclusion and trans athletes appeared first on Outsports.
