The Trump administration has sued California over the states refusal to ban transgender girls and women from participating in school sports. The move is the latest escalation in the battle between the state and the administration as Donald Trump tries to impose a ban on trans student-athletes without going through Congress.The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit earlier today naming the California Department of Education as a defendant. 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 the Trump administrations stance against trans sports participation. Related Gavin Newsoms words come back to haunt him as Trump targets California over trans athletes The administration says trans girls have ten days to quit girls teams. The DOJ said that Californias rules are not only illegal and unfair but also demeaning, signaling to girls that their opportunities and achievements are secondary to accommodating boys, the AP reports. Californias rules do not allow boys to participate in girls sports, but the administration refers to trans girls as boys in order to misgender them. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today This past February, Trump signed an executive order to block federal funding for schools that allow trans girls and women to participate in school sports as their authentic selves, and the order told the DOJ to prosecute schools that allow trans students to play sports. The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) launched an investigation into the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), which handles school sports in the state, for sex-based discrimination under Title IX.Title IX is the federal law that bans discrimination on the basis of sex in education. President Joe Bidens administration interpreted that law as banning anti-trans discrimination since its impossible to discriminate on the basis of gender identity without taking sex into account. That is, banning trans girls from playing school sports but not cis girls, solely because of their sex assigned at birth, is the kind of discrimination that Title IX was intended to prevent, the previous administration believed.The current administration is arguing that allowing trans girls to play school sports takes away critical visibility for college scholarships and recognition from cis girls, who are also denied awards if trans girls win, the lawsuit states.In May, Trump raged at California after Fox News covered the story of a trans student who competed in the long jump. Please be hereby advised that large-scale Federal Funding will be held back, maybe permanently, if the Executive Order on this subject matter is not adhered to, Trump posted at the time on Truth Social. Executive orders only direct the actions of the federal executive branch and dont create new laws. Congress has not passed a law banning trans student-athletes at the federal level, and states have different laws governing trans participation in school sports.In June, OCR released the findings of its investigation,giving California 10 days to sign its proposed resolution agreement or face unspecified imminent enforcement action.Earlier this week, CIFs general counsel rejected OCRs findings and refused to sign the proposed resolution agreement. California Department of Education general counsel Len Garfinkel wrote in a July 6 communication that the agency respectfully disagrees with the Trump administrations interpretation of Title IX. California has just REJECTED our resolution agreement to follow federal law and keep men out of womens sports, Education Secretary and former wrestling promoter Linda McMahon wrote on X. Turns out Gov.Newsoms acknowledgmentthatits an issue of fairness was empty political grandstanding.She was likely referring to California Gov. Gavin Newsoms (D) comments on his podcast in March, where he agreed with far-right activist Charlie Kirk that trans girls and women participating in sports is deeply unfair.As Shannon Minter, legal director of the San Francisco-based National Center for LGBTQ Rights, toldThe Sacramento Beethis week, the conflict could lead to a court battle over whether federal law prevents states from enacting laws that protect trans students. This administration is targeting California in an attempt to intimidate it into backing away from its strong anti-discrimination laws, Minter said. Im encouraged to see the California Department of Education is standing up to that.The administration has also sparred with Maine on the same issue, withholding federal funding because the state allowed trans kids to participate in school sports as their gender. In April, a federal judge ordered the administration to unfreeze the funding, and in May, the state settled with the administration without agreeing that it had done anything wrong. The administration also sued Maine in a separate legal action to get the state to stop letting trans students participate in school sports. Last week, the Supreme Court agreed to hear two cases that arelikely to determine whether trans sports bans violate the Constitution.California has had a law allowing trans kids to participate in school sports as their gender since 2013, and the first Trump administration did not sue the state over this. The issue of trans athletes became controversial in the early 2020s, after some religious conservative activists tried to get the 2020 Trump-Pence campaign to talk about the issue more. When that failed, Republican lawmakers in state legislatures started introducing legislation to ban trans kids from school sports, even when they werent aware of a single trans kid who wanted to play sports in their state. The issue proved popular among the GOP base, and dozens of states passed such laws over the next few years.In 2020, no state had a statutory ban on trans student-athletes. Today, 27 states do.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.